What tools do you use to manage your backlog of coding tasks and features to build?

I use Notion to organize everything. It allows me to visualize in many different formats, whether its markdown for notes, Kanban for tasks, nested pages for Wiki, etc.

At careermove.io, I use Trello and it works great.

I also use Trello, I don't like spending too much time on planning/writing specs, so the quick cards on Trello are perfect for my workflow 👌

I am using Trello for my personal projects while through various projects I do use Asana and Jira.

I like the simple approach Trello has and I have developed a flow which I copy for each new project. I have a few static columns such as:

• "Project/Info" - where I put all information about the project. And also if it's still an idea, all I have found while researching
• "Feature Requests" - requests I got from customers
• "Backlog" - backlog of features I want/plan to implement

After that each column is a new version where I put the backlog feature cards into them. Once done, I create a new column between the "Backlog" and the latest version column. Thus, if I keep all the previous columns, I can track down to which version a feature was done and I don't have to scroll to the right to get to the latest version.

I have even written an article on that: https://www.ibenic.com/manage-wordpress-products-trello/

I use Trello as kind of idea dumping ground that I can roughly categorize into lists. I keep two boards: one for technical ideas and one for business ideas.

But, I also use a good old fashioned notebook for keeping more detailed lists for implementing, say, the feature I want to add this week. There is just something about crossing tasks off with an actual pencil that is hard to replicate. :-)

I'm a Trello user as well. Did try to work with Notion, but it was to much of a hassle for me to set up.

We're using JIRA as an organization. From there I will often break down my tasks into micro-tasks within a personal Trello board. There's something about dragging those micro-tasks into the completed column that keeps motivation high.

I especially struggle with keeping track of ideas for 'someday maybe'

Are you concerned your future ideas won't be as good?

Piece of paper, limited to 25 tasks for the week and 25 for the following week (overflow tasks). List is groomed weekly to help eliminate the crap that simply doesn't matter, and make room for the stuff that does (specifically things that keep coming up).

I like to keep a fresh list of relevant tasks vs. a perpetual todo list with all of the things I can think of (which I've done in the past, and have failed miserably with).

So many options here, I'll have to try out some of the new ones. Thanks everyone!

I've been using Github projects a good bit for coding and feature related tasks. For broader planning, especially non-technical tasks, I second https://www.notion.so. It's great for notes, kanban esque boards, small CRMs, etc.

ClickUp, XMind

I used to use Wunderlist and recently switched to Trello.

I saw an interesting post a while back from Pieter Levels who has ditched all software tools and uses a stack of Post-it notes.

Google Docs

I've tried using Trello, JIRA, Notion, and GitHub projects. I found Asana to be the most helpful though because it's the right balance between minimal UI and full-featured for me. The timeline feature on Premium is also really helpful for visualizing how tasks depend on one another and I've found that to help me prioritize better.

I use a combination of Trello and Jira. I really like Jira for bug tracking and feature tracking, especially those features which need a lot of fleshing out. But it's not lightweight. I love Trello because I can dump random ideas in there, and when I find I'm at a loose end (waiting for someone to show up at a cafe, for example), I can pull out my phone and triage the TODO lists on Trello. Trello is great for prioritising what I'm going to do in the short term.

But Jira is hands-down winner for those changes which will be controversial or have a big impact. I can kick off the discussion and get the opinions of other devs on the team before we go hacking into existing code. Especially when the changes will have deep side-effects. Even forcing myself to write down all of the in's and out's of the change can be helpful in understanding whether it's a good idea or not. It also means there's a permanent record if we ever get confused.

In the distant past, before all that fancy Trello stuff, we used to use what we called a "lucky dip." Customers would suggest changes to the product, and we'd score the changes based on a) how hard it was to implement and b) how important it was to the customer. Very important, simple changes were always done first. Hard changes that customers weren't that pushed about, never made it up the list. After each release, we'd remove all the stuff we'd done, solicit new requests, and repeat. We kept the lucky dip in a text file. The stuff at the top of the file was done first.

Dropbox used to have a nice feature where they awarded 10 points (if memory serves) to each user each month. You got to submit feature requests or upvote other requests, using some or all of your points. They promised to work on the highest-rated features. It would be great if there was a SaaS version of that "votebox" thing they did. Making sure we're always working on the most important feature from a customer perspective, is pretty essential IMHO.

