How to create your first project
Create an outcome-based project, define its objective, and add the first owned task.
A project is where delivery actually happens. Getting the first one right sets the pattern every later project inherits, so it is worth five careful minutes.
Choose the board that should contain the work
Boards, shown in your sidebar as workspaces, are long-lived containers, usually one per client. Open the board this work belongs to before creating anything. Putting a project in the wrong board is tedious to undo later because access and sharing follow the board.
Open the right group and select Add project
Groups act as folders inside a board. Pick the group that matches the type of work, then choose Add project. If no group fits, create one first rather than dropping the project somewhere convenient and promising to tidy it up later.
Name the project after the outcome, not the department
A project called Website redesign tells you when it is finished. One called Marketing never does. Outcome-based names make the project list readable and make it obvious when something should be closed.
Complete the Project Brief with an objective and decision maker
Write what done looks like and name who approves it. The decision maker matters most: projects stall when work is finished but nobody knows whose sign-off counts. Recording it at the start prevents that conversation later.
Add tasks with owners, dates, and a clear finish
Create the first few tasks with an owner and a due date each. A task without an owner is not work, it is a note. Tasks created properly at the start feed My Work, the Workload view, and every report from day one.
What success looks like
- The project has an outcome-based name, a written objective, a named decision maker, and at least three owned tasks with dates. Anyone opening it can tell what it is for and what happens next.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Naming projects after teams or channels, which produces projects that never end.
- Creating tasks with no owner, which quietly removes them from every workload and reporting view.
- Leaving the decision maker unspecified, which is the most common cause of finished work sitting unshipped.
Questions about this workflow
Projects are counted across your whole account. Free includes three, and every paid plan removes the limit.
Yes, but plan the location up front where you can, since sharing and access follow the board the project sits in.
Related how-tos
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