How to close the project management gap with Slite & Linear

At Slite, we've always had a clear vision: to be the best documentation tool, period. From day one, our founder Christophe Pasquier included this slide in our first investor deck:

This image shows our commitment to focusing on documentation while connecting with other essential tools. We believe in doing one thing exceptionally well rather than trying to be everything for everyone.

This philosophy is why we use a dedicated project management tool alongside Slite. We know our strengths, and we also recognize where other tools can complement our offering.

After trying various options, we settled on Linear as our project management tool of choice. It struck the right balance between functionality and simplicity, aligning well with our own product values.

We believe that's why a lot of our customers, too, have a similar set up between Slite and Linear. Best part, all of them have been creative with it. So have we.

So, in this guide, we'll share exactly how we use Slite with Linear. Our goal is to show you how a focused documentation tool can work with a project management system, enhancing both without compromising either.

Whether you're a current Slite user looking to improve your project management or just curious about our workflow, this guide offers insights into how we operate. Let's go.

How we chose Linear

We chose Linear after trial and error, experimenting with commonplace tools like Trello and ClickUp. We went from using nothing to Trello, then ClickUp, and finally Linear. Along the way, we probably tried everything in between at some point.

Trello was our starting point.

It's simple, but we found it limited. It's essentially a glorified Kanban board. While it works for basic task tracking, we needed more. Even Asana has taken jabs at Trello for this limitation in their comparison page headline.

After Trello, we overcorrected.

We went for ClickUp, a tool with all the features you can imagine. But as often happens with feature-heavy tools, it became complex. Team-wide adoption was low. The enormity of features and complexity made it inefficient for us. We ended up with a powerful tool that most of the team wasn't using effectively.

Then came Linear app and 3 things stood out:

1. Design: We loved how it looked. A well-designed interface makes work more enjoyable.
2. Feature balance: It had enough features to be powerful without overwhelming us.
3. User-friendly: Despite its capabilities, it remained easy to use.

Linear struck the right balance. It was powerful enough for our developers, yet simple enough for everyone else. This balance was key in our decision.

Our experience taught us that the best tool isn't always the one with the most features. It's the one that fits your team's needs and gets adopted widely. For us, that tool was Linear.

How we use Linear

We use Linear for bug triaging, project management, and task assignment. We started with the product and dev team.

Our dev team, led by CTO Pierre, has fully embraced Linear. As Pierre puts it, they're "Extremely pleased with Linear." Here's a breakdown of how we use it:

1. Dev Docs in Slite

We believe a project management tool is only as good as its adoption rate. To ensure everyone uses Linear correctly, we've created comprehensive guides in our Slite documentation. These docs align our team on Linear usage while developing.

2. Issue Management

Linear shines in collaborative issue triaging. Its speed and organization let us focus on the issues themselves, not the process of managing them. As Pierre notes, "We're spending quite some time on the tool to collaboratively triage issues. It's instant, and we can just think about the issues themselves and not the painful process of jumping around dozens of issues."

3. Real-Time Alerts

Our team receives instant notifications in Slack when bugs are created in Linear. This setup helps us stay on top of issues that need immediate attention. Our 'dev-bugs' Slack channel is directly linked to Linear, keeping everyone in the loop. We use Linear's Slack integration for this:

4. Context Enrichment

We use Intercom for customer support. When a user reports a bug, it's automatically created in Linear. The Intercom conversation is linked, providing valuable context. This integration ensures our dev team has all the information they need at their fingertips.

5. Completion Status Sharing

We use Linear to share the completion status of issues. This transparency boosts motivation and keeps everyone informed about progress.

6. Integration with Slite Documentation

While Linear is expanding its documentation capabilities, we recognize the distinct roles of Linear and Slite. Our documentation in Slite incorporates user feedback, GTM team input, product ideas, and sales insights. This comprehensive doc then breaks down into smaller projects, each with its own Linear project and Slite doc.

We embed Linear cards directly into our Slite docs.

This gives everyone easy access to project status, while allowing the dev team to use Linear for detailed tracking.

7. Collaboration on Development Projects

Linear manages our website projects and other development workflows. It caters to both casual users and power users, making it ideal for multi-departmental projects like our GTM initiatives.
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"Linear is not just a tool for product and engineering teams. GTM teams can greatly benefit of having their projects live in the same place where features are being built and shipped so that everything tides together and launches can be planned in unison across the entire org. From fixes to launches - the more teams track projects in the same place, the less siloes there are, and the more alignment there is."
- Elisa Reggiardo, Partnerships Marketing Manager, Slite

By integrating Linear with Slite, we've created a workflow that enhances our project management while maintaining clear, accessible documentation. It's a combination that works well for our team's diverse needs.

