Is it possible to set a task due date by the number of days before the milestone date?

1. First, you need to create a Blueprint, where you will specify the connections between your tasks and your milestone. Also, this will help you save time, because you'd only need to create the tasks once.
   To achieve this, create a project blueprint called 'New Physician' or similar and create/add all the relevant tasks to it. Among these tasks, you'll also have to create your milestone.
2. The second step consists of creating dependencies between the tasks and the milestone, which you will accomplish by using the Gantt chart view. You'll need to create a start-finish dependency between your tasks and the milestone.
3. Once the tasks and the milestone have been linked, the last adjustment has to do with applying a lead time to your tasks, so they will start 20 days, 10 days, or the number of days you need before the milestone. Here's an example of how your blueprint would look:
   
4. Once your blueprint is ready, you need to create the request form you mentioned in your comment and link it to the blueprint. You can, for instance, add two questions to your request, which could be: one to define the assignee of the task/project and another one, which would be mandatory, to define the start date of the physician.
5. To link your request form to your blueprint, all you need to do is: in point number 1 of the request builder (on the right side of your screen), select the option 'Create from', select 'Blueprints' and search for the relevant one. By selecting this option, when a user submits the form, a project will be created from the blueprint.
     
6. And for the last step, you need to ensure that your tasks and milestone will be scheduled accordingly - so they won't have the original dates set in the blueprint (however, the lead times will be respected). To do so, scroll to step number 6 of the request form builder, which is 'Reschedule', and select the option to reschedule with the last's task due date (which will be your milestone). At this point, you'll be asked to create a due date question. You can call this question 'Physician's start date'. This date will be applied to your milestone and the rest of the tasks will have the corresponding lead times, with their updated dates.
     

Thank you, Juan, for this detailed how-to! I had wondered this same thing, but in terms of setting up preparatory tasks before a new hire's starting date. This is so helpful!

Are there any plans to allow us to select which milestone in a project to align to, instead of just the last event?

Our use case is a little more pedestrian: event planning. The requester would tell us the day of the event, and we would schedule around that. Unfortunately, we have several post-event tasks as well (post-mortem meeting, newsletter article, photo distribution, etc.), so it isn't as simple for us as just aligning to the "last task's due date."

Hi Teddy, thank you for your comment. May I ask if you're using request forms? If that's the case, our Product Team is planning an option to reschedule tasks/projects around a date - in request forms. We'll keep you updated about this option as soon as we have more info to share 👍

Great news, @...!