☕ The Blend - Issue #6

Welcome to the Issue #6 of The Blend ☕!

In this issue, you will read about the learnings I’ve discovered while using Linear as the project management tool.

Introduction

For years I’ve been using Jira when working with bigger projects or bigger development teams. Jira was a go-to platform for almost everyone I knew who was managing more complex projects.

A little disclaimer… I am a perfectionist when it comes to the work organisation, as well as desk organisation - I always have to have my virtual and real desk clean, and I even have a huge pet peeve when my Downloads folder gets a little messy 😬… anyone who has seen Jira or worked with it, knows, it’s really easy to turn it into a big pile of 💩 when you don’t keep it in boundaries (especially when it comes to status, and workflows).

The transition

When I’ve joined Hinterview in 2020 they’ve been using a piece of software called Hygger which was a Kanban board very similar to Trello, but on ‘steroids’. Mostly it was doing the thing it was meant to be doing, but was very frustrating for me as a manager - hard to easily report on the work, and impossible to manage the backlog with 🤦🏻‍♂️… As I already had a couple of years of experience using Jira, it was a natural way of evolution for me.

I’ve set up everything on a side, migrated all tickets from Hygger to Jira, kept Hygger for couple of more months to make sure I didn’t miss anything important.

There it was… a clean, fresh, setup the way I like, quite easily (and most of the time painfree) adopted by the team… I as please with the change, we’ve onboarded different teams as well (OPS and CS), started using Confluence as the internal knowledge base and product documentation… I was improving the workflows, introducing automations, to cut down on the friction even more, trying to make life easier for me and developers.

Everything was almost perfect… there was one big PAIN I’ve had… over the years Jira became this behemoth app, with TONS of views, customizations… but it also got really slooooooooow 🦥… I think they’ve tried to become this one-size-fits-all app.

The reality started to look very different…

Being part of couple of different communities and Slack groups, I’ve been exposed to different perspectives, tools and opinions. This where I’ve heard this name for the first time Linear… as I love exploring new apps, methods, tools, I’ve jumped right in to test.

It took around 5min and I immediately knew this is going to be a game changer when it comes to project management. Easy Jira import, couple of clicks, desktop application (by far the most important thing)… I was instantly sold ❤️

I remember the day, I’ve sent this message to the team👇🏻

Since then all pain related to project management where gone . Linear is the tool is created by people who built amazing things in the past (Airbnb, Coinbase), and know what “great looks like”.

🎨 Design - it’s beautiful

I know, design is a very subjective thing, one can love what other hates. For me personally, the design of the application is crucial and I simply like to work with the software that is aesthetic. The level of details they are thinking about, is contained in this one tweet:

Design and development craft in that product is on a TOP level.

⚡ Speed - it’s insanely fast

If you’ve ever worked with Jira you probably now the pain of endlessly loading screen when you want to jump from page to another. This is not the case when it comes to Linear.

The time you’re getting back is worth the hassle of migration (which by the way is super easy, with just couple of clicks).

⚙️ Workflow - super easy to use and ties into your current tech stack

For me, customizability of Linear vs Jira is similar in my opinion to iOS vs Android.

If you don’t want to adjust it to your very specific needs, it works great straight out-of-the-box, but if you want to dig in, you’re more than welcome to.

It’s integrated with dozens of apps, and I’d be really surprised if you’ll be able to find even one app, from your tools stack, that it is not connected with.

Personally I am using the integration with:

1. Github

2. Slack

3. Swarmia

4. Raycast

5. Figma

What I really appreciate about Linear is that they also want to impact how software is being developed. They have a set of principles and practices they strive for (you check them out here). What resonates with me is their way for doing cycles, following their docs:

Changing the perception of a “sprint” 🏃🏻‍♂️ to a cycle ♻️ and creating a momentum, feels more natural and is better for your mental health - as you no longer have to constantly run (sprint) towards the goal, but instead you create a momentum and a healthy routine of work cycles.

📊 Reporting - easy as 1, 2, 3…

One of the superpowers that Linear gives you, is the ability to filter EVERYTHING and access your data from every possible angle. You can then create separate views and assign them to a sidebar (by assigning them to favourites ⭐). Combining all that filtering power with the performance of the app - makes it a pleasure to work with.

You even have the ability to create Roadmaps inside of it:

From the project delivery point of view, Linear is giving me insight, no other tool has ever given me.

⏲️ Productivity - keyboard shortcuts and much more

Everything I’ve described above is just a tip of the mountain but Linear let’s you easily be “1% better each day”, and the team is going to love it 🙂.

What is super cool, especially for people like me, who love productivity and optimizations, is the fact that Linear is created with keyboard-only usage in mind. Everything has it’s own keyboard shortcut, and that approach let’s you FLY 🚀 through the work.

🏁 Closing speech

Let me say one thing out loud - tools are just tools, and they won’t do the job for you. While for me Linear was a total game changer, and made my job 100x faster, it does not mean it will do the same for you and your workflow. I wanted to show you, that in a particular environment, it might give you a lot. Nonetheless I still highly encourage you to try it for yourself - as I strongly believe you may gain a lot.

If you’d like to know more, let me know, ping me with questions - I’d be more than happy to share my knowledge.

I hope I’ve earned the privilege of your time,

Marcin