Article - Reimagining an App from the Ground Up: Behind the Scenes of Todoist’s Redesign

I’ve never used Todoist but have always been curious about it. I just saw this article about Todoist getting a reimagining…

What are some of the things that irks you about Todoist? I think I’ve heard the lack of a start/defer date was something that a lot of OmniFocus users wished that Todoist had.

The karma feature sounds like an interesting way to game-ify your productivity.

I found this statement interesting: "These were already the first steps on this bigger redesign project — internally, we call it Todoist Foundations (TDF) — allowing Todoist to better adapt to the user needs and workflows.

The next TDF project we’re working on is a revamped scheduler interface."

I love using OmniFocus plus Fantastical as a scheduler. This would be interesting for me to see in Todoist.

"During the first two months of Todoist Foundations, we also contacted some of our most active users, both premium and free, scheduling user interviews and sending out surveys. That feedback has given us a better idea of how people actually use Todoist, and what common problems they face. Lastly, we use analytic tools and (completely anonymous) usage data to understand which features are used most, and which are barely used at all"

It’s great to see a company actively interacting with their customer base. Of course, software development doesn’t happen instantly. Changes in user workflow must be studied for user ramifications and choices that may impact that user experience.

"We decided the PR bump we may get from a big release isn’t worth the bad experience for our team and our users. Now we work on steady updates that deliver new features and/or improvements every couple of months. This approach fits our six-week work cycles well, and makes it easier to get early feedback on changes and iterate — or even reconsider their value altogether. It also means our users never have to wait a long time to get new updates."

I’m all for a reiterative approach. Instead of the big upgrade that requires a new version number, just iterate, get feedback, and revise as needed. I like seeing a slow and steady approach to new features. Otherwise, the develops might want to hold back a feature that was finished months ago and wait for the big new version update.

I do like Todoist being available on all platforms and collaboration features. I am curious to see their approach to project/task management. I’m not familiar enough with Todoist. What are your thoughts about the Todoist platform? What did you like and what would you like to see in the Todoist ecosystem?