Scaling Linear across our Team

The true testament to Linear's simplicity and power came when our marketing team adopted it. This adoption was significant for several reasons:

1. Cross-functional alignment: With both development and marketing using Linear, we've seen improved communication and collaboration between these teams. Projects that require input from both sides now have a common platform.
2. Flexibility: Linear's ability to cater to the needs of both technical and non-technical teams showcases its versatility. The marketing team found it intuitive enough to start using quickly, yet powerful enough to manage their complex campaigns and projects.
3. Streamlined workflows: The marketing team's adoption of Linear has allowed for better integration of their work with the overall product development cycle. This has led to more cohesive planning and execution of product launches and marketing initiatives.
4. Increased visibility: With more teams on Linear, we have a clearer overview of all ongoing projects across the company. This bird's-eye view helps in resource allocation and priority setting.

Looking ahead, we're planning to shift more of our Go-To-Market (GTM) long-term projects to Linear. This decision is based on the positive impact we've seen so far. Here's what this means for us:

1. Unified project tracking: By moving GTM projects to Linear, we'll have a single source of truth for all major initiatives, from product development to market launch.
2. Enhanced long-term planning: Linear's capabilities will allow us to better map out and track progress on extended GTM strategies.
3. Improved cross-team collaboration: As more of our long-term projects move to Linear, we anticipate even better alignment between teams, from product and development to marketing and sales.
4. Data-driven decision making: With more of our projects in Linear, we'll be able to gather more comprehensive data on our workflows, helping us make informed decisions about resource allocation and project prioritization.

This expansion of Linear's use in our organization reflects our confidence in the tool and our commitment to streamlined, effective project management. As we continue to grow and evolve, we're excited to see how this integrated approach with Slite and Linear will support our future successes.

Finding the line between Linear and Slite

Linear has launched its own documents feature recently. Their vision is to let you add PRDs and other project-adjacent documentation to live within Linear. This is where it gets tricky. Should you put all docs in Linear itself? Or should you add some documentation there? What if you end up in a place where half your documentation is in Linear and half in Slite? Where do you draw the line?

For us, the decision was easy.

We know that users like associating tools with use cases. People will flock to Pitch as soon as they hear presentations, to GCalendar when they hear 'schedule', and you get the gist.

The insight above isn't only shared by our team, but echoed through our customer calls. People want clear demarcations and certainty while creating, managing, and using documentation. Most importantly, they want consolidation.

"Linear is leaning to project documentation. And it's not like we don't give it a try, but we see the difference between having the scope, definitions, ideas [in Slite] because that's where everyone goes, rather than Linear."
- Mariano Lisiotti, Co-founder & CEO, Sytex

It's important to have that one place for things. For tasks, our customers - and we - prefer it to be Linear. For documentation, that place becomes Slite for many of our customers' teams.

Our Advice to You

We want to offer some advice based on what we've learned the hard way, after years of testing.

Here's what we suggest for teams looking to improve their documentation and project management:

• Embrace specialization: Don't try to find a single tool that does everything. Instead, choose tools that excel in their specific areas. For us, that's Slite for documentation and Linear for project management.

"People report Notion and Coda becoming too complex and slow to load in time. The question becomes more of "should we use Notion for this"? Because while it can be used for many things, rarely is it the actual right tool for the job. As they are trying to be all things to all people, it results in them being "not great" at most things.

A team using Slite, on the other-hand, know exactly when they should and shouldn't use Slite."
- Alex and Andra, Efficient App (source)

• Prioritize usability: The best tool is the one your team will actually use. We chose Linear partly because of its user-friendly design. Look for tools that your team finds intuitive and enjoyable to use. Start a Slack thread and pool in your team's recommendations.
• Ensure integration: While using separate tools, make sure they can work together seamlessly. We embed Linear cards in our Slite docs, creating a smooth workflow between the two.
• Start with documentation: A solid documentation system is the foundation of good teamwork. We recommend starting with a tool like Slite to centralize your knowledge before adding project management tools.
• Gradual adoption: When introducing a new tool like Linear, start with one team (we began with our dev team) and expand from there. This allows you to iron out any issues before company-wide adoption.
• Customize to your needs: Every team is different. We've set up our Linear workflow to match our specific needs, including integrations with Slack and Intercom. Don't be afraid to customize your tools to fit your unique workflows.
• Regular reviews: Continuously evaluate how your tools are working for you. We're always looking at how we can improve our use of Slite and Linear.
• Balance features and simplicity: More features aren't always better. We found Linear struck the right balance for us after trying overly simple (Trello) and overly complex (ClickUp) options.
• Consider cross-team benefits: Choose tools that can benefit multiple teams. We saw this when our marketing team adopted Linear, improving our cross-functional collaboration.
• Think long-term: Consider how your chosen tools will scale with your company. We're planning to move more of our long-term projects to Linear because we're confident it can grow with us.

Remember, the goal is to make your team more productive and your processes smoother. It might take some trial and error to find the right combination, but it's worth the effort.

We hope you find a setup that works as well for your team as Slite and Linear have worked for ours. Every team is unique, so take these suggestions and adapt them to your needs.

The right tools are out there – it's just about implementing them in a way that empowers your team.