After being acquired by the famous software development company Atlassian for $425 million, Trello project management app became one of the most widely used applications in the world. But what are the secrets behind its success? The CEO of this project provides us with answers.

In his definition of this application, Michael Pryor, the CEO and co-founder of Trello, stated that “this app is considered a tool that allows you to organize your project (whether it’s a wedding or a marketing program for the company) visually. So far, around 22 million people have created accounts on Trello. Its platform was developed by Fog Creek before it was launched at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in 2011. Atlassian, the Australian company, then acquired Trello for $425 million. Currently, the company has around 100 employees, 60 percent of whom work remotely.”

Speaking about how the platform works, Michael Pryor explained that Trello allows you to see all stages of your project, whether those you have completed or those you are still in the process of doing, in order to ensure the smooth execution of the project. Initially, you just need to create a board and add multiple “cards” as you wish. These cards can include to-do lists, attached files, notes, tags, and so on. Finally, since Trello is a tool that can provide you with assistance, you can invite many people to join your board.

For his part, Michael Pryor spoke about the main uses of this application, stating that “we let our members use Trello however they like. From this perspective, some people use it to plan a trip with friends, while others use it to organize buying a house. For example, Twitter used our app to publish a roadmap for future improvements to their API platform. After the attacks that occurred in Brussels, some parties relied on Trello to identify victims and survivors.

Regarding the business model of this app, the CEO indicated that in addition to the limited free offering, the app offers a premium version and a custom offering for large companies. It is noteworthy that 90 percent of members use Trello at work, while 50 percent use it for personal matters. This means that 40 percent of users use this product both at work and in their daily lives.

Often, this situation is ideal for transforming the app from a free app to a paid one. Moreover, the user base can be significantly expanded to achieve this, just as WhatsApp did. In contrast, it is worth noting that achieving similar wide fame is quite complex for a productivity app. It is also notable that among this company’s French clients, for instance, is BlaBlaCar.

In fact, more than half of this company’s employees work remotely. In this regard, Michael Pryor stated that “this decision was not made arbitrarily. Like many companies, we initially faced the issue of one of our collaborators leaving, who had to move from the city where the company is based. Based on our desire to retain this element, we adapted to his remote work.”

Over time, other employees needed to distance themselves from the company's offices, for one reason or another. However, this work pattern can be relied upon if the company wishes to retain or hire exceptionally talented individuals who do not necessarily live close to the workplace.

Regarding the goals of this business management project, Michael Pryor mentioned that the integration of Trello with other applications will continue, just like its integration with Teams (the solution created by Microsoft to compete with Slack). The project owners also wish to accelerate its pace of spread, especially in Japan.

In this context, Pryor stated that “as the managers of this project, we know our product is good, so our current priority is to make it known and encourage its use among as many people as possible. I believe our initial goal of reaching the largest number of users is becoming achievable, even though the road ahead is still long. However, with good governance, I believe we can achieve that within the next three to four years.”

———————————————–

Source: Journal du Net

Interviewer: Adrian Tsagliotis