How Atono uses Atono
We built it, now we’re using it – here’s how we've set up Atono to help us build better software together.
We created Atono with a mission: to build the tool we always wished we had.
After years of working with various software development tools, we found that none of them hit the mark. They were functional but clearly built before cross-functional teams were a thing. That’s why we set out to create something new—a platform that makes development more collaborative, less stressful, and truly tailored to cross-functional teams.
As we prepare to launch our MVP, we know there’s still more to build and refine. However, we’ve been using Atono internally for four months so it is now a key part of our journey, helping us shape the platform as we go. We’re excited to share how we’ve been using it and what our team has to say about their experience so far.
This is just the beginning. There’s a lot more to come, and we can’t wait to hear how you’ll use Atono.
Workspaces for every development stage
Workspaces in Atono serve as the foundation for organizing and managing work. While other teams will rely on a single workspace to manage their product development, we’ve set up multiple workspaces to meet the unique needs of building the platform itself. Here’s how we use them:
Production workspace: Our primary workspace (‘atono.atono.io’) reflects how customers will use Atono, giving us firsthand experience of the platform. It’s where live work happens, ensuring we experience the same processes as our users.
Test and sandbox workspaces: These allow us to build, experiment, and rigorously test new features without disrupting live work.
Demo workspace: A fictional project, Virtual Vintage, showcases Atono’s features as a real app development team might use them. We use this workspace for demos, training, and exploring workflows in a controlled environment.
“I primarily work in my dedicated sandbox workspace to rigorously test and challenge new features during development. I also use a test workspace to develop and execute automated tests, focusing on verifying happy paths before rolling out significant changes to customers. When stories are ready for testing and stakeholder review, I collaborate with developers in the main Atono workspace.” — Kevin, QA
Team-specific workflows
Atono’s workflows are designed to be flexible, so teams can adjust them to fit how they work while still tracking key performance metrics. The default workflow supports efficient, reliable delivery, but we’ve made a few small tweaks to better match our team’s processes.
Here’s what our workflow looks like:
Engineering: To Do → Development → Test → Review → Done → Won’t Do
These adjustments help us refine how we work while still tracking metrics that matter, like cycle time—key for optimizing our processes and forecasting timelines.
Show only what you care about
Developers and QA: Developers often use the team board to visually track tasks as they progress through workflow steps. QA specialists focus on filters to find high-priority bugs or items in testing.
“Filters in the backlog let me quickly narrow down items ready for testing or high-priority bugs. It’s great for staying focused on the most important tasks.” — Denise, QA
Product and UX: Product owners and designers often prefer the list view for a more compact overview, enabling quick prioritization and tracking.
“List view makes it easy for me to scan stories and see if work has started on a ticket yet.” — Heather, Principal Designer
Managers: Filters and views help managers track timeboxes, organize stories by product theme, and focus on specific workflow steps during standups and retrospectives.
“I use filters in the backlog during standups to track timeboxes and product themes. They’re also a great way to focus retrospective discussions on what really matters.” — Mark, VP Engineering
Seamless feature rollouts
Feature flags are a cornerstone of modern development, letting us test, release, and disable features without redeploying code. They provide flexibility, letting teams control which features are active in specific environments, roll out updates gradually, or quickly disable problematic functionality.
We use feature flags at Atono to support:
Agile development: By enabling rapid iteration and testing, feature flags help us maintain a high velocity without sacrificing stability.
Risk management: Rolling out features gradually or disabling them quickly helps us address issues before they impact customers.
Integrated workflows: Because feature flags are built directly into stories, you can manage them alongside your development work without switching tools.
Story-embedded feature flags
Feature flags in Atono are embedded directly into stories, a unique feature that sets Atono apart. This integration ties feature flags to the context of the work they support, providing clarity on which features are enabled or tested for specific stories.
