Asana is the first tool I've seen that actually helps me track not only what's important both in the medium and long term, but also what we need to focus on day-to-day.
Possible Health
Dropbox
Variable
NationBuilder
Mission Bicycle
Foursquare
Freedompop
Blackboard
BAGGU
Emerald Therapeutics
Harvard Undergraduate Council
Stripe
MicroEnergy Credits
Springest
SGI-DNA
“Thanks to Asana, our whole culture has become centered around clarity, timeliness and speed.”
⋮ Mark Arnoldy, Executive Director
Possible Health has a core staff of nine and a number of volunteers. Relying on email to keep us all in sync while executing complex projects across two distant continents was putting strain on our entire team.
When we found Asana, everything changed. We now use Asana to organize nearly every critical function – from funding to communications to internal finance to program expansion. We've eliminated redundancy, miscommunication and confusion about priorities.
With Asana providing a clear trajectory for the work we do, we've become more disciplined in our decision making and have magnified the volume and velocity of our output. I have to say that the difference has been mind-blowing.
Possible Health exists to deliver transparent, data-driven health care to Nepal’s rural poor. Since it began providing clinical services in 2008, the organization has treated more than 114,000 Nepalese villagers and employed 155 Nepalese health care workers in full time positions.
“Within a week, we just felt like a team. It was this awe-inspiring moment. The power of Asana is incredible.”
⋮ Rian Hunter, Software Engineer
Dropbox has grown tremendously in the past year. Typically, the thing you must focus on as you grow is communication: suddenly to do anything you have to get on the same page with so many more people. We’ve tried many things in the past to deal with this: shared documents, spreadsheets, email, and regular meetings. But none quite fit the bill.
We decided to give Asana a try. We were quickly able to eliminate the drudgery of sending update emails and reporting on progress in weekly meetings. Now, if I want to know what’s going on with a project or what the status of anything is, I just look at Asana and everything is instantly clear. Asana makes our process so much more efficient. It removes all the waste in communication.
Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Today, more than 100 million people across every continent use Dropbox to always have their stuff at hand, share with family and friends, and work on team projects.
“Asana enables us to exceed our clients’ expectations by keeping our work and priorities organized and accessible anywhere, at any time.”
⋮ Tyler Ginter, Creative Producer
When your clients are top brands that like to live at the cutting edge of video marketing, you're talking about insanely complicated productions: all types of shots, multiple locations and a ton of other moving parts. For my team of 10 plus a handful of contractors, keeping it all together with tools like email and spreadsheets came with an intense amount of stress.
When we found Asana, our lives changed. We use it to coordinate everything to do with our shoots: equipment, logistics, each shot we need, who owns what piece. Once we had Asana up and running, we always knew what each of us had to do, when the work was coming and who was responsible for it. The stress we’d had with our old way of doing things was gone.
Variable is an innovative production company and creative collective based in the heart of New York City. Its work is a collection of stories created around the world by its passionate team of producers, directors, cinematographers and photographers. Its clients include Nike, Coca-Cola, National Geographic, MTV, and ESPN.
“With Asana, any time spent on a project is now meaningful time.”
⋮ Adriel Hampton, President of Community
Making the nation’s voter files transparent and giving every American an even playing field in our democratic practice is no easy feat. It entails coordinating the collection of over 170 million voter records from 50 states, all with varying standards and restrictions. Originally, we gave spreadsheets and Google Docs a shot, but found they made it too difficult to collaborate and prioritize our important work. We decided to switch to Asana.
Asana’s much more robust system – with real-time updates and clear task assignments – keeps our team on track. It creates acute situational awareness, enabling us to follow the details of relevant projects while keeping a global view at the same time. Having the ability to control our information diet has been great for our team.
NationBuilder is the world’s first online Community Organizing System built by a team dedicated to empowering leaders with the tools they need to achieve great things. From nonprofits and businesses to politicians, NationBuilder provides community-building software for leaders of all walks of life.
“Asana keeps everyone on our team happy and on task, so we can spend less time organizing projects and more time on creative work.”
⋮ Zachary Rosen, Owner
Creating custom-designed bikes is all about details, and the type of work we do requires staying on top of tons of logistics. From marketing our shop to managing parts to processing orders, we have a wide range of projects going at any given time. And when you’re working with a small team (ours is under a dozen) it is an ongoing challenge to ensure that no stone is left unturned. We started using Asana.
Because we have to do so much with so little, Asana has become irreplaceable. It has become the default place we go for all the knowledge surrounding all the work we do. Thanks to Asana, we are able to stay focused and perform at our best.
Mission Bicycle creates handcrafted street bikes in the heart of San Francisco and is reinventing how people commute through America’s cities. Each bike is custom built, part-by-part and is designed to last for a lifetime of city cycling.
“Asana has became an indispensable group communication tool.”
⋮ Noah Weiss, Product Manager
As we surpassed 100 employees, we were also in the midst of overhauling Foursquare’s core mechanics to build Foursquare 5.0. Managing an initiative of this scale across multiple growing teams was a challenge, and using email and spreadsheets for everything really bogged us down. We turned to Asana to lighten the load and create flow within the team.
