Trello Tutorial

If you are here, I assume it is because you want to be more productive and efficient. Being productive, focusing on efficiency and working smart means getting more stuff and having more free time. 

I have done countless digital projects over the past decades, and I can tell you this: Trello is THE best project management tool out there. 

This Trello Tutorial will teach you how to use Trello to work smart and boost productivity. 

• Trello is free. 
• Trello is easy-to-use. 
• Trello has an excellent User Interface.
• Trello integrates with plenty of other tools.

Trello is an outstanding productivity tool if you are: 

• a freelancer
• a content creator
• an entrepreneur
• a writer
• a developer 
• a consultant
• a coach
• a web developer 
• doing personal projects
• starting an online business
• and the list goes on and on.

You do not have to handle massive projects to enjoy the benefits of Trello!

The principles in our Trello Tutorial apply to all types of users. 

I made this Trello Tutorial so that you learn how to:

• boost your productivity with Trello
• centralize your work, communications, comments and access to assets
• track deliverables (=tasks,) status and dates
• ease workflow and processes
• achieve greater clarity of actions you need to take
• work with teams in a frictionless manner, no matter where they are in the world

I also introduce you to 4 ways on how to use Trello:

1. personal projects
2. content creator
3. agency environment
4. public roadmap

Trello is available in plenty of other languages, so if you work with international teams like I do, it is wonderful. Sometimes, some of my colleagues do not speak English very well. 

Before starting with Trello, you should ask yourself a few questions:

• What actions do I take daily (update website, record podcasts, write content, make tracking reports, and edit contracts)? 
• What do I need to track?
• What do I handle (documents, images, video, files, copy, reports, code libraries, etc.)?
• Who do I work with (colleagues, vendors, clients, etc.)?
• Which channels should I use to communicate with others (avoid emails ping pong and multichannel approach as much as possible!)

The most significant advantage of Trello is the centralization of everything:

1. tracking
2. deliverables
3. deadlines
4. assets
5. communications

After checking about a dozen software and testing them with the team, we agreed that Trello is Number One. Since then, I introduced about 100 people to Trello, and they pretty much all embraced it.

The teams were generally Developers, Designers, Copywriters, Account Managers, Testers, Vendors, etc. 

Sometimes the teams were in different countries. 

We handled projects with content in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, German, English and French. 

Trello helped us deliver fast work, great campaigns, in an efficient manner, almost friction-less. 

If you are a software developer, you can still use Trello. 

However, if you do heavy code testing and debugging for a considerable software or a service, I suggest that you add JIRA or any other code bug reporting tool. The company that owns JIRA, Atlassian, bought Trello a few years ago. I do use Trello for debugging digital campaigns, but not for code versioning and tracking. Other tools do it better. 

Now, do not be afraid. Every time you start something new, it may look overwhelming (like learning how to write using ten fingers instead of your two indexes and your thumbs…,) but in the end, you will save a lot of time by using Trello. 

Investing 45 minutes of your time to read our Trello Tutorial on how to use Trello is worth the effort and energy. 

What is Trello

Trello is a simple yet efficient project management tool used to manage projects, tasks, people and assets. Trello is based on the Kanban-model. 

Trello is available on desktop, tablet and mobile phones. 

The Trello mobile app is pretty slick and easy-to-use. 

The Trello templates can be used for different purposes like business, design, education, engineering, marketing, personal, productivity, project management, sales, etc. 

Why is Trello so Great and Efficient?

Project management is all about managing 6 elements: 

1. deliverables (what to do) 
2. assets (what to use)
3. teams (who)
4. time (when)
5. communications (how)
6. budgets (how much)

If you run a business, a campaign, a software, a website, a personal project, or pretty much anything… you are doing project management one way or the other.

Trello helps you track all of the above except budgets. If you work in an agency setting, time and budget tracking is typically done via the Time Tracking software used by the agency. 

Are there ways to integrate budget and money tracking in Trello? Yes, but as I want to avoid duplicated systems and redundancies, I never implemented budget-tracking within Trello. I use Toggl for time tracking. 

If you have ever tried to manage a project with emails, I am sure that you found out pretty fast that emails are unmanageable. Why? Because emails make it hard to track the status of each individual task. 

If you send 2 emails with 5 tasks, that’s a total of 10 tasks. Some of the tasks may take 5 minutes to implement, while others may take days. Some tasks may have dependencies (e.g., A needs to be done before B.) Email is terrible to track status. 

Email is a tool to communicate, not to manage deliverables.

