Jira feels like an existing-market play because the behavior already existed before Jira. Software teams were already using bug and issue trackers, so Jira was not inventing the need to track work. It was entering an existing category and trying to do it better. That makes it a red-ocean move.
Linear feels more like a resegmentation of that market. It is still solving issue tracking and project coordination, but it is built around a narrower customer: fast-moving product and engineering teams that are frustrated with heavier, more complicated tools. Its bet was that speed, simplicity, and a cleaner workflow were valuable enough to make people switch.
Productboard feels closer to a new-market or blue-ocean play because it focused on a different part of the PM job. Instead of mainly helping teams track execution, it focused on understanding customer needs, prioritizing what to build, and communicating the roadmap. Its bet was that PMs needed a separate system for product decisions, not just another task tracker.
It is interesting that all three are selling to similar users, but they define the core PM problem very differently.
