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User Guide

Welcome to The Shine, a specialized visual tool for building process flows, calculating them dynamically, and comparing scenarios. Unlike generic whiteboarding tools, The Shine is "data-aware"—it understands numbers, formulas, and scenarios, helping you model flows dynamically.

Table of Contents

  1. The Workspace
  2. Building Process Models
  3. Scenarios & Comparisons
  4. Decorations & Annotations
  5. AI Capabilities
  6. Sharing & Exporting
  7. Keyboard Shortcuts
  8. Linear Integration
  9. Workspace
  10. Plans & Pricing

Using Boards

The Board Navigation

The board is your infinite canvas for modeling.

  • Pan: Click and drag on any empty space to move the canvas.
  • Zoom: Use + and - buttons in the top-right to zoom the board.
  • Minimap: The bottom-right box shows your current location on the board. You can drag the currently visible area on the minimap to navigate faster on the huge board canvas.

The toolbar at the bottom contains "Elements" that do more than just look good.

Parameters (Rectangles)

The rectangle is the fundamental unit of data in The Shine. It represents a step in your process that has a value.

Use Case: "Website Visitors", "Conversion Rate", "Average Order Value", "Monthly Revenue".

How to use:

  1. Drag a rectangle from the sidebar.
  2. Name it: Click the top text input to name the metric (e.g., "Signups").
  3. Set Value: Click the number "0" to type in your value (e.g., "1000").
  4. Edit: You can change this value anytime, and all connected calculations will update instantly.

Calculations (Circles Elements)

The circle element performs math operations on the values connected into it.

Use Case: Calculate "Total Revenue" by multiplying "Users" × "Price".

Available Operations:

  • Standard: + (Sum), - (Difference), × (Multiply), ÷ (Divide).
  • Statistical: Average, Max, Min, Median.
  • Advanced: Range (Max - Min), Power (Exponents), √ (Root), Modulo.

How to use:

  1. Drag a circle to the board.
  2. Select an operation from the dropdown (default is +).
  3. Connect parameters (rectangles) or other circle elements to this circle.
  4. The circle will automatically display the result.
  5. Hover over the circle to see the exact formula being applied (e.g., Users × Price).

Connections

Connections define the flow of data.

  • Create: Click and drag from the small dots (ports) on any shape to another.
  • Data Flow: When you connect a rectangle to a circle, you are "sending" that number to the calculation.
  • Delete: Click a connection line to select it (it turns blue), then press Backspace.

Scenarios & Comparisons

This is the superpower of The Shine. Instead of duplicating your entire chart to see "what if" outcomes, you can add scenarios to existing shapes.

Mastering the Multi-Scenario View

Every parameter (rectangle) can hold multiple values side-by-side.

  • Scenario 1 (Default): Your baseline (e.g., "Current Year").
  • Scenario 2, 3, etc.: Your variations (e.g., "Next Year Forecast", "Recession Case").

How to add a scenario:

  1. Look for the + button under a rectangle element.
  2. Click + to add a new scenario.
  3. Enter a new value (e.g., if scenario 1 is 100, make scenario 2 150).
  4. Auto-calculation: All connected circles will calculate results for both scenarios simultaneously.

Understanding Growth Badges

The system automatically compares all scenarios against scenario 1 (the baseline).

  • 1x: The value is unchanged from the baseline.
  • Positive change (e.g., 2.0x): The value has increased. 2.0x means it doubled.
  • Negative change (e.g., -0.5x): The value has decreased.

Instantly spot which assumptions in your model are driving growth or decline of particular metrics in your process.

Google Sheets Integration

You can pull live data directly from Google Sheets into your board.

  1. Click the Google Sheets Icon (next to the + scenario button).
  2. Paste the link to your Google Sheet.
  3. Authenticate with Google.
  4. The data from your sheet will be imported as a new non-editable scenario.
  5. On every rectangle element, choose which cell value to use.

The data for Google Sheets is refreshed every hour automatically.

Notes Sidebar

The notes sidebar acts as your project's knowledge base and context engine.

Click the arrow icon at the top-right corener to open the notes sidebar or press ].

Features:

  • Markdown support: Write rich notes with headers, lists, and code blocks.
  • Tags: Use tags (e.g., #idea, #todo) to organize your notes.
  • Context for AI: This is crucial. When you ask the AI to generate suggestions, it reads your notes to understand your specific business context, goals, and constraints. Keep your notes updated for better results.

