Your complete guide to the TaskFlow product

What is TaskFlow?

TaskFlow is a project management SaaS for remote teams. Think Asana meets Linear - beautiful like Linear, functional like Asana, but built specifically for how remote teams work.

Core Value Proposition

For remote teams who struggle with scattered work and unclear priorities, TaskFlow is a project management tool that provides context-rich task management and async collaboration. Unlike Asana (complex, expensive) or Trello (too simple), TaskFlow balances simplicity with power, at 50% lower cost.

Product Philosophy

Key Principles

1. Async-first design

• No real-time coordination required
• Rich context on every task
• Updates work across timezones
• Comments replace meetings

2. Context over status

• Every task answers: What? Why? Who? When? How?
• No cryptic task titles
• Full background always attached
• Reduces whats this about? questions

3. Speed matters

• Sub-second page loads
• Keyboard shortcuts everywhere
• No loading spinners
• Instant search

4. Opinionated with escape hatches

• Strong defaults (workflows that work)
• Flexibility when needed
• Not overwhelming with options

5. Beautiful and functional

• Design quality matters
• UI guides users to success
• Delightful micro-interactions

Core Features

1. Task Management

What users can do:

• Create tasks with rich descriptions (markdown support)
• Assign to team members
• Set due dates, priorities, tags
• Add attachments, links, context
• Subtasks for complex work
• Custom fields (text, number, select, date)

Our differentiation:

• Context cards: Every task has built-in space for context (why, background, decisions)
• Rich descriptions: Full markdown, embeds, code blocks
• Smart defaults: Priority, owner, due date auto-suggested based on patterns

2. Projects & Organization

What users can do:

• Create projects (collections of tasks)
• Multiple views: List, Board (Kanban), Calendar, Timeline (Gantt)
• Filter and sort tasks
• Saved views (custom filters)
• Project templates

Our differentiation:

• View memory: Tool remembers your preferred view per project
• Smart filters: Natural language (My tasks due this week)
• Project status: Auto-calculated based on task completion

3. Collaboration

What users can do:

• Comment on tasks (threaded discussions)
• @mention team members
• React with emojis
• Subscribe to task updates
• Activity feed (whats happening)

Our differentiation:

• Comment summaries: AI-generated summary of long threads
• Decision tracking: Mark comments as Decision (findable later)
• Context preservation: Every update includes full context

4. Notifications

What users can do:

• Email, in-app, Slack, mobile notifications
• Granular preferences (what to get notified about)
• Digest mode (batched notifications)
• Snooze notifications

Our differentiation:

• Smart batching: Multiple updates → one notification
• Contextual notifications: Includes enough context to act without clicking
• Timezone aware: Notifications only during work hours

5. Integrations

What users can do:

• Slack: Post updates, create tasks, get notifications
• GitHub: Link PRs to tasks, auto-update status
• Figma: Embed designs, link to tasks
• Google Drive: Attach docs, preview in-app
• Calendar: Sync due dates (Google Cal, Outlook)

Our differentiation:

• Two-way sync: Changes in TaskFlow update connected tools
• Context flow: Integrations pull in context automatically

6. Reporting & Analytics

What users can do:

• Team velocity (tasks completed over time)
• Cycle time (time to complete)
• Burndown charts
• Custom reports (filter by anything)
• Export to CSV

Our differentiation:

• Automatic insights: Team velocity decreased 20% - investigate
• Predictive analytics: At current pace, project will finish 3 days late

User Personas (Detailed)

Persona 1: Sarah (Enterprise Admin)

Demographics:

• Age: 35-45
• Role: IT Admin / Operations Lead
• Company: 500+ employees
• Location: Remote (various)

Goals:

• Centralize tools (reduce tool sprawl)
• Ensure security and compliance
• Control access and permissions
• Reduce costs

Pain Points:

• Teams using 20+ tools (scattered work)
• No visibility into whats happening
• Security concerns (who has access to what?)
• Hard to onboard new employees (too many tools)

Jobs to be Done:

• When a new employee joins, consolidate their tool access in one place
• When auditors ask for access logs, provide comprehensive audit trail
• When evaluating tools, ensure they meet enterprise security standards

TaskFlow Features They Love:

• SSO (Single Sign-On) integration
• Advanced permissions (role-based access)
• Audit logs (who did what, when)
• Admin dashboard (org-wide visibility)
• Bulk user management

Quote: I need to know who has access to what, and I need to be able to revoke it instantly if someone leaves.

Persona 2: Mike (IC Engineer)

Demographics:

• Age: 25-35
• Role: Individual Contributor Engineer
• Company: 50-200 employees (startup)
• Location: Remote (global)

Goals:

• Clear task assignments (what to work on)
• Minimize context switching
• Deep work time (no interruptions)
• Simple, fast tools

Pain Points:

• Unclear priorities (whats most important?)
• Meetings interrupt focus time
• Task descriptions lack technical detail
• Slow, bloated tools

Jobs to be Done:

• When starting work, quickly see whats highest priority
• When blocked, easily communicate blockers without meetings
• When finishing a task, immediately see whats next

TaskFlow Features They Love:

• Keyboard shortcuts (navigate without mouse)
• GitHub integration (PRs linked to tasks)
• Rich markdown (code blocks, technical detail)
• Fast performance (no lag)
• Clean, minimal UI

Quote: Just tell me what to build, give me the context, and let me focus. Dont make me hunt for information.

