Does anyone else end up learning new features by accident?

[Anna Wilson]

Hi everyone,

I'm still pretty new to the Atlassian ecosystem, and something funny I've noticed is that I keep discovering features I wasn't even looking for. I'll be trying to do one thing and end up finding a shortcut or option that makes me think, "I wish I'd known about this sooner."

It made me wonder if that's a common experience.Was there a feature or tip you stumbled across that ended up becoming part of your everyday workflow? I'd be interested to hear what those little discoveries were.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

I'd say it's more common than you'd imagine @Anna Wilson 😅

I do tend to follow new feature announcements here in the forums, but that means you need to be here every day. Still, I manage to 'miss' some things, and then I either stumble upon them, or I see someone using new things or asking questions around them 👀

Atlassian is trying to properly announce new things, but it's still a relatively new thing.

Apart from actually discovering new stuff, I did discover new things while going through learning courses https://community.atlassian.com/learning/ 
You can sometimes find some hidden gems there. 💎

[Rob Hean]

@Anna Wilson  - that's the main way I learn :D 

I do my best to follow along on product updates, but there's just so many things floating around and being added all the time.

Typically this happens when I'm doing a live learning session - you'll see me talking about something, stop, say 'oh, that's new!' and then get entirely sidetracked by the new feature.

Best advice I can offer is to just keep exploring the system. I typically only use specific aspects of Jira or Confluence, so I try and make time to poke around in spots I don't normally use. For example my prior career was Scrum board heavy, so I focused on learning Kanban boards.

I'll also encourage you to share the things you find with others. This helps reinforce your own learning, but also helps other folks build their skills as well.

[Viswanathan Ramachandran]

You're not alone @Anna Wilson whether your a newbie or experienced Atlassian professional. Learning and seeing new things is exciting, surprising and even more. 

The most important thing is to keep exploring, keep seeking. 

If you see the forum, there's a lot of interesting questions and discussions that keeps you exciting, puzzled and willing to help. 

Cheers

[zoltanersek _outpostlabs_dev_]

Definitely a common experience. Atlassian products have a lot of depth, so it's easy to discover features months after you start using them.

One that made a big difference for me was learning to rely on JQL beyond simple searches. Once you start combining filters, saved searches, and dashboards, Jira becomes much more proactive instead of just being a place to update issues.

Another underrated feature is automation. Even small rules, like automatically assigning issues, updating fields, or notifying the right people, can remove a surprising amount of repetitive work.

My advice to anyone new is to spend a little time exploring one "advanced" feature every week. Those small discoveries tend to compound, and before long you're using the tools much more effectively than when you started.