Trello for collaboration

What makes Trello such a useful tool is that it is a collaboration tool to:

• Manage projects 
• Get notifications
• Communicate with your colleagues
• Easily track the status of items and add due dates
• Comment, tag, move, archive items
• Ensure tasks velocity and volume
• Integrate with plenty of different 3rd party tools such as Slack, GoogleDocs, Calendar, etc.

The main advantage of Trello is that it streamlines the process and centralizes everything in one single channel.

What is Kanban?

Generally, the commonly used template among project managers is based on Kanban. 

Kanban is a Japanese word that means “billboard.” 

The system was created when an engineer at the Toyota factory came up with a system for logistics; items were produced just-in-time to avoid having to stock surplus items.

The original system was built by attaching a small card to a box; when the box reached a specific step, it would be sent back to the manufacturer to start producing a new batch. This system ensured that the pipeline was up-to-date without the need for inventory. 

In the current project management setting, the Kanban system is performed digitally following 4-steps. The 4-steps Kanban process goes like this To-Do > Doing > Test/Check > Done. 

That is the gist of Kanban. It’s simple, but it works. 

 If there is an issue during the Test/Check phase, the card goes back at the To-Do step. There are other ways of processing tasks, but we like Kanban because a simple glance gives you an overview of the project. 

Trello is the best Project Management Software, and our Trello Tutorial will demonstrate why. 

Trello Kanban model

In Kanban, items go from Left to Right, and if there is an issue, they go back at the beginning of the pipeline. 

To give you a visual idea of how the concept of Kanban works in Trello, in the screenshot below you can see that there are 4 Lists (or Columns), each representing a step:

1. To-Do: elements that enter the pipeline
2. Doing: the item that I am currently working on
3. Test/Check: check the work that has been done to ensure quality (usually checked and tested by someone else, not the person was did the task)
4. Done: item is completed

Under To Do, the most important cards are usually put at the top. 

Trello Features and Structure

Let's go over the structure and features of Trello.

Trello has plenty of different Trello templates and Trello boards. 

The best board is the Kanban board that we introduced earlier. 

But feel free to explore if you have specific needs! Trello has plenty of readily available templates that you can use with a single click. 

Let’s go deeper into the Trello Tutorial. 

You can think of Trello as a pyramid. The further down you go, the more precise it gets. 

Core elements of Trello

• Teams: the teams added to the boards (a good example would be Team A, Team B, Vendor 1, Vendor 2, etc.). 
• Members: the people you invite to the team (s) (e.g., John, Lucy, Jane, etc.)
• Boards: individual workspaces where you create “Cards” to manage items, the board can be Public or Private. Some Saas companies even have Public Boards where they showcase their progression and Private Boards that they use internally. You can also make different boards under different teams, for example Personal Projects could be a team, and all the boards within the Personal Projects team will only accessible by you. 
• Lists: columns like To-Do, Doing, Done… in which you add Cards. The Lists are the core of the Kanban system. 
• Cards: tasks that need to be done.  
• Notifications: top-right corner, the little bell will have a notification when an action is taken (e.g., someone added you to a Card, someone moved a Card, someone sent you a comment…) *I kept the in-app notifications, but I switch off the email notifications. 
• Menu: Quick access to Activities to see all the notifications, and one of my favorite features, “Change Background” (customize the background picture of the board, helps quickly identify projects)

Core of the Kanban System

As previously mentioned, Trello has Lists (think “columns” or “steps”) in which you add Cards (think “deliverables” or “tasks.”) Let’s go into the nitty-gritty. 

• Card: Cards = Tasks Cards are the core of Trello, you can add Members, add color Labels, a Checklist, a Due Date (that appears on the card), Attachments and even a Cover Image. The card can be open to see all the details. Join the card to get notifications about the card.
• Card Title: one short sentence that described the card item (e.g., buy a domain name, add header image on homepage, update design contact us page, etc.) Tip: use short titles that include: action verb, task and location of action. Action + Object + Location. 
• Card Description: inside the card, you can describe what the card is about (e.g., add header image “newimage.jpg,” new design reference of the Contact us page is here: link to Google Drive file)
• Attachments: assets like screenshot, image, document, PPT, Excel, icon, etc. asset can be previewed or downloaded instead of linking to an external folder with the assets. Tip: only use screenshots for debugging or quick visual references. When you share assets, add a link to the folder where you keep assets (e.g., GoogleDrive or internal transfer server)
• Labels: color labels you can tag the cars with
• Comments: chat feature to comment on the card; all comments are visible to all. You can also drag and drop attachments directly in the comment section. Tip: keep the comments short and straightforward. If needed, call or talk face-to-face. Comments are there to clarify the task shortly and sweetly, not a novel. 

