How Linear helps engineering managers at Clio operate more efficiently
Tom Heinan, Director of Engineering at Clio, demonstrates how Linear has helped to improve his daily workflows.
Meet Tom, Director of Engineering at Clio
Clio is the industry leader in cloud-based legal technology, helping lawyers manage their practices across more than 130 countries. Hundreds of engineers maintain their platform across dozens of teams.
As Director of Engineering, Tom Heinan oversees the teams responsible for front-end infrastructure, design systems, mobile apps, and APIs. Tom's broad portfolio means he spends hours each week navigating different team workflows, collecting fragmented updates, and translating them into a coherent story for stakeholders.
The role of an engineering manager
Engineering managers live in a world of constant translation. Each day, they navigate between the detailed work of individual engineers and the high-level concerns of leadership.
They track dependencies across teams, anticipate bottlenecks, and communicate progress in all directions. As organizations scale, these manual processes become real bottlenecks that slow down entire teams.
Below, Tom shares how he uses Linear to help him navigate these challenges.
Workflow 1: Personal task tracking
Clear personal task management helps engineering managers stay focused on their own priorities amid constant competing requests.
Watch the video below to see how Tom stays on top of his work in Linear:
Tom noted, “Linear makes it easy for me to view my personal plate of work that I need to keep track of,” so now, what are his tasks and what are team tasks are clear.
Workflow 2: Understanding project health
Real time project visibility enables proactive decisions and keeps stakeholders informed without constant meetings.
Here's how Tom monitors project health across his team:
Linear’s tracking features have enabled Tom to evolve his management style from reactive to proactive. He explained; “When I see something off, I can proactively communicate about our commitments to leadership, and we can have conversations about priorities or staffing before it becomes a crisis.”
Workflow 3: Managing team hackathons
Structured hackathon management helps teams capture innovative ideas and ensure promising projects get proper follow-through.
Here's how Tom tracks hackathon impact:
“The integration between Linear and DX has enabled a level of intelligence and reporting around our hackathons that we just never had before,” Tom explained. By managing these projects in Linear, Tom can now track what percentage of hackathon code actually gets merged into Clio’s product.
Tracking work is one thing, taking action on those insights is another. Linear gives managers like Tom a single view of everything, and the tools to act on what they see.