Trello Inbox

[Hannah Verga]

We are trying to use the inbox feature to better organize assigned tasks. Is there a way to tag cards in some way (assignee, checklist items, etc.) in order to be able to filter them in the inbox feature? I thought if the card was assigned to the user you could pull it through to inbox but we haven't been able to get that to work. Would love to hear any input on how people are using inbox, if at all!

[Nils Geylen · Accepted solution]

I don't use it much.

It's been handy to park a card there, or to create one that needs to go somewhere else. Sometimes I mail something to my Inbox, so I can tackle my what-to-dos later. 

Not much else, or it quickly becomes a sinkhole for stale ideas--mostly I have both features closed and forget about them.

So no, not heavily invested.

Your remarks re: tagging and assigning, and "pulling through" or "filtering in" the inbox, make sense, but I'm not sure we're meant to use it that way. 

You can add stuff (incl.people) to regular cards, then drag them in the inbox and back (although I wonder where the assignee would see their card disappear to) but you cannot add people to an inbox card.

And I think that's the main reasoning behind, and what's most unclear about it: inbox is a personal user interface; it's your inbox, not the team's--like maybe a team chat might be. 

There is an option to have colleagues mail to your inbox, but it's quite hidden and I think the point is people should mail you directly, and you decide whether to put it in the inbox.

I've watched the inbox announcement video and my first thought was "Okay, cool--maybe" but that hasn't panned out for me.

So, I'm also quite interested to see how others do use this.

[DesignThinking]

I simply do not understand the purpose of the 'Inbox' in the context of Trello...

Is there a use model? Something that I can consult to see what Atlassian thinks the Inbox is for, exactly?

(I realise that expecting software 'features' to have a purpose beyond entertaining the coders may be somewhat naïve, these days.)

[Nils Geylen]

Can't find the video I saw earlier anywhere but this one came up

Take a quick tour of the new Trello | YouTube

(As a side note: I saw this one on an Atlassian site, but in a US version with different actors, so I'm guessing Atlassian localises these and this is the Aussie/International version.)

It does show how Atlassian thinks this should be used--not a space I live in though.

Let us know how this vibes with you!

cc orig. poster @Hannah Verga 

[Nils Geylen]

PS: just rewatched it and it does not mention the Planner--which I seem to remember being in that other version of the video. Instead of a board, that person drags stuff in there.

Again, this does not at all jive with either how we use it as a small Trello-only team, or with a product that purports to be for "personal productivity" these days.

And: if it's a space-wide thing, why do I have to open a board first to get to it? 

Unfortunately, the Team here has not been very forthcoming feedbacking on these kinds of questions. Let's leave it at that.

[Nils Geylen]

Quick addition by the way, in that Atlassian video, this person uses inbox mostly as an early morning task manager and she drags stuff into the Planner (another feature I cannot realistically find a use for) so she knows like at 11 I have to call someone, and at 2 we have this meet where I have to bring up issue x.

So if that is your way of working, maybe it's an idea, to combine the two, but I don't work on daily deadlines and interacting with people at all.

I'm really more comfortable with the Home highlights, a board calendar or the Recent @ me View.

Maybe this is good bump for the thread.