Paws for Trello was Lumi's own product: a native desktop app for Trello, built because we needed it ourselves. In 2016, Trello had no official desktop app and the third-party options were poor. We saw the gap, and three weeks later the first version was live on the Mac App Store.

What started as a side project quickly became the best-rated Trello desktop client on the market. We shipped constant updates driven by user feedback, expanded to Windows (becoming the first Electron app in the Microsoft Store), and built features like Quick Add that pushed Trello beyond what the browser could do. Fourteen months after launch, Atlassian's M&A team got in touch. The app was acquired, announced on stage at Atlassian Summit 2017, and still serves as the foundation of Trello Desktop today, used by over 3 million people.

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Delivering the best Trello experience for desktopThe challenge was finding the balance between deep desktop OS integration and the simplicity of the Trello experience people already loved. We handled the important things in the background (notifications, performance, stability) while keeping the interface clean and familiar.

At the core of the Paws app was the familiar Trello experience users knew from the browser. That was our main strength, but also the main point of constructive feedback. Encouraged by the overwhelmingly positive response to the improvements we made in initial versions, we decided to explore the question: “How far can we push the web technology and how close can we bring Trello to a native desktop experience?”

Users quickly recognised Paws for Trello as the best available Trello desktop app. With a warm reception from the early-adopter community on Product Hunt, over 10,000 purchases of the app and a steady rating of 4.6+ stars, it was by far the best-rated and most popular desktop client for Trello.

We didn't stop at the release. Instead, we kept on improving and expanding the product, adding countless bug fixes and performance enhancements, based on user feedback. This work culminated in a 2.0 release where we took a big step beyond the web app and added new, unique features. The biggest one was Quick Add: the ability to add a card to any Trello board with a simple keyboard shortcut. This made Trello feel at home on the desktop and made our app truly stand out.

At the 2.0 milestone, we also released the app on Windows, and became the first Electron app in the Windows Store, just weeks after there were tools to allow that. This no doubt played the part in what happened next...

After Atlassian acquired Trello in early 2017, we were uncertain about the app's future. We knew that Atlassian's CEO was using our app - he reported bugs on Twitter, which we promptly fixed. A few months later, their M&A team got in touch interested in acquiring the app. The process went smoothly and we helped transfer the app, working with key engineers at Atlassian and Trello.

With the process complete, Trello Desktop was introduced on stage during the Atlassian Summit 2017. It quickly became a mainstay on the main screens of the Apple App Store and Microsoft Store, heavily featured as one of the best productivity apps. The app also became a finalist of Microsoft Build 2018, nominated for an Innovation award.

The app we imagined, designed & developed is still the basis of Trello Desktop today. It is currently used by 3+ million people.