Jira entered an existing market with a strategy of replacing the current tools by improving the user experience and feature offerings. This is considered red ocean because they decided to go after already served customers with an improved issue tracking tool. They had to believe that PMs would switch tools and see the value in the difference Jira provided. Atlassian succeeded by out-executing competitors based on price and the features within Jira, which has led to the domination of the tool within the PM industry.
Linear is a mix of red and blue ocean because they didn’t try to target the entire existing PM market in the same way as Jira, but instead they tried to target a smaller subsection of this market by providing a new, leaner tool that fundamentally is a different product offering. In some ways, it is definitely a competitor to Jira, but it is a differentiated offering that redefines what a good tool for PM is. For PMs who would benefit from a leaner, simpler, more streamlined platform, Linear stands out as the tool to use. They had to believe that there were PMs that were underserved by Jira. This is a resegmented market, as their product caused a restructuring of the market by sifting through the PMs and collecting the customers who would benefit from this new product.
Productboard is blue ocean because there was no existing established PM management tool. They bet on a new market; there were no existing customers, only potential customers who they thought would value the tool they were building. They had to believe that PMs would see the need for a tool like this and add it to their workflow. In short, there were no direct competitors and no guaranteed demand, making it blue ocean.
