# Our product process for adding pronouns into Asana's profile settings > Considering adding pronouns to your product’s profile settings? Learn how Asana incorporated a free-form text box and why. Source: https://asana.com/inside-asana/product-process-adding-pronouns-asana-profile-settings ## Considerations for implementing pronouns into My Profile Settings While our [other blog](http://blog.asana.com/2018/05/new-profile-setting-pronouns-asana) explains the general thinking around implementing pronouns into My Profile Settings in Asana, this post has more information about options we explored. ## Requirements: - **Any pronouns can be entered**. This is because gender-neutral pronouns are continually evolving, and there are many. Additionally, someone may have a non-pronoun preference, like using their name. - **Pronouns can be used to create structured sentences**. We considered using the pronouns in notifications (e.g., “she assigned a task to you”). Later, we eliminated this constraint because it proved difficult to develop a simple input model while achieving the first requirement. Plus, our internationalization team’s research concluded that it would add unnecessary complexity as we translated Asana across a variety of languages.* * Some languages, such as Japanese, don’t have gendered pronouns. We decided to just eliminate the field in those languages. ## Options we explored: **A drop-down or radio button** with “write your own” option. We rejected this because it entailed more complicated user flow and would give “standard” pronouns privilege. **A typeahead** that suggests common pronouns. It would be lengthier to implement because we don’t already have a component that does exactly that. **A drop-down with as many pronouns** as we can gather, and an option to submit ones not included. We rejected this because we didn’t want to give users a negative experience if theirs weren’t there, nor did we want to run the risk of not keeping it up to date based on requests. **Example sentences where you fill in your pronoun** as various parts of speech (e.g. [blank] assigned a task to you and you could fill in the blank with your pronouns.) We rejected because it was complicated to build, took up a lot of screen real-estate, was an untested pattern, and we weren’t sure it was the clearest way for users to add pronouns. ## Design: We ended up with [a free-form text box](https://blog.asana.com/2018/05/new-profile-setting-pronouns-asana/) because it was simple and non-restrictive. We added placeholder text to reduce confusion about what the field was for, for people who aren’t familiar with gender pronouns. If you’re not building an application that will use pronouns to create structured sentences, we recommend a free-form text box because it is **simple** to build and use and **inclusive** in allowing people to freely self-identify and not privileging more common pronouns over others. - [Asana Spring 2026 Release: Get more done, faster with AI that works with your entire team](/inside-asana/spring-release-2026) Product #### Content writer The Spring Release is here, and it's built around a problem every leadership team is wrestling with right now: most teams are already using AI, but organizational productivity isn ... - [Asana Winter 2026 Release: Reduce time from planning to delivery with customizable automations and prebuilt AI Teammates](/inside-asana/winter-release-2026) Product #### Content writer The Winter Release is here with a mission to help teams reduce the time that it takes to move from planning to delivery with customizable automations and prebuilt AI Teammates. We ... - [Asana Fall 2025 Release: Unlock your team's full potential with collaborative AI Teammates and smarter resource management](/inside-asana/fall-release-2025) Product #### Content writer We're excited to introduce Asana's Fall 2025 Release, designed to help your team achieve more with collaborative AI teammates and intelligent resource management. This release bri ... - [Asana + Amazon Q Business Integration Powers AI Workflows With Unified Third-Party App Data](/inside-asana/asana-and-amazon-q) Product #### Content writer Employees waste valuable time jumping between applications to find information and context needed to move work forward. Meanwhile, AI systems can't deliver reliable outputs becaus ... - [Considerations for implementing pronouns into My Profile Settings](/inside-asana/product-process-adding-pronouns-asana-profile-settings) Product While our other blog explains the general thinking around implementing pronouns into My Profile Settings in Asana, this post has more information about options we explored.Require ... - [Product](/inside-asana/product)