@JamesGrugett has encouraged us to switch to linear.app. I think this is bad.
linear PROS
fast! fast!! fast!!!
has a command palette, and is all around easy to use
@JamesGrugett and @IngaWe seem to like linear, probably @Austin too, but no one loves Notion for task tracking except me.
linear CONS
initial switching cost
learninging cost
moving all of the tasks over from the previous board, or lose them
context switching
harder to link and create new tickets from the meeting notes
if we don't move all the tasks over unclear where to search for stuff, and will have to tab over, harder to link to old tasks
more prescriptive in how the site is used. like idk how to do a priority vs time chart in linear. (maybe I just don't know how yet though)
Also, it just doesn't seem to me that we're blocked on the meta process of addressing bugs or building features? Most of our time is spent on object level work. A 10x better notion for tasks would only save us like 1.01x as much work time. Our users care primarily about more relevant markets, not about having 1000 fiddly things fixed. Insofar as improving the meta matters, the highest leverage is in improving the product direction and priority of projects, like homepage vs group, not pixel push group this way or improve group speed that way. The latter is important but we already prioritize those things well. Insofar as we have an appetite for chasing shiny new tools that we all have to switch to, I'd rather see replace our meeting tools over our task tools.
Anyways, I'm going to try to become a power user of linear this week and I bet that I'll still think switching is a bad idea. fwiw after 5 seconds of using it I think its a great tool that I would've loved to use from the start.
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I like the command palette. I think the project management tools are promising. I think James finds it much more easy to see what everyone is working on, compared to using notion.
I don't find the github integration thaat useful yet since you still have to look up the ticket anyways.
Overall, my opinion hasn't changed much. It's not much better than notion, so personally I don't think switching was worth it.
We are going to try it for another week, but my question was just about last week, so I'm resolving this NO even though I think there's a good chance I'll support using it a week from now because most of the switching costs are sunk by then
@SneakySly Agreed!
We also just dipped our toes in last week, whereas this week we're starting to use it more heavily.
In particular, we are trying out 2-week cycles (aka sprints!), with size estimates for each issue. So far, I think it's been really helpful at making it clear what everyone should be working on. It helps focus when you have a short list of tasks and a defined timeline, so that you don't need to worry about 50 other possible issues you could be working on.
@SneakySly last week I barely used linear because I was working on maniswipe for all of it
@SneakySly I like the keyboard shortcuts. like merging tickets as duplicates is just mm. You don't actually need to memorize, just remember command palette cmd k and you can do anything from the keyboard.
The docs are great.
Small UI things, like showing blockers, is nice and would look worse if you rolled it yourself in Notion. I imagine on this front it's comparable to jira, asana, etc so not a comp advantage.
List of what Linear does that could make it better than Notion at task tracking.
The basics:
It's faster
The UX is better. It takes fewer clicks to navigate, create, and edit issues.
Keyboard shortcuts
Features:
Github integration to update issues based on PR. 1-click copy of linked github branch
Inbox that updates when you're assigned issues and gives a history of updates
The ability to subscribe (or unsubscribe) to any issue to get notified in your inbox
Cycle planning with automatic rollover of issues that didn't get fixed
Projects, which could organize related tasks, and be shown on a calendar view
It's not obvious how important these Linear features are yet. But I think it's possible that fully embracing them could make us a lot more efficient and better at prioritization.
Also, some or all could be replicated in Notion with enough effort. But it probably wouldn't be as good as the native implementation in Linear.
Agree with all your points.
I'm not sure whether we'll keep Linear, but I think it's worth a shot.
Linear is super optimized to be good at what it does. I think we are learning from it how a good tracking system should work.
e.g. tying PRs directly to issues so they automatically get marked in progress or done.
We do a decent job at fixing all the fiddly little bugs, but I think we still miss important things, and our prioritization can be improved by tracking more issues.
Like, who knew about the Sell button being removed from the portfolio page? When will it be fixed? Writing it down as a task helps us not forget and eventually fix it.
When you can scan down a list of issues, you can quickly compare them mentally by priority and pick more worthwhile tasks to tackle. This is how you build a better product.
Having a spot to common place issues is allowing us to collectively brainstorm changes that could improve our site
@JamesGrugett yes, if we do end up switching back, I'd probably steal some of their ideas, such as automatically status update. afaict we already can attach issues and we already do rank notion tickets by priority pretty much in every view
sorry I knew it was you but for same reason I switched to steven's username in my head
