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Design a Family-focused Task Management App Competing with Todoist

Product Design · beginner

You are tasked with designing a task management app specifically aimed at families to differentiate and compete with Todoist. You notice that while Todoist caters well to individual productivity, there's an opportunity to better serve families looking for a shared task space. The challenge is to ensure the app's design enhances collaboration without simply duplicating Todoist’s features. You have access to a team of three developers for one month. What design approach would you prioritize to make the app stand out, considering the specific needs of families? Choose only one design element to focus on.

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Community approaches

Alfiya’s approach

  1. Core User Need for Family Task Management Todoist is built for a single professional managing a personal backlog, not a household with shared responsibilities. A family has very diverse users like young children, parents who may or may not be tech-savvy, teenagers, and grandparents. Todoist assumes every single collaborator is a solo power user on their own device with their own account.

In a real home, families need a central place to delegate chores, track pocket money, manage shared shopping (like quickly adding "bring milk"), and share quick updates so nobody is left wondering (like posting "Don't cook dinner for me, I’m going to be late"). The core need is a shared space where the whole family can view and manage their household life together without extra friction.

  1. Selected Design Focus & Justification Focus Element: A single shared household account with age-appropriate views. Why prioritize this (3 Devs / 1 Month): Instead of building complex multi-account invite flows, we focus entirely on one central home account where everyone sees a view tailored to their age.

Kids' View: Simple visual chore cards and pocket money trackers.

Parents' View: Detailed planning boards for groceries, bills, EMIs, and scheduling.

This fits our 1-month constraint because 3 developers only need to build one core shared database with two simple interface templates.

  1. Features & Structures to Enhance Collaboration Chore-to-Reward Loop: When a child finishes a task on their simple card view, they mark it done. The parent gets an update to approve it and instantly assign an actual reward (like an extra 10 minutes of TV/iPad time or pocket money).

Cross-Member Shared Requests: One family member creates an item (e.g., adding milk to the shopping list or posting an update), and another family member views and resolves it at the store.

  1. Justification Against Todoist’s Current Offerings Eliminates Registration Complexity: In Todoist, if you want to share a project, every other person has to create their own separate account and log in. Our product eliminates that gap, only one person registers the household, which removes all onboarding hassle for kids and grandparents.

Family Dynamic vs. Solo Work Tool: Todoist focuses heavily on personal work tasks and text lists. Our app is built around real family context, giving children simple visual cards and parents oversight of household bills and errands.

Real Rewards vs. Abstract Karma: Todoist Karma gives abstract productivity points for solo streaks. In our app, when a child completes a chore, it connects directly to tangible family incentives that parents actually approve and give.