Using Asana, we’ve eliminated the messy email threads and added structure and accountability to our work. We can now seamlessly communicate feedback from across departments, then discuss and prioritize next steps. Asana has made huge improvements in our collaboration. It was core to making Foursquare 5.0 a giant success.
Foursquare is a free application that helps friends connect and make the most of where they are through sharing and receiving deals and recommendations based on their location. Since Foursquare’s launch in 2008 they have built a community of nearly 30 million worldwide with over 3 billion check-ins with millions more each day.
“Asana keeps our team focused, working collaboratively, and delivering the most important business requirements on time.”
⋮ Steven Sesar, COO
Disrupting a market as stagnant as the wireless industry is no small feat. Making it possible for every American to have free access to 4G wireless internet at home or on-the-go takes a ton of coordination and looking to the future.
Before Asana, we had no insight into our business. All of our core operations—subscription metrics, user accounts and customer communication—were living in separate worlds, lost in Google docs and spreadsheets. Without a common thread to encourage collaboration between each department we found ourselves in a real pickle. Today, the entire foundation of the business is built on Asana. Asana has become our information repository that allows us to see at a glance where every project stands and gives us the insight needed to look to the future and decide our next moves. Asana gives us a clear view of projects past and present, helping everyone to be more efficient and communicate better.
Based in Los Angeles, CA, Freedompop is a telecom 2.0 company that provides customers with 500MB of free high speed internet per month. In an industry notorious for increased prices and additional fees, Freedompop is breaking down barriers to restore balance to the wireless and data industry, ensuring that no American is left off of the ‘digital grid.’
“We’ve found in Asana’s simplicity a great environment for brainstorming and developing new ideas and features.”
⋮ Aaron Wasserman, Director, Blackboard Mobile
Providing students and faculty a 360୦ technology experience that optimizes the way they digest and receive information involves a constant flow of fresh ideas and innovation, especially when it comes to supporting this experience on mobile devices. Keeping up with this fast-changing environment means we need to pump out new apps and tools regularly, which requires open and transparent collaboration on all fronts.
Asana is where we collaborate to uncover creative new ways to improve the learning experience. We’ll go to Asana and throw out the kitchen sink of ideas, break those ideas down and then prioritize and assign tasks to individuals. This keeps projects moving forward and reduces dependency on email. Because Asana is so simple it has broken down collaboration barriers offering a centralized place to organize, communicate and stay on top of our work.
Blackboard is improving the educational experience from higher education down to K-12. They work with students, educators, corporations, and government organizations worldwide to provide the most current tools for improving the learning experience. Blackboard mobile takes it to the next level effectively and instantly enriching teaching, learning, and campus life for everyone -- putting the power in student’s and faculty’s hands.
“Asana is our go-to for prioritizing projects, keeping up with orders and staying on top of a constantly growing to-do list.”
⋮ Emily Sugihara, President
We work in the fast-paced world of design, which means keeping up with a constant flow of creative and new product designs. From design to photo shoots and order requests, there is a lot to stay on top of. We needed a tool that is both flexible and intuitive to help manage the ins and outs of this dynamic business.
At BAGGU, Asana has become the go-to in our browsers and is what keeps us on pace all day long. Thanks to Asana, we’ve been able to significantly cut down on internal email and reduce much of the unnecessary back and forth communication that was slowing us down. Because of Asana, we feel that we are able to have more meaningful and productive work days.
BAGGU began as a small mother-daughter ecommerce and wholesale operation, creating durable high-quality bags, backpacks, and accessories. BAGGU opened the doors to its first retail store in 2012 and operates with a growing team, delivering nationwide their signature product line of bags in a rainbow of bright prints.
“Asana has become a verb at Emerald "Can you asana me,” if its not in Asana, it won't get done, that is our MO.”
⋮ DJ Kleinbaum, Co-Founder & CEO
Our goal is to cure persistent viral infections where existing technology has only provided temporary relief. We can’t allow the friction of an industry, hesitant to adopt new technology, to interrupt progress in therapeutic innovation. At Emerald, we’ve embraced Asana which has greatly improved both individual productivity and amplified our collective output.
To independently tackle an endeavor of this magnitude, our small company must operate with extreme efficiency and minimal overhead. With the adoption of Asana, we found that we could harmoniously coordinate far more experimental research. Asana allows us to orchestrate big picture scientific initiatives while also ensuring that critical details don't slip through the cracks. Asana has been an invaluable tool to help focus all of our energy into doing what we're most passionate about: curing viruses.
Emerald Therapeutics is a venture backed Silicon Valley start-up that is conducting pre-clinical research in stealth mode. Their team of scientists and engineers come from diverse fields—such as computer science, organic chemistry, cellular biology and mathematics—and are working to disrupt and reshape the field of therapeutics.
“Asana has made us more transparent and has helped everyone to be honest with their work.”
⋮ Tara Raghuveer, President, Harvard's Undergraduate Council
Mobilizing an entire student body, with a council that experiences high turnover each year, means a constant struggle with onboarding and filling knowledge gaps. Ensuring that undergraduates are informed on important issues and that their voice is heard is crucial when college administration is making decisions that will directly impact the student body.
