Ori Keren, Co-founder & CEO of LinearB shares his predictions for 2021.

According to Keren:

• Remote working will be the new norm
• More and more things will be automated
• Companies will want more value out of data
• Privacy and Security will become more important
• The hybrid model will gain popularity
• People will want to work with companies that share their values

Correlating Git and project management data, LinearB delivers dashboards, reports, and real-time alerts on how teams actually work to predict and eliminate project delays, remediate high-risk code, remove cycle bottlenecks, identify shadow work and ensure focus on high-priority tasks.

Here is an abridged version of the predictions.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Hi, this is your host Swapnil Bhartiya and today, we have with us Ori Keren, Co-founder and CEO of LinearB. Ori, first of all, it’s great to have you on the show. I will ask you to go grab your crystal ball and tell us how things will look like in 2021. But before we go there, I would love to learn a bit more about the company. What problem did you see in the market that you wanted to solve with LinearB?
Ori Keren: We’re building a software delivery intelligence platform. We identified that there is a huge problem in our software projects that are being delivered today and in the future. Even though tools like Git and CI/CD have shifted left and they are harnessing the power of the dev-first approach, project management and engineering efficiency tools are failing to do that. At LinearB, we are trying to take work off developers. With traditional project management, developers need to update tasks, make sure they’re done, drag them to the right place, and so on. We automate all that by learning how the company works. That’s one thing that we do. The other thing that we do is we help dev teams, managers and VPs of engineering to improve with metrics. We believe that the right way to do it is by adopting it from the bottom up. So, every dev team, every developer can use them — it’s not just for managers. We also have some great dashboards and insights for VPs and CEOs.

Swapnil Bhartiya: Now, go grab your crystal ball and tell me what predictions you have for 2021?
Ori Keren: My first prediction is related to what is going on in the world right now with COVID-19 and its effect on automation and workflows. If you think about it, a lot of teams are working from home. I think in the second half of 2021, it will shift to a new “new normal” where there is a lot of room for companies to evolve into automation technology in the dev space, like “At 1 pm, I want this to happen. If I see a PR from that person, I want to get notified.” I honestly believe that a company will emerge which will help you to automate all of those things with an async mind. We’ll be talking about async development all the time.

Data has been the king for a while, but I think there are going to be companies and technologies that will use data in a different way. It’s not just about showing data and gleaning insights, even if they’re actionable. It’s about “Here’s a complete story. This is where the problem started. Then, this is what happened.” Privacy and security will also become even more important than it is today. People will look seriously at their digital footprint and it will become increasingly important where you store your data. People will be more conservative and will use hybrid models between cloud and on-prem.
The ongoing crisis has changed the human capital very much. We learned that life is fragile. People will want to work with companies who take good care of them. People will work with companies that identify with their own values, companies that provide equal opportunities and diversity. In the second half of 2021, we’re going to see mobility again. Right now, people are staying with the companies they are with for the sake of stability, but in the second half, people will move again.

Swapnil Bhartiya: What is going to be the focus of the company in 2021?
Ori Keren: We’re experiencing a huge growth. We were 10x more than we were and we want to do another 10x in the next year. So, we will focus on scaling the product, maintaining the great user experience that we have which is one of our strengths, and generating more demand. We feel we are now getting the wave of early adopters and we are starting to see the beginning of the mass market. So, we definitely think that 2021 will be a lot more about getting more customers to try and join the LinearB family.