Other interesteing elements to consider

• Activity: historic of comments, attachments and actions history related to the card.
• Power-Ups: extra features that you can add (e.g., “Butler” for automation with “when” “then” clauses) as well as integrations with plenty of 3rd party services (e.g., Slack, GoogleDrive, Calendar, etc.)
• Actions: action that you can take with the Cards and the Lists like move, copy, make a template, watch, archive and share.
• Archive: when you have too many cards in Done, you can archive all the cards, you can also Delete them forever if you want.

Important points about cards 

• you need to join the card yourself as a Member and add other people (called Members) if you want to be notified when the card is moved. When you add someone to the card, they will be automatically notified that they have been added.
• If someone else needs to take action on the card, add the person to the card. No need to drop them a message. They will get a notification, and they should know they need to act on it! 
• When too many Cards are in the Done column, simply Archive the cards (you will be able to access them afterward.)

As part of our Trello Tutorial, we want to introduce you to some Trello tips and tricks for maximum productivity. 

Trello Productivity Tips and Tricks

One Trello Board = One Project

If you manage multiple projects (or clients), I suggest that you create one board for each project (or client.)

It really depends on the size. 

For example: 

• If you have 5 medium-sized clients, each client could get its own board. 
• If you have 3 small clients, then you can bundle them together within one board. 
• If you have a big client that pays you for maintenance and campaigns, you can create one board for the maintenance and short-lived boards for every campaign you deliver.

You can also create External Boards (with Clients) and Internal Boards (with the team.)

Always make sure that you have a Trello Master, one person that manages the project. Having a Trello Master will avoid confusion about who leads. 

Trello Lists

• Keep lists to 4-5 columns. Otherwise, people need to scroll right-left to see cards. The point of Trello is to get the big picture in one glance. 
• The most critical Cards should be at the top
• If the Done list has a lot of Cards, simply archive them
• I like to add a “Documents” after Done.

So it looks like this:

To Do>Doing>Test>Done+Documents

Under Documents, I put links to the External Files sharing folder for the Account team, the Creative team, and the Development team. 

About Trello Cards

One Trello Card = One Task or One Action

I like to follow the model “one card = one task,” but if you have many small tasks, you can bundle them into a Checklist within a Card. Bundling tasks into Checklists will avoid ending up with 100 cards when you could make 15-20 with checklists with 5-10 elements each. In general I avoid checklists as much as possible as it defeats the purpose of having an overview of the project in one glance. 

• Use short Titles for Cards, add details under Description inside the Card
• Never move a Card in Doing if you are not currently Doing the action
• Never move more than 1-2 cards in Doing 
• Avoid keeping a Card in Doing for more than a few days (if the task is big, break it down in smaller bits and pieces)
• Descriptions and Comments: do not write a novel, if advanced explanation is needed, talk face-to-face, have a call, send an email or use chat
• You can use the “Make a Template” if you customized a card and use it frequently.

Trello Attachments

• Limit attachments: Do not add more than a few Attachments if you reference a bug or a visual reference. You can preview attachments by clicking on them, and you can download them by clicking on the small arrow under the attachment. 
• Use transfer folders: Do not share assets within Trello, share the link to the asset! This is because you have limited space in Trello, and you cannot control the versioning of assets and documents when you share them via Trello. On top of that, assets may be altered due to compressions added by the system. 

Trello Checklists

• Limit size of checklists: I love checklists, but be careful not to add to many elements in the Checklist; otherwise, the card will get stuck in Doing for a long time. The point of Trello is to get things moving!
• Checklists=Can be done in a few hours. An excellent example of using Checklists is when you are doing one action that requires multiples steps to be done; within a few hours. For example, “Fix Homepage Issues” has a checklist with 7 elements like “Our Services Update Font size 14px,” “Replace header with header-company2442.jpg,” etc. Avoid using checklists that will make the card stuck in the To-Do List for more than one day. 

I use checklists for debugging, but feel free to use them for bundling small tasks together!

Trello Members

• Do not add the whole team to a card: Add the relevant people you want to be notified of. Otherwise, people get notifications they should not be getting. If you are the Project Manager, then add yourself to most cards you manage. This way, you can stay on top of everything. 
• You can ping someone by adding @ in front of their name 
• @all sends the comment notification to all people following the card 
• @board lets you comment to all people on the board
• @name of the person sends a message to the person (everybody can read the message bt the way)

Remember that Members need to be part of the team to be added to a board. 

