I agree - soo many notices flooding Inboxes, with what looks like work that needs completed, but is really just a template duplication.

Hi @Barbara and @Heather I completely understand where you're both coming from with this request.

@Barbara, you can create a form and then specify who should be assigned based on what answers the form submitter picked. You can also have a form submission launch a Project from a template. I think that this should work given the workflow you describe with different potential assignees, but let me know if it doesn't. Also, happy to talk through how to create these Requests!

@Heather, I think setting up a Request so that you could launch a Project from a template might be helpful in your scenario as well, but if you could give me a few more details about your templates, I can try figure out if there's any other functionality that might be helpful.  

I am voting for the enhancement that would prevent me from seeing tasks that have no broker name associated to it.  

@Kayre Hi there! I want to make sure I'm getting your request right...you want to be able to hide tasks that don't have an assignee? Did you want to hide them from a particular view?

I agree - so many notices flooding Inboxes, with what looks like work that needs completed, but is really just a template duplication. (I copied Heather's comment :)

Hi Fran! I'm not sure if you saw my reply to Heather's comment but would setting up a Request which launches a Project from a template be helpful for you? Essentially, you could submit a request when you actually need the new Project created, and then you wouldn't have "active" tasks sitting in Wrike before they were really ready to be worked on. 

I was about to create a new product feedback thread but thought maybe this one was similar enough. I typed up a whole breakdown of my thoughts, issues, and possible solutions.

Templates

Having the ability to create project templates has been key to our success. We use templates to draw up comprehensive dependencies among tasks, write detailed descriptions for each task, and easily replicate those projects for new clients. It’s nice that teammates can be assigned to the tasks, and can be carried over when the templates are replicated, but this process only works well right now because we have 8 employees (one employee for each service). Down the road, when we are able to hire multiple people for each department and change up project teams, this process in the template tasks will become a hindrance. It will require me to highlight all the tasks for teammates I want to “swap”, which leaves room for error if a task is forgotten.

Here are a few suggestions for future updates that will solve this problem for us in the future, and may be greatly appreciated by your current larger agency clients.

Mass Swap Feature

In addition to being able to select specific tasks to mark and swap assignees, add a feature that allows us to mass swap assignees. For example, instead of seeking out all tasks that Employee A is assigned to, selecting them, and reassigning them to Employee B, allow me to do it in one move by saying “reassign all tasks currently assigned to Employee A and reassign to Employee B.” This automation will help ensure that no tasks are missed, and therefore not performed down the road (especially when Employee A is no longer with the company!)

Assign Services in Templates

When creating a template, allow us to assign specific services to each task, instead of specific teammates. For example, I can assign Graphic Design and Brand Manager to Task 1, then Graphic Designer to dependent Task 2, and Developer to dependent Task 3. When I am ready to convert a project template into an active project, I can be prompted to create my project team. I can Select Employee A to fill all Graphic Designer roles, Employee B to fill all Brand Manager roles, and Employee C to fill all Developer Roles. Through an automated process, the following happens:

Task 1 (Graphic Designer & Brand Manager) = Employee A & B

Task 2 (Graphic Designer) = Employee A

Task 3 (Developer) = Employee C

In a project with over 100 tasks, this will save Project Manager so much time, therefore allowing their project teams to get started on the projects more quickly.

Delay Active status when converting templates

Currently, when a template is converted into an active project, all teammates are notified of the tasks they are assigned to (which could be dozens of tasks spread out over several months if dependencies are involved). This causes two issues:

1. Tasks can’t be customized for the new client and new project details without everyone seeing all the changes occur in real time
2. Teammate inboxes are overwhelmed with notifications, which is especially confusing if they are then immediately removed from the task because a different teammate needs to be assigned or a task is deleted because (though part of the template) the task doesn’t apply to the new client.

A solution is to allow for templates to be duplicated, tasks adjusted, teammates reassigned, then the Project Manager can click a button to say “make project active.”

I also want to clarify that I do not use project request forms. I create a comprehensive template for the different types of projects we do, and then when the sale representative comes to me and says that a client signed for a certain type of project, I duplicate the template I already generated. We only use the request form for minor one-off projects like, "fix this broken link on our website." Meanwhile, the template projects are full on projects with task dependencies across multiple months of work.

Hi Keeley! First of all, let me say how much I appreciate this write up and the time you took to structure your feedback. This is fantastic, and it's amazing to see the effort teams put into sharing ideas, thoughts, and suggestions. It really helps us understand not only the actual request, but its nature and where it originates from too. I especially love the point about assigning services - this isn't something in the works just yet, but it's something we've had internal conversations about, and hearing your thought about it helps. As for swapping assignees in bulk, something I wanted to suggest in the meantime is searching for all tasks assigned to a specific user from the root of your account. To do this, click on your account name in the Navigation panel, select "Show Subfolders" from the three-dot menu, and then filter by assignee from there. I hope this helps at least a bit!