How a startup runs its week in Emitii
- 1
Spaces
Create Product, Growth and Company spaces.
- 2
Backlog
Fill the Product board with cards labelled by sprint and type.
- 3
Planning
Hold a recurring sprint planning event and move cards into This sprint.
- 4
Standup
Post a daily standup thread in Pulse or ask Emit for a summary.
- 5
Decisions
Write decisions and specs in Docs & Files.
- 6
Update
Send a weekly company update in Posts.
Who this setup is for
Early-stage teams of two to twenty people who build a product, talk to customers and run the company in the same week. The goal is one place for the board, the standup, the decisions and the dates, without spending a day configuring tools.
Follow this page by hand; it takes a few minutes.
Spaces to create
| Space | Space type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Product | Project | Features, bugs, specs, sprints |
| Growth | Project | Marketing, sales and customer work |
| Company | Internal | Updates, hiring, finance routines, policies |
Resist the urge to create a space per idea. Three spaces are enough until the team splits into separate groups.
Modules to turn on
Project spaces start with Board, Tasks, Schedule, Timesheet, Posts and Activity, plus Pulse. Turn on Docs & Files in every space. Turn off the Timesheet if nobody needs to track hours.
Board columns
- Product: Backlog, This sprint, In progress, Review, Done
- Growth: Ideas, Planned, In progress, Live, Done
Use labels for sprint names ("Sprint 12") and card types (Feature, Bug, Chore). Mark a card blocked with a reason instead of leaving it to stall.
Task lists and example to-dos
- Company > Finance: "Pay payroll" (repeats monthly), "Send investor update" (repeats monthly)
- Company > Hiring: "Post job ad", "Schedule interviews for shortlist"
- Growth > Customers: "Follow up with this week's trial users" (repeats weekly)
Docs and folders
- Product: Specs, Decisions, Release notes
- Company: Policies, Investor updates, Hiring
- Growth: Positioning, Customer notes
Write a short decision doc whenever the team changes direction. Six months later, it answers "why did we do this?".
Schedule
Add recurring events in Product for sprint planning and a weekly demo, and in Company for the all-hands. Card due dates show on the same calendar.
Pulse and Posts
Run the daily standup in Pulse as a thread: each person replies with yesterday, today and blockers. Or ask Emit, the space AI, "Summarise what is in progress" from the board. Use Posts in Company for the weekly update and pin anything new joiners should read.
Optional board Rules
- When a card with the Bug label is created, set priority to High.
- When a card enters Done, mark it complete.
- When a card enters Review, assign the reviewer.
When to add more spaces
Three spaces carry most startups a long way. Add a new one when a group of people starts working on something separately and their chat begins to drown out everyone else's: a second product, a mobile app, a large customer pilot or a fundraising round. Give each new space its own Pulse, board and docs, and add only the people who work on it.
Keep the Company space as the single place for company-wide updates, so nobody has to check several spaces to learn what changed. When a project ends, archive its space instead of deleting it, so the decisions and specs stay available to the next person who asks why.
Try it
See how startups use Emitii, read about team collaboration, or follow the fuller software development template for the Product space. Emitii is invite-only: request access, or try a live demo of a software team from the Emitii home page.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I set up a startup workspace?
- Follow this page by hand. Create a few spaces with the Project or Internal type, then add the board columns, lists and folders. It takes a few minutes.
- Do we need the Timesheet?
- Only if you track hours. You can turn the Timesheet off in any space from Edit space.
Related
- StartupsStartups use Emitii to keep the board, standup chat, decision docs and team calendar in one workspace that grows with the team.
- Team collaborationHow teams use Emitii to keep chat, comments, announcements, tasks and documents in the same space, so nobody has to hunt for context.
- Product developmentHow software and product teams run features, bugs, specs and standups in an Emitii space, with board rules, docs and the CLI for coding agents.
- Software developmentAn Emitii setup for software teams: board columns for a sprint, bug labels, spec and release-note folders, standups, planning events and Rules.
- Project managementSee how Emitii runs each client, project or team in its own space, with a board, tasks, schedule, docs, chat and timesheet turned on as needed.