We've tried them all. Jira. Linear. Asana. ClickUp. Notion. Monday. The list goes on.
Each time, the same pattern: Initial excitement. A few weeks of productivity. Then slowly, inevitably, the tool starts to feel like work itself.
The Pattern We Kept Seeing
It always started the same way. A new PM tool promises to solve all your problems. You set it up. You configure the workflows. You train the team. Everyone's excited.
Then reality hits.
With Jira, we spent more time managing the tool than doing actual work. Story points, sprints, epics, components, versions—it felt like we needed a PhD just to create a task.
With Linear, everything looked beautiful, but we still had the same problem: an endless backlog that just kept growing. The tool was fast, but our anxiety about unfinished work was faster.
With Asana, we had flexibility, but that flexibility meant everyone used it differently. One person's "task" was another person's "project." Chaos in a beautiful UI.
The Real Problem
Here's what we realized: These tools give you an empty box and say "figure it out."
They're infinitely flexible, which sounds great in theory. But in practice, it means:
- Every team has to invent their own system
- New team members are confused for weeks
- The tool becomes a second job
- You're always wondering if you're "doing it right"
The tools weren't opinionated. They didn't have a point of view. They tried to be everything to everyone, and in doing so, they helped no one.
The Three Problems We Couldn't Solve
No matter which tool we tried, we kept hitting the same three walls:
1. The Endless List Problem
Every tool gave us a list. And lists just grow forever. You finish one thing, add three more. The backlog becomes this anxiety-inducing monster that never goes away.
We needed buckets, not lists. A way to say "this matters today, this can wait, this is someday/maybe." Simple. Clear. Finite.
2. The Context Problem
Tasks lived in isolation. To understand why something mattered, you had to:
- Read the task description
- Click into comments
- Check Slack threads
- Find the original email
- Ask someone who might remember
Context was scattered. Decisions were lost. "Why did we decide this?" became a daily question.
3. The Collaboration Problem
Tools either forced real-time collaboration (hello, meeting fatigue) or were completely async with no structure (hello, inbox zero anxiety).
We needed something in between. A shared timeline. Async by default, but with enough structure that everyone stayed in sync.
So We Started Building
We didn't start with features. We started with beliefs. And those beliefs would eventually become Bonjour.
But first, we had to learn what worked and what didn't. That journey took six iterations, countless MVPs, and a fundamental shift in how we thought about building software.
Next: From Philosophy to Features: How Our Beliefs Shaped Bonjour
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Ready to try Bonjour?
A hyper-focused feed for your team. No endless lists. Just the work that matters.