Using Asana, we found a way to combat these lost-in-transition roadblocks, so our productivity never drops between new councils. Asana has provided clarity and transparency to initiatives, giving new council members the historical context they need to carry out projects seamlessly. Because of Asana we can be held accountable to constituents as well as operate effectively as an organization.
The Undergraduate Council is the student government of Harvard College, representing all undergraduate students on campus. The council is made up of each of Harvard’s 13 upperclassman houses and four freshman yards. Members of the council collaborate as one whole body to advocate for student interests and empower student’s voices.
“Unlike other tools that where you are working within a restricted system, Asana adapts to you.”
⋮ Michael Schade, Support Hacker
We are focused on providing economic infrastructure for the internet. Historically, online transactions have been a pain for many businesses with some simply unable to accept payments. Inherently, consumers want the ease and simplicity of purchasing items online, but if it is a hassle for businesses to do this, well, nobody wins. To make it possible for anyone to accept payments online, as a team we need to have a full view of where every task stands at all times.
It is important that we can see what each person on the team is working on, at a moments notice, to avoid duplicated efforts. Emails can go lost and one-on-one conversations are isolated, so having a tool like Asana changes the way we operate and collaborate. Asana offers us transparency in our work, keeping everyone accountable and on task.
San Francisco-based Stripe provides a simple way for businesses to accept payments online. Stripe handles the credit card transaction, security measures, and service fee without ever taking the consumer away from the business’s website. By enabling transactions on the web to be simple and easy, they are bringing more businesses online.
“Having the situational awareness of Asana allows us to be agile and act on opportunities quickly.”
⋮ James Dailey, CTO & Director, MicroEnergy Credits
Bringing clean energy solutions to households in emerging economies demands the flexibility to react to changes and make adjustments on the fly. We’ve found Asana to be invaluable in our ability to remain nimble and act quickly when partnership opportunities arise.
Our staff is working in both India and Africa, coordinating bank partnerships and collaborating with clean energy suppliers. Rapid execution is core to our line of work — we can’t be dragging our heels. Because of this prioritization is essential to our success: Asana gives our team clarity on where to focus energy and keeps everyone on track.
MicroEnergy Credits aggregates carbon offsets, making it possible for entrepreneurs in developing countries to invest in clean energy as a component of their microfinance loan. With teams located in both India and Africa, MicroEnergy Credits is working along side banks to bring clean energy solutions to impoverished households.
“Asana has reduced our overhead and increased our speed.”
⋮ Ruben Timmerman, Owner & Chief User Experience at Springest
Managing an online platform that offers information on over 95,000 training courses and educational programs in Netherlands, Germany, Russia and the US and the UK, requires a constant flow of output. On average we are making updates to the site five to six times a day, with new features coming out each week. When operating under such high-speed, collaborating efficiently is a top priority.
Asana has become a verb at Springest. If you want something done, have a question or discovered a bug the first action is to ‘Asana it’. We use Asana as our discussion board to brainstorm, boil down problems, find solutions, and complete tasks. Asana’s flexibility transcends the predict-and-control nature of business that many organizations get lost in, enabling us to be agile and efficient across the board.
Springest is a learning and development portal connecting students and professionals to a variety of courses and programs from IT to business development, marketing, and the arts. With over 1,200 subjects spanning 20 different fields, Springest is making it easier to access and acquire information on learning opportunities to advance careers or boost knowledge bases.
“When you are working with long drawn-out processes, like synthesizing large molecules of DNA, having a tool like Asana is indispensable.”
⋮ John Gill, Program Manager for Automation, Synthetic Genomics
At SGI-DNA, we write the DNA code. Using new techniques and tools that our scientists have developed, we construct synthetic DNA molecules -- from genes to whole genomes. These new biological constructs accelerate the rate at which research is conducted, allowing scientists to spend less time on the process of making DNA and more time on their research. Our breakthroughs enable solutions that advance biological research on a global scale. To do so, our team must be able to communicate in a fluid, efficient, and centralized manner.
Asana allows our team to stay current on all of our efforts, minimizing the need to persistently ask or wonder where projects stand in our pipeline. Turnaround time is very important to our customers; short, rapid updates across the team let us know that we are working towards meeting our customers’ expectations.
SGI-DNA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Synthetic Genomics, Inc (SGI), founded in 2013 and headquartered in La Jolla, CA provides differentiated synthetic DNA solutions to leading organizations with demands for large and/or complex DNA constructs.
Asana was born from a pain common to almost everyone who has worked on a team: despite working alongside smart and organized people, we spend too much time doing “work about work”. The energy we spend writing and reading emails, attending status meetings, and tracking down the information we need to do our jobs reduces our collective output and keeps us from setting larger goals.
The opportunity to vastly increase team productivity is universal to every organization in the world. And so Asana was started, with a mission to increase the potential output of every team’s efforts, and empower humanity to do great things.
Send us your story about how Asana is changing the way you work together with your team.