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Today, we’re diving into the deep end of a controversy that has been causing waves in the productivity world – ClickUp’s newest features, Conditional Logic and AI.
For those who are not in the know, ClickUp is a project management software that has been making waves since its launch in 2017. And just recently, they introduced two of their newest and most talked-about features – Conditional Logic and AI.
As a long-time ClickUp evangelist, user, coach, educator since 2018, and as a business owner and coach myself, I’ve seen firsthand how these features can make a significant impact on productivity and project management. But I also recognize the concerns raised by users about the pricing and implementation of these features. And I’m not here to brush these concerns aside.
In this open letter to ClickUp and ClickUp users, I want to explore both sides of the controversy, as well as share my personal take on the matter.
We’ll look at the potential benefits and drawbacks of using conditional logic as well as AI (and how other companies are charging for the same features).
So, grab a cup of coffee, tea, or whatever your preferred beverage is, and let’s get started!
Video Transcription:
Introduction to the ClickUp Controversy
[00:00:00] Yvonne Heimann: Let’s address the elephant in the room. The release of ClickUp’s AI and conditional logic for ClickUp Forms and ClickUp’s decision to price them. How they did that stirred up quite the controversy with ClickUp users. If you might not have seen ClickUp started releasing ClickUp 3.0 features. Yes. This is part of the 3.0 release.
ClickUp Controversy: AI and Conditional Logic
[00:00:24] Yvonne Heimann: The first one was Conditional Logic for ClickUp Forms, and the secondary that was released was ClickUp AI. Now, if you haven’t watched the videos, if you are new to ClickUp, let’s dive first into what those are. Then, we are going deep into the controversy that’s happening around them. Then, we dive into the actual concerns that are coming up and potential solutions at the end.
[00:00:54] Yvonne Heimann: So let’s start right in the beginning. Conditional logic.
How conditional logic works in ClickUp Forms
Conditional logic in [00:01:00] ClickUp Forms allows you to dive deeper. It’s not just one answer in the form. If that answer is a, you can add more questions to that. It conditionally allows you to add more questions and more to your question flow than just a straight standard, one answer, one path to fill out your form.
[00:01:26] Yvonne Heimann: ClickUp AI allows you to use AI within ClickUp with multiple different use case scenarios. And again, there’s videos on my channel about that. I will not dive much more deeper into this. Now, where the controversy comes in is ClickUp’s choice of where and to whom and to which ClickUp plans to offer these features.
Pricing
[00:01:53] Yvonne Heimann: Now, they chose AI to add it as an add-on [00:02:00] workspace-wide. Meaning, if you want ClickUp AI in your ClickUp workspace, you’re gonna have to pay $5 per user, and that is all full members within ClickUp. You do not have the choice which member gets AI or not. They all get them. Now, Conditional Logic and Forms is available in the Business Plus plan and above.
[00:02:26] Yvonne Heimann: Now that we have this standard, what’s happening and what are we even talking about out of the way, let me introduce yourself in case you are new here. I usually don’t do that in my YouTube videos, but it will help understand where I’m coming from. First of all, I am ClickUp’s startup evangelist. I am a user, a coach, and an educator of ClickUp since 2018.
[00:02:48] Yvonne Heimann: You pretty much could call me the OG of ClickUp. First one to talk about a YouTube, first one to work with ClickUp. I think I’m even the first affiliate back when it [00:03:00] was UTM links. However, I am also a business owner. I am also a business coach. I am also paying for ClickUp myself and not just one account, so I am kind of often sitting in between chairs where, yes, I do work closely with ClickUp. Yes, I do have a lot of connections. Yes, poor Zeb has me in his email inbox regularly, but I’m also a business owner. I also have to look at my budget. I also coach my clients run their business efficiently, as well as on a budget if it has to be.
[00:03:38] Yvonne Heimann: So here is where the concerns come in. I have seen a lot of users, and let me just get this out of the way, right away, especially in the Facebook group. People, if you just come to spread drama and just bitch and be like, hey, I’m gonna leave if you don’t change your pricing. Just leave. We are [00:04:00] not here to just be a victim and complain without specific ways of approaching and finding a solution that actually makes sense.
[00:04:11] Yvonne Heimann: So with that, I do hear you. I do understand where a lot of people that have submitted productive advice are coming from. I get that marketing potentially should have mentioned that Conditional Logic will be a higher plan feature, that AI is a paid add-on. Yes. Marketing over at ClickUp might have fallen a little bit short on that one.
[00:04:42] Yvonne Heimann: I’ll give you that. However, let’s look really closely into Conditional Logic first. Asana Business plan, which gives you that Conditional Logic.
ClickUp’s pricing strategy vs. other tools
They’re talking, they’re calling it something else, whatever they’re calling it. But the Asana Business plan that you have to have [00:05:00] to have Conditional Logic in their forms is $25.99 per user, per month if you pay annually. If you wanna pay monthly, it’s over 30 bucks. Monday Work Forms, 25 bucks per user if you pay annually and 30 if you pay monthly. Now, a lot of my users have used Typeform before. Typeform is 25 bucks for one user per month if you pay annually with a hundred responses. Or 50 per user per month, if you have three users for a thousand responses per month.
