How Groupthink Labs switched from Jira to Plane for simplicity and open source alignment
About Groupthink Labs
Groupthink Labs builds deliberative technology that helps communities, teams, and institutions make better decisions together. Their flagship product, Polls, powers participatory processes for funding, policy, and priority-setting, and has already helped direct more than $1 million.
Trusted by local governments, agile organizations, and research teams, they turn stakeholder input into structured, privacy-conscious data that can scale from small internal votes to full public processes. As an early-stage R&D team with deep roots in open-source and democratic innovation, they needed project management that matched those values without adding process overhead.
The challenge
Jira was overbuilt and overpriced for how they work. Before Plane, Groupthink Labs ran their projects in Jira using a university trial license. The tool provided structure, but day-to-day use quickly turned into friction.
“The Jira license we had did not allow seat swapping or guest invitations, which quickly became a barrier to involving community contributors.”
— Gryphon, Co-founder, Groupthink Labs
Seat limitations, complex configurations, and a cumbersome interface made Jira ill-suited for a small, experimental team that collaborates with community contributors and research partners. The cost model and licensing constraints also didn’t fit a research-driven, impact-focused organization.
They needed something lighter, open, and values-aligned—software that would adapt to their workflows instead of forcing them into rigid enterprise patterns.
Why Plane was the best fit
When the Jira trial ended, Groupthink Labs compared Basecamp, Asana, Taiga, and others. The shortlist came down to three hard requirements.
- Open-source alignment
Open source was mandatory, not optional. Plane’s open-core model and self-hosting option matched their needs around governance, control, and long-term ownership.
“We’re part of open source communities, so that alignment was important to us.”
- Bloat-free interface
They wanted a tool people would actually use. Plane gave them a simple workspace, clear views, and no “enterprise bloat,” so new collaborators could join and contribute without training or hand-holding. - Independent, not locked-in
They sought to avoid becoming entangled in a large-vendor ecosystem or pay for a stack of add-ons. Plane offered a focused product, predictable pricing, and no dependency on bundles or extensions.
One workspace for all their work
Plane now functions as Groupthink Labs’ all-in-one workspace, supporting projects and work items,
- Projects and Work Items
Daily task management, release planning, and product development. - Work Item Templates
Repeatable structures for recurring research, experiments, and operational tasks. - Wikis and Pages
Central documentation for processes, specs, and internal notes, living next to the work they reference. - List and Board Views
Simple visual tracking with more structure when they need it.
They deliberately disabled advanced features such as Epics and AI functionalities to maintain a streamlined setup. Plane gives them room to add complexity only when their work demands it.
The migration and rollout
The team first considered importing everything from Jira, then realized most of it didn’t need to move. Instead of forcing a one-to-one migration, they chose a simpler path: finish active sprints in Jira, then start fresh in Plane with only the work that still mattered.
“We just decided to finish up in Jira and start clean in Plane. It took less than one day to initiate the new system after this decision.”
From the moment they committed to Plane, it took about three hours to configure projects, set up views, and reach their first productive session. From there, Plane became their central place for product development, operations, and a lightweight CRM for relationships and collaborations.
A year on Plane
Groupthink Labs has simplified operations while keeping their experimentation cadence intact.
- Lower operational overhead
They no longer contend with license management challenges, seat allocation issues, or burdensome Jira administration - Faster onboarding for collaborators
New contributors go from invitation to first completed task in a median of 35 minutes, instead of wrestling with a complex enterprise tool. - Clean, focused workflows
On Plane, Groupthink Labs runs all of their product and research work in one place, without extra tooling, admin drag, or process bloat. - Everything in one place
Product development, operations, and research collaboration all live in one workspace, reducing fragmentation across tools. - Aligned with democratic and governance needs
Plane’s open-source alignment and self-hosting option give Groupthink Labs a clear path for future compliance and control as they work with more institutions and government clients.
During this period, the team incorporated their company, adopted Shaped Work principles, and successfully applied to one of Canada’s top impact-oriented accelerators. The platform kept pace with their growth without forcing them into enterprise complexity.
“Our metric was simple: how quickly can we unblock each other? Plane makes it visible, who’s stuck, at what stage, on which module.”
— Gryphon, Co-founder, Groupthink Labs
