Linear Tools

Common Patterns

• Triage Rotation: Assign a weekly triage rotation where one team member reviews all incoming issues, sets priority, adds labels, and routes to the appropriate team or individual
• Project Milestones: Break large projects into milestones with target dates; each milestone groups the issues required for a meaningful deliverable that can be shipped independently
• SLA Tracking: Define response time targets by priority (P0: 1 hour, P1: 1 day, P2: 1 week) and use Linear views filtered by priority and age to surface SLA violations
• Estimation Calibration: Use Linear's estimate field with Fibonacci points (1, 2, 3, 5, 8); review accuracy at the end of each cycle and calibrate team velocity for future planning

Pitfalls to Avoid

• Do not create issues for every minor task; use sub-issues for breakdowns and keep the backlog at a level of abstraction that is meaningful for sprint planning
• Do not let the backlog grow unbounded; archive or close issues that have not been prioritized in three or more cycles; stale backlogs reduce signal-to-noise ratio
• Do not over-customize workflow states per team; consistency across teams enables cross-team collaboration and makes organization-wide reporting possible
• Do not skip writing acceptance criteria on issues; without them, the definition of done is ambiguous and code review becomes subjective