Jira entered an existing market, also known as a red ocean. The existing market was online project management and bug tracking tooling. There were already systems like Bugzilla and GNATS. For its bet to make sense, it had to believe that PMs and engineering teams needed to coordinate work in a more time-sensitive manner and that Jira’s enhanced visibility and customization would take market share from alternatives with static issue lists. The risk was that PMs would want to stay with incumbent systems they were used to, so Jira had to convince potential customers that customization would help make their job more comprehensive.
Linear entered a resegmented market, which is a portion of blue ocean within a red ocean. Linear also handles planning and tracking software development, but it carved out a niche by focusing on speed and simplicity. To succeed, Linear had to believe that modern engineering teams cared about speed and smooth UX. While Jira was known for letting companies build complex workflows which slowed loading times, Linear created a pre-configured hierarchy so teams could onboard faster and retrieve data much faster. Linear directly targeted more technical employees like software engineers and PMs by optimizing for keyboard shortcuts. However, the risk was that some PMs want to have more customization over their workflows and would prioritize that over speed.
Productboard entered a new market, which is a blue ocean. Existing PM tools mainly had task tracking features, but Productboard created a category for PM roadmapping and customer insight prioritization. It had to believe that PMs needed a more comprehensive system of record to brainstorm what to build and the purpose behind each new feature. Since Productboard completely reworked the tracking system, the risk was that PMs would face friction in moving to a different type of platform.
