Jira entered an existing market created by early issue trackers such as Bugzilla. Users already kmew what an issue tracker was and had allocated budgets for project management. Jira is playing in a red ocean, competing over compliance, customizability, and integrations. Jira believed that PMs are cross-functional coordinators who needed to align engineering with business, QA, compliance, and leadership. Jira also believed that tracability, audability, and compliance was something PMs and leaders cared about.
Linear resegmented an existing market by appealing to a subsegment of PMs who cared about speed. Linear is in a red ocean of project management tools. Linear believed that PMs are slowed down by bad UI and administrative overhead. They believed that software development was a fast and iterative process that needed autonomy and momentum more than compliance and approval chains.
Productboard created a new market. Product management system wasn’t an established market. Productboard is playing in a blue ocean. Instead of taking market share from issue trackers, it aimed to create new budget lines for product leadership and strategy. Productboard believed that product management is a distinct dicipline. It is not just execution. Issue trackers like Jira is tracking what’s being built but they’re not helping PMs figure out what to build and why.
