Having built entire products with a wall of index cards, I firmly believe that fancy project management tools are generally an expensive distraction, especially for startups.
Here's an uber-board that my cofounder and I built:
In retrospect, it may have been a little excessive; I don't think the backlog needed to be that large. But there wasn't a lot of harm having it, and it made everybody feel better to know that their nice ideas were all in the backlog somewhere.
That's a really nice one, thanks for sharing :) and I really like your philosophy too.
I agree that a physical artifact is good:) and easily customizable (no code needed, cross-browser and everything :P ).
I wonder if some sort of screen could be a replacement (a screen showing a Trello board?).
I remember seeing some guys having a physical gauge showing server requests, and saying it was really satisfying and much better than having it on a screen (can't find the link).
I encourage everybody to start with a physical board for a while. There are a lot of subtle benefits to it.
For example, everybody learned how to work this by about second grade. So when you say, "Good idea, add that to the backlog" or "If you're going to start working on that, move it to 'working'", people know how to work an index card. They also understand how to modify it. People will spontaneously start using card colors, post-it flags, and marks on the cards to express things that are important to them. And if somebody thinks a new column is needed, they can just add it.
Another big advantage is that everyone can see what's happening. If everybody's near the same physical board, you know when people are even thinking about the plan, because they naturally go and stand by it. A lot of good conversation happens naturally that way.
Once people have gotten the magic of a physical board, I'm fine if they decide that something digital really meets their needs better. But we as technology people are inclined to go for a technological solution right away.
Here's an uber-board that my cofounder and I built:
https://www.quora.com/Startups/Which-is-the-best-To-Do-List-...
In retrospect, it may have been a little excessive; I don't think the backlog needed to be that large. But there wasn't a lot of harm having it, and it made everybody feel better to know that their nice ideas were all in the backlog somewhere.