The only thing that stuck with me is the infinite outliner style of WorkFlowy/Dynalist. Everything else always seems to end up in a mess or too much trouble to be worth it (for personal projects). I love zooming in on a task and continuously split it up into smaller sub-tasks while keeping the context uncluttered.

Currently, I am evaluating Quire, which is essentially the same concept but with additional project management features and even kanban boards. It got a very smooth interface and seems to tick all the right boxes.

Notion is very interesting as well, but it looks anything but simple. It almost looks more like a productivity app builder than a productivity app itself, and there are hour-long videos on how to set up a Notion workspace... I figure if I put that much effort into it, I might as well consider building my own app.

I might give Notion a proper try as a replacement for Google Docs/Sheets though when I need something more complex and structured. Perhaps in the process, I will come to appreciate it more in general.

Jira

I’ve tried Notion, Trello, Basecamp, etc. they’re all just too bulky for my use.

I use pen an paper for sketches and ideas and honestly nothing better.

But I struggle the most with remembering the TODOs for the next day, for next couple days, so that I can get right into work - more granular tasks than a feature. And for this I use the MVP of flowist.io while I build the first real version! (Yay for dogfooding!)

I would always keep this stuff in a Google Spreadsheet, but I'd probably use Notion if I were to start something new.

The important learning for me was to never "just" log the tasks and features, but to use some sort of scoring system. Baremetrics has a really nice blog post about the system they use. While there are many more prioritization frameworks, you only really need to do some simple scoring to get anywhere.

That or use a tool like Canny.io to have your customers vote on features. This may also be an input for your scoring.

I like Trello, along with pen and paper to mark off the small details. For notes, I use Evernote, but I found Airtable to be nice for research that I used to do in Excel

I don't think there's one size fits it all solution for this. So far I didn't really bother to look for a tool which can help me, but rather spent time to find a mindset which works well for me. My personal approach is to categorize stuff in two main categories:

• Stuff I am currently working on, and which should be done to finish stuff
• Things I want to do in the future, but are a project on themselves.

Within the stuff currently going on list I usually separate tasks by the (code) project which they are part of, so I can easily switch between projects and have a backlog of things handy.

On the other list I try to limit entries to codenames which catch the essence of the thing I want to achieve. Each entry is anywhere between a week and half a year worth of work to implement correctly, and most things are a standalone feature as is. As long as I have not committed to implementing these I just try to limit my thoughts about them to the conceptual level.

Stuff I'm working on is mostly captured in GitHub issues, while I have no standard place for the stuff I would eventually want to work on. I'd be too lazy to re-read what I have written on these topics anyway, and every now and then I can reflect whether the mental model I have about these topics is still one I would want to pursue. Mental models which are too complex just sink away in my brain, while the simple ones still hang around in my brain months later. Once I start the implementation I usually have a clear idea of what I would want to achieve, and how I'm going to do that.

When choosing what to implement next I usually make a matrix of every project I have in my mind and plot it on two axis. One describing the technical complexity to implement, and one describing the value to customers and hence business value. I let it sit for a while to give myself the time to come up with fresh ideas, and then I usually choose the option which brings most of the value for least of the effort.

Most of the tinkering in the second category are done with pen and paper either way.

I use GitHub Issues for bugs and new features and GitHub Projects to sort them after their urgency.

"someday maybe" features shouldn't be tracked explicitly. If you talk to your users regularly, you'll know them like the back of your hand.

Putting them in a huge backlog or, worse, a feature voting system (combining what users think they want with a backlog! ugh!) just ossifies them.

GitHub issues and then use GitHub Projects to make a simple kanban board which I can add the issues to. This way i keep it all in one place and can close of the issues via commits etc.

I use a TODO.md file, quick and simple, I use Notion when working with other people.

I prefer Pivotal Tracker because it's highly opinionated software. As long as you buy into their workflow, you'll notice they take care to build well thought out user experiences. For instance, there is a predefined section called "ice box" for all of your someday maybe ideas...which is visually different compared to your regular backlog.

With that said, if pen and paper work for you...keep using it!