New in Basecamp: Card Tables

Card Tables are a brand-new tool for your projects. You may have used cards and columns (sometimes called Kanban) elsewhere—they’re a great way to visualize workflows. You'll find that Card Tables are immediately familiar, but filled with unique ideas to help you and your teams.

The best way to get a feel for Card Tables is to try them. Visit a project, click ••• in the top-right corner, pick “Change Tools,” and then flip the switch for Card Table. Card Tables are available in our mobile apps, too—just update to the latest version.

Add cards to Triage 1️⃣ at the top. It's a great place for ideas, questions, bugs, and other things you might do, but haven't decided to do. Triage also has a special Not Now column 2️⃣ for things you decide not to prioritize, but don't want to lose.

When something is a yes, drag it from Triage to a column below. That's where the work happens.

You move cards from left to right through the columns. A newsletter might start in the Ideas column and move through In Progress and Editing before its published. Those columns are up to you and unique to each project. Add as many as you like, customize their colors, and rearrange them if needed.

You can add an On Hold section 3️⃣ to a column to put stuff that’s blocked or paused for the moment. This keeps the work in context even when it's not moving forward.

To stay on top of things, watch the columns 4️⃣ that are relevant to you. Watch Triage to know when new things are added, or maybe your part in the process starts when cards are moved to the QA or Editing column.

When a card is finished, drop it in the Done column 5️⃣ where all your progress is captured.

Like everything in Basecamp, each card has a page where you can discuss, attach notes, add files and images, etc.

Card Tables aren't a replacement for To-dos or another way to visualize them—they're for working in a different way. Mix and match To-dos and Card Tables however works best for you.

Here’s a quick video walkthrough of Card Tables and how we use them at 37signals.

We've been using and honing Card Tables for the past few months and it's already essential to how we work. It's helped us prioritize bug fixes, plan support articles, decide what to build next, and much more.

We're thrilled to share this new tool with you and can't wait to see how you use it. Thanks as always for being a Basecamp customer!