Hubspot Project Templates, Project Task Mass Updates on Assignees/Due Dates, Project Stages and more

[davidpan]

First of all, the Hubspot Project module currently is more like just a glorified checklist. I believe managing marketing projects really takes a lot more than that, and below are my dire suggestions with which I hope others also resonate. Please UPVOTE to get any of the ideas considered/implemented!

1. Allow users to multi-select Project Tasks to select assignee(s) and due dates without having to click on each and every single task.
   The current setup requires whoever manages the project to click on the task to select assignee(s) and a due date. This can get very repetitive and very old very fast, especially for recurring projects, definitely NOT a good UI/UX. Whoever manages/sets up the marketing project can really benefit from this.
2. Allow project template to pre-assign users/pre-select assignees to tasks as default.
   A template is created because a project is used often. Why is this not already a function? If any assignee needs to be changed, adjustments can be made after the template is used. Having this as an option can really save SO MUCH TIME. 
3. Allow projects to be organized by folders or tags or something.
   Everything else Hubspot does has folders for organization, so something to help with the organization on the project level will really help.
4. Allow project tasks to be organized by stages.
   Whether it is just to 1) allow a project to have distinct sections of tasks, 2) to allow tags for each task, or 3) to build a stage property into each task, this can really help with projects that require plans in stages. As a simple example, campaigns can have pre-campaign and post-campaign tasks.
5. Allow project tasks to have status, too, so marketing projects can be shown in board format like sales tasks, which brings me to my next suggestion.
6. Combine Project Tasks and Sales Tasks or allow us to create a dashboard with all tasks in one place.
   Currently, Project Tasks and Sales Tasks are in two different places - This is very inconvenient for users who need to use and manage tasks on both ends. For our team, no matter who it is, everyone has project tasks and one-off tasks. Project tasks are created in the project, any one-off tasks are created as sales tasks. We have to manage in two different places.
   Besides team members, management also can't pull project task reports on all team members to see the overall workload, let alone having a single view of all the tasks on the team. 
7. Allow project task due date to automatically populate/adjust based on the completion of another task. For every project, if a task due date is moved, it can subsequently affect all task due dates afterward. Having a dependency helps all teams manage the project and tasks. It can be "Due after _#_ Days when _Task Name_ is completed."

Overall, in my opinion, the project tool can really use some TLC. It can be so much more useful than just a checklist. So please Hubspot! These are definitely some functionalities that we can really use!!!

[Rob-NWB]

This is a great summary @davidpan - thanks for putting this together.  We badly want to use Hubspot's Projects as part of the ecosystem and yet we keep hitting walls that not only leave us in need of a different solution but leaves us wondering if anything in Hubspot is truly fleshed out and vetted before it's launched.

As we've said in our office "Some of this is just 101 level stuff"

Hubspot - pay attention to your customers' needs and wants.

[aaronjyen]

This is a top quality idea. I couldn't agree more with the list, and the reasoning behind each point. I sincerely hope HubSpot takes note of this post, because at this very moment, the tool itself really is a glorified checklist.

[davidpan]

Thank you, @Rob-NWB and @aaronjyen.

And not to be all crazy, but if this is important and helpful to you, please do ask your team members to upvote this as well so we can get as much support as possible! (I slacked everyone on our team for support myself. Even though a small team, every vote counts!)

[Stevemills]

Got to say that having the option to set up tasks the repeat daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and anually is a very basic structure within every project management tool I have used and I am surprised and shocked that Hubspot does not have this basic feature.

Please get this sorted ASAP.

Thanks,

Steve

[jwalery]

David, nice list.  I totally agree.  Project has been out awhile now and not gotten the HubSpot love it deserves.  It's time to add a few things to make it more usable.  I'm sensing that the focus is on sales tasks and not on marketing tasks.  I think that is a mistake by HubSpot since marketing is it's bread and butter.  I submitted ideas for improvements to my account manager (who forwarded it to the product manager) which included your #2 and #3 items.  I would also like to see recurring tasks (such as a weekly status report, end of month items, etc.), exporting of tasks (future and past) and the ability to assign tasks to those that don't have Hubspot system access.  I will submit these ideas separately.  Just wanted to say thanks for your well drafted idea.  Take care.

[ktfritchen]

Agree on just about all of these. I'd also like to see is being able to schedule tasks based on the project due date. Example: project due date = 1/1/21, task #1 due 30 days prior to project due date, etc. That way I don't have to go in and schedule each individual task every time I use the template.

[CGREENE]

A hearty "yes please" to all of the above suggestions, especially #3 & #4 would make this tool so much more useful (why only two levels, tasks and subtasks??!! grrrrr), and I would add one more item related to the useability of projects:

Add more functionality/control to rearrange your list. Right now if I discover a new step I need to add, it automatically populates at the bottom of the list. If I want it near the top of a long list, it's a pretty annoying task to get it to travel up the list; I have to drag and drop a few times. Some kind of scroll up feature or a dropdown list with options of where to move it would be helpful.

[craigvarcoe]

Three things I would add @davidpan ;

1. The ability to manage budget/costs of a Project and the line actions within the Project. A Project like "launching a new showroom" might have a set total budget with smaller line actions being assigned a proportion of the budget in either a percentage or $ figure.

2. The ability to organise projects (left hand pane) into folders (i.e., Marketing, New Product Development, Staff Onboarding etc). Or at the very least, assign a custom "tag" to the project so you can search or filter by the tag.

3. Ability to organise projects/folders (left hand pane) in alphabetical order.

[EKue]

I would really appreciate a dashboard that allows for sales tasks and project tasks to be found in the same place. It currently feels like I have my to do lists on two different platforms, not one. 

[SZinken]

Yes, this all would be SO helfpul!