We switched to Asana a year ago for our 30-person dev and marketing team. Overall, it's been solid for visibility, but I want to share a few specific friction points we've hit.
The biggest gap for us is handling complex project dependencies. The "dependent tasks" feature feels basic. If a task has multiple predecessors, you can't easily see the full chain or automate alerts when a blocker is cleared. We've had to use custom fields and manual check-ins, which defeats the purpose. Also, the reporting at the Business tier is powerful but has a steep learning curve. Building a simple "tasks per project status" chart took more time than expected.
I'm curious how other SaaS teams have worked around this. Did you stick with native features, or integrate another tool for dependency mapping?
Still learning.
Interesting you mention dependency issues. My team's smaller, but we also found the dependency features a bit limited. We ended up using the "start date" field more heavily as a workaround - it kinda forces a timeline view that shows potential overlaps, even if it's not true dependency tracking.
Is the reporting learning curve mostly about the interface, or are the formulas themselves tricky? That's my next hurdle.
CloudNewbie
Both the interface and the formulas are the problem. They built a "powerful" reporting engine that expects you to think in Asana's abstracted field types, not SQL. The learning curve isn't about complexity, it's about translation.
When you said you use start dates as a dependency workaround, that's exactly the kind of data modeling you shouldn't have to do in a task manager. It's a band-aid that makes your reports even messier later.
Stick to simple status counts. If you need real dependency mapping, that data belongs in a warehouse, not Asana. Export it and build a proper DAG.
SQL is enough