Keeping up with Planner competitors

[pellestor]

First thing first: I absolutely think that Planner is an amazing initiative that can be a game changer in the "Collaborative Work Management" field. I am spending a lot of time trying to strengthen adoption at my company.

While I recognize the recent efforts from Microsoft to develop the tool, the pace of new features seems way too slow and Planner is still very far from competitors like Trello and Asana on some basic features. I would urge Microsoft to invest more in the tool, especially as the move to Microsoft Teams is accelerating with the recent virus outbreak.

Specific things I would like to call out that are critical (I am aware of the uservoice forum where I think all of these are already logged):

• Ability to @mention team members in comments or sub tasks
• Better search engine that would be enabled across all Planner boards and available on mobile
• Recurring tasks
• Custom fields
• More labels!
• Easier way to follow a task/be notified with emails
  • The fact that you need to "comment on a tasks to then receive conversation notifications" makes very little sense
• More options in the way you can manage permissions
  • What if I dont want someone to be able to add or delete tasks?

Thx :)

[#2]

@pellestor Totally agree with your list.  Would add:

• The ability to edit & delete comments.

[#3]

@pellestor   Great comments and agree with your recommendations

[#4]

Hello! Thank you for your detailed message. You're completely correct, we're still working on adding features to the app and many of the features you've mentioned are very common asks that we hope to bring to you soon! We've spent the majority of the last year investing in integrations with other Office apps to provide out users with a more cohesive work ecosystem. This includes adding tasks inside of Office documents and building a native task experience inside of Teams! Both coming within the next few months!

[#5]

Great post.

One important aspect of the slow pace adding obvious features is that users and potential users may feel hesitant, starting to suspect that Planner is not prioritized or even on the verge of abandonment. This is a message you don't want to send if you want users to advocate for Planner in the companies or organizations where they work. Swiftly adding features sends the message that you're here to compete.

[#6]

@jonlid totally agreed: is is hard for us when trying to push for planner if you have someone in your team saying "look, I use Trello and it is more robust".

I am sometimes under the impression that Microsoft is not investing enough in Planner to avoid a "cannibalization" with their other tool, MS Project; knowing that Planner is "free" (or at least bundled in Office business in my understanding) and MS Project comes with a dedicated fee.

As mentioned, I really think that Microsoft should beef up their investment and features delivery related to Planner: this is where the world is heading.

[#7]

That's all great features and needs!
Do you think Planner is dead?? No answer from a Microsoft dev....?

[#8]

Totally agree with your list. You've nailed it. I'm struggling to maintain the focus on MS Planner with slow adopters who are holding fast to their advocacy of Trello. We need some rapid new capability in Planner to be able to stave this off, otherwise the people will talk and switch.