The Problem
Our backlog kept growing. Developers were wasting time figuring out what to pick up next, sometimes grabbing low-priority tasks or missing ones with open questions. It slowed everyone down and created a lot of context-switching.
We needed something that:
- Prioritized tickets based on what’s actually urgent
- Gave each dev a clear next action
- Removed the mental overhead of choosing
What We Built
We created a “Smart Ticket Feed” inside Retool that shows one ticket at a time, personalized for each developer.
Each dev sees:
✅ A single ticket
💬 The most recent messages and any unread ones
⏱️ Ability to track their time spent on the ticket right from the same view
🧠 Key context like project priority and who’s involved
🎯 Clear options: pick it up, skip it, or ask a question
It’s simple, focused, and removes decision fatigue.
It also allows our project leads to monitor and manage the status of each project
How the Recommendations Work
We score each ticket based on a few things:
- If the dev has unread messages
- If they’re tagged in the thread
- Whether it’s a triage or blocked ticket
- Ticket and project priority
- Whether it’s already assigned to them
- How long it’s been sitting idle
Then we sort tickets by score and show only the top one. No scrolling, no distractions.
How We Built It
- Supabase is our backend (tables like
tickets,threads,projects) - Retool queries handle scoring and filtering based on the current user
- UI shows just one ticket with all the relevant info
- Buttons to start, skip, or reply are built right into the card
- Once a dev acts, the next ticket loads
Why It Works
- Devs don’t need to think about what to work on
- Tickets with context gaps don’t get ignored
- Nobody cherry-picks just the fun stuff
- Team throughput improved without adding process
Results
Since rolling it out, we’ve seen:
- Fewer stale or forgotten tickets
- Faster handoffs between devs
- More consistent throughout
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