The release ships in four days. Still blocked.

The problem

In release week the pull requests are in one tab, the spec in another and the answer you are waiting on is somewhere in chat. Then an incident review starts.

In the video: “It's release week. Pull requests in one tab, the spec in another, the answer you need, lost in chat.”

How PlexiDesk handles it

In PlexiDesk, the whole release gets one desk. A desk is one canvas for one piece of work, and the video tours three of its widgets:

1. What's blocking

   In the video: “The answer you're chasing is right up top.”

   A Card widget keeps the blocker at the top of the desk: the answer you are chasing and who owes it.

2. What's left to merge

   In the video: “Every pull request, and what's left.”

   A Table widget lists every pull request and what is left.

3. The spec

   In the video: “And the spec is live on this desk.”

   A Browser widget keeps the spec open as a live web page on the same desk.

When something else comes up

In the video: “Then the incident review starts. Just switch desks. The release waits exactly where you left it.”

The other job gets a desk of its own, so switching does not mean packing anything away. In the video, “Payments API v2 release” stays exactly as it was while “Checkout incident review” is open. Open desks sit side by side as tabs in the open items strip, a click apart, and Resume writes a short note on where a desk stands for when you come back to it.

One desk per piece of work. No context to rebuild.

Try it

Try a tech lead deskThe interactive demo builds a ready-made desk for this kind of work in your browser. Nothing to install.

Or set up the desk yourself from a template: each one lists the widgets it needs and how to set it up in PlexiDesk.

• Desk template

  Technical design doc desk: the proposal, the evidence and the rollback plan

  A desk for one technical change: the design doc in Markdown, the load-test results in a table and chart, the rollout and rollback drawn as a flowchart, and a checklist to tick before release.

Related reading

• Blog

  The real cost of context switching, and how to switch less

  Switching between tasks costs time and the thread you were holding. What the research says, and practical ways to switch less and recover faster.

• Blog

  Too many tabs open? A calmer way to keep your research

  Tabs pile up because each one is a reminder, a bookmark and a workspace at once. Separate those jobs and keep research with the work it belongs to.