[00:05:33] Yvonne Heimann: Now, now think about this. Even if we pay annually, Asana is 25 bucks. Monday is 25 bucks. Typeform is 25 bucks. Yet, the ClickUp Business Plus plan is 29 bucks if you pay monthly and 19, if you pay any per full user. Monthly, 29 bucks, rather than just having [00:06:00] a form that allows for Conditional Logic. 25 bucks on Typeform. You are getting a project management tool and forms with conditional logic for 29 bucks a month.
[00:06:11] Yvonne Heimann: That’s when you pay monthly. Monday, 25 per user annually. They charge you 30 bucks a month, too. Asana charges you 30 bucks a month, too. How is this a conversation we are even having? I’m sorry. We cannot expect ClickUp to continuously deliver and do what we ask them to do if we are not willing to pay the bill. If you don’t want to use ClickUp Forms, Conditional Logic, go by Typeform, go by Gravity Forms, whatever you wanna do.
[00:06:47] Yvonne Heimann: There’s other solutions for you out there. However, if the idea, and here comes my business coach back. If the idea of paying, let’s just go by monthly because it’s the bigger budget. [00:07:00] Paying 29 bucks for a tool that helps you automate your task and workflow, that helps you automate your team, that helps you project management and task manage, as well as give you the conditional logic in the forms that you want, and 25 bucks for a full member is too much? You might gonna have to revisit your business budgeting and what you are charging your client. If that’s an issue, you are not charging enough. Tough love. Now that I’m done with this rant, and I might have lost a couple of you viewers. Self-reflection is not easy.
[00:07:37] Yvonne Heimann: Let’s talk about AI. Now, they chose, ‘they’ as in ClickUp, chose to go the route of it’s workspace-wide and it’s for every member. Meaning, every full member in ClickUp gets ClickUp AI if you turn it on for five bucks a month. So each member is an additional five bucks for ClickUp AI, [00:08:00] doesn’t matter which plan you are on. Now, ChatGPT is 20 bucks a month. Notion AI, by the way. Notion AI that a lot of people in the Facebook group have brought up as 10 bucks a month and just for other AI are even more expensive. Now, I do agree. I do agree wholeheartedly the idea of having to get all of my full members onto AI and not have a choice.
[00:08:28] Yvonne Heimann: I don’t like it either. I do not at all. And especially, my corporate clients that potentially have a team of 500 members. No, because only half of them are going to use it. They’d rather pay for ChatGPT on a user basis. I get it. Now, do I know why ClickUp made this choice to go that way? No. I assume it is a marketing strategy and it is a way to establish themself to offer AI Unlimited. [00:09:00] Now, yes, you can pop into my comment section and can go crazy about marketing and things. Let’s be honest. We are humans. We react to marketing. Just look at the craze that we have right now with ClickUp 3.0. No matter if we wanna admit it or not, marketing works. Market differentiator works. ClickUp needs to be out there and they need to do the marketing to get a big market share. That’s the world we live in today. So choosing unlimited AI access as a market differentiator would make complete sense. However, to me as a user, I don’t think it was a good choice.
[00:09:46] Yvonne Heimann: I already mentioned if I am a big team, if I have 500 members, I am not gonna sign up for AI. The other problem is also I work with a lot of content creators. I also work with a lot of content creators that [00:10:00] create content for other content creators. Video editing, you might have seen it in my Instagram Story.
[00:10:05] Yvonne Heimann: I just finished a setup for a short form video agency that we are running through ClickUp. Now, he, with his clients, brainstorms video ideas directly in ClickUp in a document. Guests can’t use ClickUp AI, can they? I don’t know. Not to my knowledge. So with this approach, we either way have to go all or nothing.
[00:10:33] Yvonne Heimann: If we are working in a setup like my short form agency. Our guests can’t use it to brainstorm their video ideas and get prepped for them to record the videos and get them edited. And big corporations are not gonna turn it on because I’m not gonna pay for 500 seats on the AI to be able to use it, where potentially even just 20 people are using it.
[00:10:57] Yvonne Heimann: So with that, to wrap this up nicely [00:11:00] with the bow, I hear you. I understand you. However, we cannot expect to get a tool that does it all without paying for it all. Do the math. Even if you are going Business Plus, you don’t need Typeform. You don’t need another tool. It completely replaces another subscription.
[00:11:23] Yvonne Heimann: And if you can’t afford that, again, look at your pricing structure on what you’re charging your clients. There might be a good chance you are not charging enough. And with AI, be assured, I am in the inbox already. Again, I don’t think this was a smart decision to structure it how it is now. I do not have all the information.
[00:11:47] Yvonne Heimann: I have not gotten information why the decision was made as it was, so I only have to assume it was to use it as a market [00:12:00] differentiator. Make sure to Subscribe. Actually, the button is gonna be here. I will keep you updated on what’s happening with all of that. How ClickUp might adjust or not adjust.
[00:12:12] Yvonne Heimann: If you are interested in AI, I have a full on playlist there for you and stay tuned. Again, Subscribe and hit that bell because I will also be doing videos and early onset first looks about ClickUp 3.0 and I hope I see you there.
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