Trello Automation aka The Butler 

The Butler is now available with the free version of Trello, although you are limited in the number of automations you can leverage. 

The Butler allows you to:

• engage automated action based on specific conditions
• automated tasks instead of doing them manually
• conditional automation with "if, then" conditions 
• ability to schedule automated recurring tasks

A good example would be the ability to clean “all Cards in Done that are 15 days and older.” 

There are plenty of things you can do with automation, and we make a separate post about The Butler. 

Another prime example of automation could be that every time a card is created in “External Board Client ABC, List To Do,” a copy is added to the “Internal Board Team ABC, List To Do.” Doing so will help you avoid duplicating cards manually. This type of automation is helpful if you work with a client that also uses Trello. It helps you keep internal communications private. 

Naming Convention

For all the documents I create, I use a particular naming convention. After all, I worked at a German agency in China… using a set naming convention helped me tremendously. 

• Trello Cards should also follow the naming convention, and if you work with people, make sure they abide by the rules. 
• Card Titles should be short (details into Description, for example, explanation of the issue and link to the webpage, the Youtube video, the post…)
• Card Titles should always follow this order: Where, Action Verb, What
• Always use abbreviations: YT for Youtube, FB for Facebook, B for Blog, W for Website… you can come up with your own
• Due Date: I add a Due Date only when necessary. If you work in an agency setting, you should have daily morning SCRUM meetings to know what needs to be done. 

A few examples of how Card Titles should follow the WAW system (Where, Action, What):

1. Where: homepage, about us, YT, blog…
2. Action: add, remove, replace...
3. What: header image, font-family to Helvetica…

Other ways of naming Cards

• Homepage replace header (then in the description, you add a link to the new image)
• Blog Replace font-family to Helvetica (no need for a Description)
• About us Add Button “Buy Now” (in the Description you can add more details, like the link to a design reference or written description like “add button under the image of the guy with a mustache”)

Labels

You can add labels to cards! And it is fantastic. Blue, red, yellow, green, etc.

• When you open a Card, you can type in the meaning of each color. Then, when you add the Label to the card, in the Board view, you will see the color on the card's preview.
• Labels come in handy as they give visual cues on the nature of a Card. 
• Note that Labels are still used in the Kanban model; they add an extra layer of visual information to the card.

Trello Card Labels: how to use

You can add colored Labels to the cards. 

I believe there are 3 ways to use Labels to display:

1. priority (e.g., low priority, medium priority, high priority, on hold)
2. a team (e.g., Creative, Developer, Account, etc.)
3. a type of task or deliverable (e.g., podcast, PDF, design, promotion, publishing, etc.)

Priority 

I use labels to tag the degree of importance of a card. When we are into testing and debugging just before a launch, this is extremely useful to tell developers and designers which elements are the priority and needs to be done ASAP. 

Red for high priority/critical elements (do today/ASAP)

• Yellow for medium priority (do within 1-2 days)
• Green for low priority (do within 2-5 days)
• Orange for hold 
• Purple for upcoming (details are missing)

Team 

You could also use Label colors to differentiate teams. Labeling is useful when you work in a company or an agency. 

For example: 

• Purple for Copywriters
• Orange for Designers
• Blue for Developers
• Red for Testers
• Green for Account services

If you are a Saas product and have a Public Roadmap, you could add a color to your users' suggestions, for example, Yellow. 

You can also use colors to differentiate Deliverables. It is useful if you handle specific types of Deliverables or Content.

For example, in the case of Content:

• Purple for Podcast
• Orange for Blog Post
• Blue for Facebook Post
• Red for Youtube

For Tasks:

• Red for Invoices and Contracts
• Purple for Website Update/Posts
• Blue for Social Media Post
• Orange for Tracking Report

With all the above features (for free), I believe Trello is the best Project Management Software and Trello is the best for productivity.

Set up Trello and Work with Trello Step-by-Step

Now that you are aware of all the features and functions of Trello, I can teach you how to use Trello. 

The way to start with Trello is simple:

1. Open your account on Trello.com
2. Create a Team
3. Add Members (or people) to the team, including yourself
4. Create a board
5. Add Teams and Members to the Board
6. Create the Kanban-style lists, for example, To Do, Doing, Test/Check and Done
7. Create Cards and add Members. You can “join” the card if you want to follow the card

Et voilà!

You are ready to rock.

