Your team may think their current issue tracking software “works fine”, but the reality is that it’s slow and bloated for those who use it most. If you dig into things like your bug reporting process, team backlogs, or the process for reporting progress on feature development, you will likely uncover deep inefficiencies.
Most companies are using a combination of project management, issue tracking, and other disconnected tools with:
These problems with “works fine” tools have very real business consequences:
Linear was built from the ground up to solve these problems. It's a purpose-built project planning and issue tracking system loved by modern product teams.
When customers switch to Linear, we see:
The question isn't about how much better Linear is – it's how much productivity is lost each week by sticking with “works fine” tools. Given that engineering time is commonly an organization’s most expensive resource, the productivity gains Linear offers would justify this switch many times over.
To build a business case for making the switch to Linear, we recommend running a pre- and post-evaluation survey to provide both the quantitative evidence and qualitative anecdotes to illustrate that moving to Linear will have an impact on engineering happiness and engagement.
“My advice for anyone curious about Linear is to do a pilot. The product sells itself. My team instantly thought Linear was great. There were no grumblings. The only conversations we had were about getting enough seats to give people access.Joshua Hall — Head of Customer Engineering, Scale
Your engineering leaders may be hesitant to make the switch, but the move to Linear is also an opportunity to focus on what matters. Your most critical issues are what's in progress and what's next on your roadmap. Migration is your chance to move forward with intention, not historical baggage.
Linear's migration guide provides a clear framework to help you roll out Linear across your organization. By following this framework, you can ensure a thoughtful, well-planned migration that sets your teams up for succes.
We recommend a phased rollout, supported by ample training and support:
Provision users and migrate data one team at a time
Provide self-serve onboarding resources and dedicated training sessions
Designate a communications channel (in Slack for instance) for questions and support
This gradual, hands-on approach ensures your teams feel prepared and empowered during the transition.
You have two options for handling your existing issues:
Give your teams the flexibility to choose the approach that best suits their needs.
Reporting is only as good as the quality of the data that powers it. Switching to Linear will improve your team's engagement, and consequently, the quality and completeness of issue data.
Linear fundamentally improves your reporting by solving the data collection problem:
As a result, teams using Linear see a 2x increase in issues filed compared to their previous tools. This is work that was always happening but never tracked, making your reports inherently incomplete.
Linear transforms your reporting capabilities by combining frictionless issue creation with powerful analytics tools, including:
While it might seem on the surface that your current tools already fulfill your documentation and roadmapping needs, the reality is that you’re leaving a lot on the table in terms of how effectively your team can plan, execute, and communicate.
Stitching together a system using separate documents for specs, spreadsheets for roadmaps, and standalone issue tracking results in fragmentation that your team has to deal with. This shows up in the form of an ongoing maintenance burden, or as your product artifacts getting wildly out of sync.
Does this sound familiar?
Your roadmap lives in spreadsheets while execution happens in an issue tracker, with lots of manual duplication between the two
Plans become outdated as soon as execution begins
Changes in direction aren't reflected across all your planning documents, and everyone is constantly asking “is this up to date?”
Your team spends valuable time and energy manually syncing information between tools
No matter how much effort you put in, things are changing so quickly that you still always feel behind
This disconnect between planning and execution isn't just an inconvenience—it's actively holding your team back.
Linear isn't just another task tracker—it's a unified system that enables end-to-end planning, clear communication, and rapid execution. When your tools align with how modern product teams actually work, you remove hidden friction and costs, enabling your team to focus on what matters: building great products.
While spreadsheets and “all-in-one” tools offer familiar flexibility, and the ability to customize to product development workflows, they also create as much work as they solve. Your team needs to continuously maintain, customize, educate your internal users and spend valuable effort working on something that’s not your core business.
Linear provides the exact workflows you need without consuming your team’s bandwidth. The result is a tool that helps you achieve your goals while having the flexibility to adapt to your workflow.
Spreadsheets and “all-in-one” tools come with significant drawbacks:
Manual data entry and updates
No automated notifications or reminders
Multiple versions and duplicates floating around everywhere
Time spent formatting and maintaining formulas, which never quite do the right thing
No integration with the actual work being done
Linear provides strategic flexibility where it matters most:
The flexibility of spreadsheets and “all-in-one” tools is an illusion that comes at the cost of your team's time and effort. Linear provides meaningful flexibility while automating routine tasks, enabling real-time visibility, and freeing your team to focus on real work. When your tools work for you—and not the other way around—you enable your team to focus on what matters: building great products.
While your current customized workflows might seem ideal, they're only valuable if your team actually uses them. Linear takes a different approach: optimizing for high engagement first, then providing the automation and reporting tools you need to effectively manage workflows. The result? Better data quality and more meaningful insights into your team's work.
Even the most perfectly customized workflow faces a fundamental challenge:
Low team engagement means incomplete data
Incomplete data leads to unreliable reporting
Unreliable reporting makes it harder to improve processes
The cycle continues, regardless of how well-customized your workflow is
Katherine Velasco, Technical Product Lead at Cash App, explains, "Linear has been the transformational tool that finally checked all of the boxes that kept both our Technical Product Managers and Engineers happy, allowing us to roll out centralized tooling for our software development management for the first time."
The most sophisticated workflow is worthless without engagement. Linear solves the engagement problem first, then gives you the tools to build and maintain effective processes. When your team actually wants to use the tool, you get better data, more reliable insights, and ultimately, better results.
These conversations plant the seed of change. A pilot is what makes those seeds grow. Read how to start a successful pilot here.