Story integration: By embedding feature flags into stories, teams can easily track dependencies and maintain alignment. “Associating feature flags directly to stories is a huge win for me, seeing exactly which items are being enabled.” — Dylan, Developer
Testing and iteration: Developers toggle feature flags to test functionality in local environments before broader rollouts. “It’s easy to toggle a feature I’m working on with a feature flag, so I can see it and work on it before it’s out in the open.” — Sandra, Developer
Cross-application coordination: Our feature flag SDK connects across Atono’s website, app, and demo workspace, enabling coordinated releases. “With our feature flag SDK connected to multiple apps, we can coordinate releases effortlessly across platforms.” — Gabrielle, Developer
Feature flags aren’t just a tool—they’re a foundation for how we build, test, and deliver software at Atono.
Building together through stories
Stories are the building blocks of work in Atono, capturing requirements, expectations, and context for new features and enhancements. They provide a shared understanding of what needs to be built, why it’s important, and how it aligns with broader product goals.
The story lifecycle
Idea creation: Stories start in the Story refinement backlog, where they’re assigned product themes and timeboxes for strategic focus and delivery timelines.
Design collaboration: UX designers link Figma prototypes directly to stories, providing clear visual references for developers.
Assignment and sizing: Once stories are refined and ready, they’re assigned to the appropriate team backlog. Engineering managers like Mark facilitate sizing exercises to estimate the effort required for each story.
Development and testing: Stories are assigned to backlogs, where developers and QA collaborate using linked bugs and acceptance criteria. Atono’s linkable ACs make this collaboration even smoother—developers, product owners, and QA can copy a direct URL to a specific AC, making it easy to reference requirements in Slack discussions or comments.
“The most useful feature to me is links to specific ACs. In other tools, referring to ‘AC 3.a of story X’ felt unreliable because ACs could be renumbered or removed. With Atono, I can freely reference and edit stories while keeping discussions clear and traceable.” — Lex, Developer
Completion and documentation: Once stories are completed, Karla from Documentation reviews the story ACs, activities, and Slack discussions to create customer-facing guides.
Collaborative bug management
Bugs are an inevitable part of software development, but at Atono, they don’t derail progress—they drive improvement. By managing bugs as a separate type of workflow item from stories, we ensure that we prioritize fixes effectively while maintaining focus on feature development.
Our Bug triage page takes it a step further by creating a clear, streamlined process for assessing and acting on bugs.
“Bug triage is essential for prioritizing and clarifying issues. It keeps our team focused on what matters most.” — Mark, VP Engineering
A smooth workflow for QA and Devs
Atono’s bug workflows are built to streamline collaboration and boost efficiency, particularly between QA and Development. Developers can use the triage board to quickly assess newly reported bugs, leveraging built-in risk ratings to prioritize the most critical issues. Meanwhile, QA can monitor the board to ensure every bug is addressed promptly, whether it's assigned to the team backlog or flagged for further discussion.
Right from your browser
Context is central to Atono’s approach. That’s why we built the Atono browser extension to address two crucial challenges: immediate feature rollbacks and comprehensive bug reporting.
Fast feature rollback: When seconds count, the extension provides instant access to feature flags directly within the browser. Developers can toggle features on or off without redeploying, minimizing downtime and preventing user frustration.
Smarter bug reporting: The extension also helps QA collect critical details like browser logs, console errors, and network requests automatically when a bug is reported. This eliminates the back-and-forth often required to gather missing information, helping developers resolve issues faster.
“I’ve been using our browser extension to log bugs in Atono—it automatically captures my browser and other key details, so developers have everything they need right away.” — Kevin, QA
Chat where you already are
Like many software teams, Slack is our go-to communication tool. Atono’s integration with Slack makes sure that whether we’re refining a story, fixing a bug, or deploying a feature, all communication is linked directly to the relevant work. Plus, by connecting both teams and stories to dedicated Slack channels, Atono ensures that everyone gets focused, purposeful communication.