Persona 3: Alex (Team Lead)

Demographics:

• Age: 30-40
• Role: Engineering Manager / Team Lead
• Company: 100-500 employees
• Location: Remote (various)

Goals:

• Team visibility (whos working on what)
• Identify blockers early
• Balanced workload (no one overloaded)
• Predictable delivery

Pain Points:

• Hard to see team capacity
• Blockers discovered too late
• Standup meetings waste time
• Team members overloaded or underutilized

Jobs to be Done:

• When planning a sprint, see team capacity and assign work accordingly
• When someone is blocked, identify it without asking in meetings
• When reporting to leadership, show team progress clearly

TaskFlow Features They Love:

• Team dashboard (everyones tasks at a glance)
• Workload view (whos overloaded)
• Blocked task visibility (red flags)
• Sprint reports (velocity, burndown)
• Comment summaries (catch up on discussions quickly)

Quote: I need to know if my team is on track without having to ask them individually every day.

Product Roadmap (Simplified)

Already Shipped (Current Product)

✅ Core task management ✅ Projects with multiple views ✅ Comments and @mentions ✅ Basic integrations (Slack, GitHub) ✅ Email notifications ✅ Custom fields ✅ Search ✅ Mobile web (responsive)

In Progress (Q4 2024 - Q1 2025)

🚧 Mobile apps (iOS and Android native) 🚧 SSO integration (SAML, OAuth) 🚧 Advanced permissions (role-based access control) 🚧 Audit logs (compliance, enterprise) 🚧 Improved onboarding (templates, tours)

Planned (Q2-Q3 2025)

📅 Dark mode (user-requested feature) 📅 Time tracking (hours logged per task) 📅 Resource management (capacity planning) 📅 Custom workflows (status transitions, automations) 📅 API v2 (better integrations)

Research Phase (Exploring)

🔬 AI features (smart task suggestions, auto-categorization) 🔬 Whiteboarding (visual collaboration) 🔬 Goals & OKRs (strategic planning) 🔬 Portfolio management (multiple projects)

Product Metrics

North Star Metric

Weekly Active Teams - Teams that complete at least one task per week

Why this metric?

• Indicates real usage (not just logins)
• Measures team collaboration (not individual)
• Leading indicator of retention
• Correlates with revenue

Current: 850 weekly active teams Goal (Q1 2025): 1,200 weekly active teams

Product Health Metrics

Activation:

• Definition: User completes first task within 7 days of signup
• Current: 45%
• Target: 60%
• Why it matters: Activated users are 5x more likely to become paying customers

Retention:

• Definition: % of users active in month N who are active in month N+1
• Current: 65%
• Target: 75%
• Why it matters: Retention drives LTV (lifetime value)

Time to Value:

• Definition: Time from signup to first task completed
• Current: 45 minutes (median)
• Target: 15 minutes
• Why it matters: Faster value = higher activation

Viral Coefficient:

• Definition: Average invites sent per user × invite acceptance rate
• Current: 1.2 (barely viral)
• Target: 1.5+ (truly viral)
• Why it matters: Viral growth reduces CAC (customer acquisition cost)

Pricing & Packaging

Current Plans

Free Plan:

• Up to 10 users
• Unlimited tasks and projects
• Basic integrations
• 7-day activity history
• Community support

Pro Plan ($12/user/month):

• Unlimited users
• Unlimited activity history
• Advanced integrations
• Custom fields
• Priority support
• Advanced reporting

Enterprise Plan (Custom pricing):

• Everything in Pro
• SSO (SAML, OAuth)
• Advanced permissions
• Audit logs
• Dedicated support
• SLA guarantees
• Custom contracts

Competitive Pricing

Our strategy: Competitive on price, better on value.

Technology Stack

Frontend:

• React + TypeScript
• Tailwind CSS
• React Query (data fetching)
• WebSockets (real-time updates)

Backend:

• Node.js + Express
• PostgreSQL (primary database)
• Redis (caching, sessions)
• S3 (file storage)

Infrastructure:

• AWS (hosting)
• CloudFront (CDN)
• Terraform (infrastructure as code)

Mobile:

• React Native (iOS and Android)
• Shared backend APIs

Product Principles in Action

Example: How we built Comments

Principle: Async-first

• Rich text editor (not just plain text)
• Threading (organized discussions)
• Email integration (reply via email)
• Notification digests (not interrupt-driven)

Principle: Context over status

• Comments stay attached to task (never orphaned)
• Quote specific parts of previous comments
• Mark decisions explicitly (findable later)

Principle: Speed matters

• Comments load instantly (optimistic UI)
• Keyboard shortcut to add comment (Cmd+Shift+C)
• No page reload needed

Result: 80% of teams use comments daily (high engagement)

Your Projects This Quarter

As the Senior PM for Activation & Onboarding, youre working on:

Project 1: Onboarding Redesign

• Goal: Increase activation from 45% → 60%
• Timeline: Q1 2025
• Status: In progress

Project 2: Dark Mode

• Goal: Ship most-requested feature
• Timeline: Q1 2025
• Status: PRD complete, starting dev

Project 3: Template Library

• Goal: Faster time to value
• Timeline: Q2 2025
• Status: Research phase

Product Documentation

All product documentation lives in:

• Notion: Product specs, PRDs, research
• Figma: Designs, mockups, design system
• GitHub: Technical specs, API docs
• TaskFlow: Roadmap, feature tracking (we dogfood!)

Throughout this course, youll write PRDs, generate user stories, analyze research, and plan features for TaskFlow. Youre not learning in a vacuum - youre working on a real (fictional) product! 🎯