tags : product management
These are notes from this youtube video , while I was trying to learn how to use linear for a project I am working on.
General
- linear is a issue tracker but the problem it tries to solve is project management which is the real problem companies face
- usually other project management tools are made for any projects, linear is specifically made for software companies
- existing tools felt like the user was fighting against them, don’t feel like they are supporting your workflow, more like you’re just recording things to generate a report later
- Craft x Impact = Great products
- Some people start measuring things too early. There are things we should measure like is the needle moving or no. But sometimes quality might not be measurable yet.
- Craft: Quality, Interactions, Design, Brand, Delight, Ease, Clarity, Animations
- Impact: Usefulness, Moving the needle, metrics, user value, business value, Strategy, focus
- Concentrate on what will produce results rather than on the results, the process rather than the prize. The score takes care of itself.
- Sometimes teams try to measure too much
- Sometimes they’ll focus too much how they work
- If you build a team which values the right things, they should produce the right kind of results
Principles (applies to linear)
- Build for creators
- Sometimes companies build product for the buyers and not for the end-users, linear does not do that
- Opinionated software
- vs Flexible software. There is always some trade off.
- Linear feels like there are certain ways which produces best results
- Create momentum, don’t sprint
- Meaningful direction
- Aim for clarity
- Say no to “busy work”
- Simple first, then powerful
- Decide and move on
How they do it
- They try to keep the project at max 4 weeks and not months.
- They apply theme for the Quarter : What is the next step we trying to get to
- 10 people run linear(the entire team)
- 6 eng (Also do design)
- 2 PM
- 1 Recruiter
- 1 Contract
- Product so good that people will use it anyway
- Not focusing on educating users as of the moment but they feel they can be more helpful
Features
- Cycles help you stay focused on the work for the week, changing directions too much is not good
- They don’t care about how many points they’re making but they care about if they’re making progress
Notes for myself
- Different projects should go as different workspaces, teams should go as teams, bigger tasks should go as projects