“By linking Slack to stories, all our discussions stay tied to the work, reducing the need to dig through emails or other tools.” — Lex, Developer
More features we love
Beyond the core workflows, Atono’s additional features enhance how we work and collaborate every day.
See everything
The Everything page provides a centralized view of all stories, bugs, and other items across teams, backlogs, and workflows. With powerful filtering and search tools, it helps us quickly locate specific work items and monitor cross-team progress.
Cross-team visibility: “I use the Everything page to track status for cross-team deliverables. It’s the fastest way to see what’s in flight across multiple teams.” — Mark, VP Engineering
Prioritizing work: “When I’m focusing on items in one area of a product theme, my go-to is the Everything page. I can filter by product theme or timebox, then sort by workflow step to find the next best thing to work on.” — Aaron, Engineering Intern
Testing and validation: “I use the Everything page to filter on recently closed items to help build regression test plans. It also helps me check if a defect I found has already been reported.” — Denise, QA
Managing blockers: “The Everything page is key for reviewing outstanding blocker bugs with high risk ratings before a milestone. It helps us stay ahead of potential issues.” — Taylor, QA Lead
Flexible planning
Timelines, timeboxes, and product themes provide a clear, visual representation of release plans, helping us coordinate efforts, detect dependencies, and communicate progress effectively. Timeboxes group related stories and bugs with start and end dates, while timelines display them in a horizontal, adaptive view for streamlined planning.
Release coordination: “I like being able to see everything assigned to a timebox on the timeline view to make sure I prioritize work that is due soon. It's also a good way to check if we're missing any dependencies for a release.” — Gabrielle, Developer
QA milestone tracking: “I review milestone dates by looking at timelines to make sure items still have time to go through QA.” — Taylor, QA Lead
A single source of truth for planning: “I’m excited to move everything into Atono and make it the source of truth. Right now, there are at least four different documents tracking release plans. Having everything in one place will simplify planning.” — Tobias, Product Owner
High level visibility: “I use the timeline views to communicate high-level plans and content.” — Mark, VP Engineering
Documentation and roadmaps: “The timelines feature is really helpful for seeing what’s coming and when, so I can plan documentation work and keep the public roadmap up to date.” — Karla, Documentation
Keep related work connected
Atono’s Linked items feature keeps dependencies between stories and bugs visible and easy to track. Whether it’s connecting a bug to the feature it affects or linking related stories together, Linked items help our team stay aligned and resolve issues faster.
“Linked items are a lifesaver. When QA reports bugs on a story, I can see them right away in the Linked items section and jump in immediately.” — Aaron, Engineering Intern
“I like how we link stories and their bugs together. It makes it easy to confirm whether any work is still outstanding on a feature.” — Gabrielle, Developer
A time-stamped history
When we need to review all of the changes made to stories, bugs, and feature flags, we default to the Activities list. With filtering options by user or change type, it ensures transparency, accountability, and easy access to important updates.
Debugging and validation: “Activity logs are a lifesaver for debugging. I can see exactly when and how changes were made.” — Denise, QA
Cross-team context: “Activities lets me see who made changes on the backend, so I know exactly who to ask if I have questions.” — Aaron, Engineering Intern
Built-in measurability
To understand how long stories and bugs spend in the "In Progress" workflow steps, we use Atono’s built-in cycle time tracking. This provides key insights into our team’s velocity and highlights any potential bottlenecks.
“I use cycle time to judge the accuracy of our estimates and projected completion dates. It helps me create and validate timeboxes so I can keep our timelines up to date.” — Mark, VP Engineering
Why Atono works for us
Atono’s flexibility allows us to customize workflows, connect tools like Slack, and stay aligned across teams. It’s not just a product; it’s a framework for how we build, refine, and deliver software. By using Atono ourselves, we’re constantly uncovering new ways to improve it—and those improvements go straight into making your experience even better.
We can’t wait to see how you use Atono to streamline your workflows, enhance collaboration, and achieve your goals.