Initiative and Project updates

Keep teams and leaders aligned with structured updates on the health and progress of Initiatives and Projects, available in Linear and Slack.

Overview⁠

Initiative and Project updates are structured reports that keep teams and leaders informed on progress and alignment. They consist of a health indicator that provides a high-level signal of the current state and a rich text description for deeper insights into status, challenges, and next steps.

Initiative updates help leaders and teams stay aligned on high-level goals while still providing visibility into the projects that contribute to them. Project updates focus on individual projects, ensuring teams stay informed on progress at a more granular level. Updates can be viewed in Linear, sent to Slack channels, and configured to appear in your Linear Inbox.

Configure Initiative updates⁠

Initiative updates can be configured by admins in Workspace Settings. Once Initiatives are turned on, Admins can set up reminders to ensure Initiative owners post updates consistently. These settings allow you to choose how often reminders are sent, such as weekly or biweekly, and specify the day and time when reminders will appear. Reminders are only sent when there is an Initiative owner.

Admins can also configure a default Slack channel where all Initiative updates are sent. Creating a dedicated channel, such as #initiative-updates, helps ensure updates are visible and accessible to the entire team.

Configure Project updates⁠

Configure project updates for your workspace under workspace settings. Select a Slack channel where updates will go (we recommend a dedicated one such as #project-updates) and set optional reminders to remind project leads to post an update at a regular cadence (e.g. post an update weekly on Wednesdays).

Configure notifications for specific projects by clicking the bell icon from the project view (it's next to the Updates button). From there, you can link the project to it's own Slack channel (e.g. #p-project-name) to send updates and notifications there. You can also enable personal notifications in account notifications settings.

Basics⁠

Create Initiative and Project updates⁠

Updates can be created directly from the Project Overview or Initiative Overview page. The owner is responsible for posting the first update, after which any workspace member can write subsequent updates.

To draft or edit an update, click the pencil icon in the top-right corner of the latest update in the Initiative or Project overview page. When writing an update, you can highlight text to apply formatting and upload files to provide supporting context.

Select a health indicator—On track, At risk, or Off track—to represent the current state of the Initiative or Project.

View Initiative and Project updates⁠

The most recent update is displayed on the Project Overview or Initiative Overview page. To view previous updates, click See all or use the ⌘/Ctrl U keyboard shortcut.

When viewing a list of Initiatives, you can also click on the health status to see the most recent updates.

Updates appear in chronological order, and anyone can react with emoji to express sentiment. You can also view updates in Slack if they have been configured to post there.

To share an update, you can copy a link or copy it as Markdown using the ⌘/Ctrl K action menu.

How we work: The project lead adds weekly project updates. As well as viewing these in Linear, we have these set up to appear in a specific channel in our Slack workspace. We can then easily discuss each update in a Slack thread originating from the original posted message.

During weekly syncs, we'll review project updates directly in Linear. We take a few minutes to silently read them and emoji react depending on how we'd like to discuss them in the meeting. ✋ means you have a question, ▶️ means you want to see a demo, and we usually see a few others like 🚀🙌 🥳.

Progress reports for Initiatives and Projects⁠

Project updates include a concise overview of project progress since the last update. It covers information such as project delays, changes in the target date, assignment of new leads, progress towards milestones, and overall progress. These updates help you track project changes and effectively communicate progress to stakeholders.

A detailed list will be generated showing changes, and you can optionally hide those details from being included in your update if needed.

For Initiative updates, if the Initiative owner has changed since the previous update, or there has been a change in target date or status, this will automatically be included in the update.

Additionally, progress reports are automatically shared on Slack through the project updates Slack integration discussed below.

Manage notifications⁠

Updates can be sent to Slack, delivered to your Linear Inbox, or both, depending on your preferences. Notifications can be configured at both the workspace and individual update level to ensure teams stay informed in the way that works best for them.

Admins can configure a default Slack channel for all Initiative and Project updates in Workspace Settings or through the Slack integration settings. We recommend using dedicated channels such as #initiative-updates and #project-updates to keep updates organized.

For individual Initiatives and Projects, you can override the default Slack channel by clicking the bell icon in the respective view. This allows you to select a custom Slack channel for updates (e.g., #p-project-name), ensuring the right audience is kept in the loop.

If Slack notifications are enabled, edits to updates will also be reflected in Slack. Additionally, you can enable Inbox notifications in your account settings to receive updates directly in your Linear Inbox.

Initiative and project update comments⁠

It’s possible to comment under Initiative and Project updates to discuss them further. The person who wrote the update and anyone who participates in the thread will receive notifications in their Linear Inbox.

If the Slack integration is enabled and updates are posted in a Slack channel, comments will be bi-directionally synced between Linear and Slack. This ensures that all messages in the Slack thread will sync back to the update in Linear, just as Slack comments on issues sync with Linear.

Initiative and Project update reminders⁠

Admins can enable update reminders in Workspace Settings to ensure Initiative and Project updates are posted consistently. Once enabled, you can customize the frequency of reminders, choosing whether they are sent daily or at a set interval (e.g., weekly or biweekly). You can create custom schedules and also specify the day and time for reminders, which will be sent based on each lead’s local timezone.

Reminders are sent for active Initiatives and in progress Projects, and only to the Initiative owner or project lead. If an update isn’t made after the initial reminder, a follow-up nudge will be sent to encourage creating a new update.

When selecting a reminder time, note that reminders may not be sent precisely at the chosen hour but will be delivered within the hour selected or shortly after.

For more details on update reminders, see the FAQ below.

Project staleness⁠

When project update reminders are enabled, in-progress projects that are overdue for updates will reflect this for easier monitoring. If a project is more than two days overdue, its health icon will indicate this. If a project is nine days or more overdue, the health icon will turn grey to highlight the lack of recent updates.

FAQ⁠