Best Approach to Solution-Building

Hey all!

I’m coming from Notion world, so I’m used to having a handful of very large databases (e.g., one huge “Task” database) and just creating a bunch of filtered linked databases from there. But, with the “My Work” section in SmartSuite, it seems like there’s more flexibility to break apart things like task lists (e.g., having a task list in my Business HQ solution and one in my Client Work solution). However, it feels like I’m breaking some unspoken rule doing this, and I’m wondering if that’s actually the best way to set it up. Should I do it this way, or just keep 4-5 "mega" databases (e.g., SmartSuite apps) with a number of filtered views for internal projects, client projects, etc.?

Garrett Clawson both approaches could be a solution and there's no extreme right or wrong, rather of which model fits your need the most.
You will need to take into account, the redundant fields, data quantity, types (task types in your case), and more details to decide what's best for you.

For example, if you have two entities, 1) employees and 2) clients that have a lot in common but also have a lot of differences, you may have a single app/table and call in contacts and add an extra field "Contact Type" and use views to separate them, or have two separate apps.
In this case, I try to understand how many of the fields are common vs unique to each type, and what use cases I have.

In your case, I think you better have all the tasks in a single app, not for replacing the MyWork or just visibility, but for a better structure later to connect to a dashboard and easily analyze your data.

For example, if you need to understand how many tasks are Business HQ tasks vs client work, it would be easily displayed in a pie chart in the dashboard by grouping by task type, whereas having them in separate apps would be challenging for analyzing such data.

For either model you go with, the MyWork section can still be useful.