Task management startup Asana rolls out major redesign for web and mobile and Track Anything, a new spreadsheet-like tool
Context & Ripple Effects
The redesign lands a few months after rival Todoist released a completely revamped Android app — the two task-management leaders spent 2015 racing each other through full interface overhauls rather than incremental features.
What separates this release is Track Anything: by adding a spreadsheet-like layer, Asana is stretching past the to-do list it was known for when it ran Facebook engineering, laying groundwork for the paid tiers (the $19.95 Business tier) and the Enterprise Work Graph and CRM integrations it would ship years later.
First-order effects
- Existing web and mobile users wake up to a rebuilt interface, forcing habit changes across every team workspace overnight.
- Teams currently tracking non-task work in actual spreadsheets get a native alternative inside Asana, keeping more of their workflow on one tool.
Second-order effects
- Todoist and other list-centric competitors face pressure to broaden beyond tasks or cede the 'track anything' workflow to Asana — Todoist's own later cross-platform update with sections shows the arms race continued.
- A wider product surface gives Asana more to monetize per seat, setting up the per-user Business pricing that followed.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, task managers absorb spreadsheet and database use cases until 'task management' and 'work tracking' collapse into one category — the consolidation Asana later formalized with its Work Graph and APIs.
- The category shifts from consumer-style to-do apps toward platform products where extensibility and integrations decide winners, raising the bar for any new entrant.
The trend: Task managers are expanding from simple to-do lists into broad collaborative work-tracking platforms that absorb spreadsheet workflows, with interface overhauls marking each competitive round.