Our awesome power-up for Trello helps you better manage big projects

Hello Epics lets you make cards for smaller tasks, breaking down larger projects into more manageable pieces

We loved using Trello to manage our work, but we wished the tool broke down larger projects into smaller tasks that could be more easily tracked.

Envisioning a better way to organize subtasks and see work progress, we created Hello Epics, a power-up for Trello that lets you make parent/child cards for major projects.

This easy subscription upgrade seamlessly integrates to any Trello board to give you a clear, clean visual on everything that needs to be done, especially those smaller to-do cards that may have previously been lost in the shuffle.

Powering up Trello

Developing Hello Epics presented some unique challenges. We knew that the power-up would have to improve workflows and project management by simplifying card relationships within Trello rather than with a more cumbersome web browser plug-in. People would have to easily see how cards are related, identify work streams, and better track a project’s overall progress. It also had to be a light lift on browser footprints and servers.

Our goal was to design Hello Epics to be intuitive and immediately accessible to Trello users by conforming to the project manager’s interface. That familiarity removes the need for extensive onboarding, an approach Trello supported.

Using Trello’s robust, open-source application programming interface (API), our developers extended Hello Epics from the existing Trello platform. This allowed the Trello community to seamlessly integrate our power-up with other Trello products and enhance existing functionality. Using the power of Hello Epics and these other power-ups, Trello users have the ability to customize boards to the way they work.

As an addition to Trello, we also wanted to keep our browser footprint minimal. We used Preact, a smaller, more focused alternative to React. On the “server” side of things, we used AWS Lambda, which runs code on demand without full server overhead, keeping our running costs a non-issue even as Hello Epics scales.

As the product was being prepped for release, the Hello Epics team also spent time developing a robust pricing strategy, surveying potential users, interviewing other Trello power-up developers, and modeling various revenue models.

Launching to acclaim

We launched Hello Epics to great fanfare from Trello. After weeks of beta testing, we had 1,300 trials during the first week, and 4,200 Trello boards were using Hello Epics after week one. Trello liked it so much, they shared it with their audience.

“The team at Substantial, a digital product studio in Seattle, was feeling this exact pinch and thank goodness they did, because their new Hello Epics power-up tackles this card dependency problem with gusto,” Trello wrote on their blog.

Our other clients are also showing appreciation for the Hello Epics power-up.

“Hello Epics helped us not only to organize our Trello board but to be the most productive with it,” said Jason Persin, Mercedes-Benz, R&D North America.

The Hello Epics power-up is now available from Trello.

Do you need a partner who can provide end-to-end digital products that make a lasting impact? See what we can do for you. Find us at substantial.com or reach out directly at newbusiness@substantial.com