The four phases
Every ticket belongs to exactly one phase. New tickets start in Discovery & Strategy by default, and you can change the phase at any time.
- Discovery & Strategy: Research, technical spikes, and investigation.
- Design & Validation: Planning the solution, refining requirements, and agreeing on the implementation.
- Development & Launch: Building, testing, and delivering the feature.
- Post-Launch & Improvements: Follow-up improvements, bug fixes, and enhancements based on real user feedback.
Why phases matter
Some of the most valuable work your team does isn't always visible. Engineers often spend time investigating technical approaches before development begins. Product managers refine ideas long before they're scheduled into a sprint. After launch, teams frequently return to improve a feature as they learn from customers. Without tracking these activities, it can look as though the work never happened. Project Phases make every part of the product development lifecycle visible.
Better visibility across your projects
Phases are tracked across an entire project, giving you a much clearer picture of where time is actually being spent. You'll be able to answer questions like:
- How much effort typically goes into discovery before development starts?
- Are we investing enough time in design?
- Which projects require the most post-launch refinement?
- Where does work tend to slow down?
Instead of measuring only development effort, you gain insight into the complete lifecycle of delivering a feature.
The Trundle way
We've deliberately chosen a standard set of four phases for every team:
- Discovery & Strategy
- Design & Validation
- Development & Launch
- Post-Launch & Improvements
Rather than creating custom workflows for every project, these phases provide a consistent way to understand how work progresses across your organisation. Every feature follows a journey. By making each stage visible, your team can better plan work, understand where effort is spent, and continuously improve how products are delivered.