How to use Trello Examples

For some people, like Content Creators, I would suggest to break down tasks that take multiple days into smaller steps. 

Let me explain. 

If you make a podcast, you need to invite people, schedule the call, interview the person, adjust the recording, prepare the publishing assets, and publish and promote. That’s a lot of steps. 

It does not make sense to have one card for all of the above tasks and a very long Checklist inside the card. 

It does not make sense to have 7 steps, either. 

Some people may suggest to create a new Board just for Podcasts, with 7 steps, but the issue with this is that you need to scroll horizontally to see all the columns and cards. 

Remember that the Kanban-model gives you an overview of the whole board in one single glance. No need to scroll horizontally, which is anyway a lousy User Experience and not very intuitive. 

Instead of having 7 columns, I would still keep the Kanban-style model, but I would breakdown each step like this:

How to use Trello Kanban

TO-DO List

Add the following cards:

[Card 1] Podcast #246 1-Schedule call with John Smith

• {Description}
  • John.smith@email.com
• {Checklist}
  • Email John Smith
  • Confirm Date and Time
  • Email Calendar invite
  • Calendar invite accepted

(push card to Test, check-in your calendar if you have the right info, if yes, move to Done)

[Card 2] Podcast #246 2-Interview John Smith via Zoom

You can add a reminder inside the card linked to your calendar. 

No need for a Description, but you could add:

• {Description}
  • Zoom room link and phone number of John Smith

(as nothing needs to be tested, move the card directly to Done)

[Card 3] Podcast #246 2-Adjust John Smith Recording in Software

• {Description}
  • Google Drive link to upload the original recording
  • Original File assets: link to Google Drive
• {Checklist}
  • Import file in Audacity 
  • Remove ambient noise
  • Adjust tonality and sound
  • Export file in .wav format
  • Import file in DaVinci Resolve
  • Add intro and outro
  • Export file to .mp3 format

…move the Card to Test 

When the card is in Test, you need to listen to the podcast; if there are issues, the card goes back to To-Do. If there are no issues, the card goes to Done. 

As you can see, the Trello Kanban system makes the cards:

1. high velocity (the cards move)
2. simplified (steps are broken down into smaller pieces)
3. action-oriented

If you had a Virtual Assistant, the assistant could jump in anytime. 

Same with a colleague, a vendor on Fiverr, a sound engineer, etc. 

How to Kanban in Trello: best practices and examples

There are many ways to structure the flow of cards in Trello. 

Our Trello Tutorial will teach you the benefits of Kanban and how it improves productivity. 

Boards

Boards are the centerpiece of Trello. 

You can create boards this way:

• one board = one client (this is useful if you have small and mid-sized clients)
• one board = one project or campaign (the best way to handle independent projects, for example, Client ABC gives you a lot of business that includes consulting, tracking reports, campaign 1, campaign 2…)
• one board = mix of small clients and big projects (small clients share a board, and big clients have one board per project)
• one board = one team (and the projects are all mixed up in one board, convenient for entrepreneurs but not for agencies)

I handle one single board that has many small projects like this: 

• Each project has a 2-3 letter abbreviation; for example, Art of Growth Marketing is "AGM." I have another project called WeChat Experts, which has "WCE" as the abbreviation. 
• So when I create a card, I add the name of the project at the beginning, for example, "AGM Publish article #123," "WCE generate sitemap.xml."
• Another way of doing this would be to use Labels, for example, Orange for AGM and Green for WCE.  
• I could also create two separate columns in one board. For example, "AGM To Do" and "WCE To Do." Not very useful. 

I am sure you will find your way of working with Trello. Let me know in the comments how you handle projects! I am always interested in learning how other people handle projects. 

If you have many small projects, you can bundle them in a board. 

We are all different, so you need to find your own way. 

Find what works for you!

4-step Kanban Board 

Traditional Kanban-based, usually 4-5 steps. You can use status as the primary category to make the cards flow in Trello. So each step is a List (a column.) 

Kanban is useful for digital project management. It is efficient and straightforward. Pretty much anybody can use this system out of the box. 

For example: To-Do, Doing, Test/Check, Done 

Test is useful for software development, campaigns and design where someone else will check the quality of the work and see if there are any issues. 

The significant advantage of this structure is its simplicity. One quick glance shows you the status of what needs to be done, what is being done and what was done. 

Multiple Steps Kanban Board 

Pricing of Trello (Free! and Paid) 

I have only used the free version for the past 7-8 years!

The paid version will give you access to more automation (called Butler) and integrations.