I believe that Jira entered an existing market, which would make it in a red ocean. It created an easily customizable workflow and strong ecosystems and integration software. They aimed more towards organizers and the general company rather than catering to individual experiences, which is possibly why most of the Google autofill for “why is Jira…” is something negative, but it also means that as newer, faster, better software alongside startup growth means that companies are less likely to continue/start using Jira.
Linear is an example of one of those softwares. Linear “created” resegmented market and essentially found the blue part of the red ocean, by creating a software that was faster, simpler, and easier to use than existing platforms like Jira. They’re not for everyone, but they work well for the specific markets and teams they target, which is a downside for many teams considering it, because it’s more engineer-focused and limited planning, and it’s catering more towards a startup/smaller company model.
The third one is Productboard, which is a new market, and a blue ocean. Productboard synthesizes information across multiple platforms and focuses on data specifically, making it easier for both individual product managers and teams to see what’s working and what isn’t. Of course, Productboard isn’t perfect either, and is usually not recommended for startups due to its advanced capabilities but also steep learning curve. It would work well for an established company looking for some order, but it’s not necessarily good for a startup, where chaos is often where things thrive.