Decorations & Annotations

Visual cues help communicate your process to others.

Stickers (Sticky Notes)

Colorful notes for documentation or feedback.

There are two ways to add a sticker:

  1. Floating: Drag a sticker to an empty space to leave a general note.
  2. Attached: Drag a sticker directly onto a rectangle or circle. It will "snap" to this element and will be associated with it.

You can change the sticker's color to one of the available.

Favorites (The Star)

Use the star icon to mark important elements.

Drag the star icon from the toolbar and drop it onto any shape.

The shape highlights with a distinctive yellow border/glow, signaling "This is important" to anyone viewing the board.

Text & Drawing

  • Text Tool: Drag and drop for simple labels. Double-click to edit. Change its size dragging left or right handlers.
  • Pen Tool P: Toggles freehand drawing mode. Great for circling groups of shapes or drawing custom directional arrows.

AI Capabilities

Generate Flow with AI

Stuck on a blank canvas?

  1. Go to the toolbar at the bottom and fin the rainbow input.
  2. Type a process details of what exactly you want to vizualize.
  3. Click the sparkle icon.
  4. In a short time, the AI will generate a draft board with typical parameters and calculations.

Task Suggestions

The AI acts as a reviewer for your process.

  1. Open the "Actions" menu at the top of the board space.
  2. Select Get Task Suggestions.
  3. The AI analyzes will take your issues and customer needs from Linear, notes as context, and generate a list of suggested connections for particular elements and Linear issues.
  4. Accept suggestions to automatically add them to your board or decline if a suggestions is not relevant. When declined, you will be asked for more context which will be stored in your notes with the tag #machine reflection.

Through the "Actions" menu, you can turn on auto-generation of suggestions which will hapen every 24 hours automatically.

Sharing & Exporting

Copy Board Data

There are two ways to copy your board data. Both are available in the “Actions” menu:

  • Copy as Table: Copies all your scenarios and values into a format ready for Excel/Google Sheets.
  • Copy as Markdown: Copies a text summary for docs (Notion, Obsidian, etc.).

Export a Board as Image

Use Get as PNG button in the "Actions" menu to generate a high-res image of your board, perfect for sharing.

Click Share on a board item from the navigation sidebar to get a board link. Toggle "Make the board public" to allow anyone with the link to view it. Board notes are also viewable by anyone in this case.

Select an element and press Cmd + L or Ctrl + L to copy the link to the specific selected element. Convinient when your board is huge enough to find a particular element for others to view. To get a link to a particular element, you can also use the right mouse button on an element.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Essentials

  • Cmd + K / Ctrl + K: Actions menu
  • P: Toggle pen/drawing tool.
  • [ / ]: Toggle left / right sidebars.

Editing & Selection

  • ←, →, ↑, ↓: To select another element on the board
  • Cmd + A: Select all.
  • Cmd + D: Duplicate selected elements.
  • Cmd + C: To copy selected elements.
  • Cmd + V: To paste copied elements.
  • Cmd + L: Copy link to the specific selected element.
  • Backspace: Delete selected elements.
  • Enter: Edit the name of the selected shapeelement
  • 1 through 9: Quickly focus and edit the value of scenario 1-9 on a selected element.
  • Cmd + Z: Undo.
  • Cmd + Shift + Z: Redo.

Linear Integration

Connect your Linear workspace to seamlessly bridge planning and execution.

Go to the workspace settings (click the organization icon in the right sidebar) and then choose Linear where you'll find the button to connect yuour Linear account. After you do that, the issues from Linear and customer needs will be synced to your organization. It will be happening automatically then every day.

After connections and syncing, you can use the AI suggestions to connect particular tasks to particular elements on a board.

The left sidebar is your workspace at a glance.. Open it with the arrow button at the top-left corner or by pressing [.

In the navigation sidebar you will see your worspace, boards, folders, and settings buttons.

Board Folders

To group related boards together, use board folders. Create it by clicking the new folder button, name it, and add boards inside by dragging and dropping.

To remove a board from a folder, use the same drag and drop way.

Duplicate a Board

Click a three-dot button while hovering over a board and choose Duplicate.

Rename a Board or a Folder

Double-click the board or folder name to rename it.

Delete a Board

Click a three-dot button while hovering over a board and choose Delete.

Workspace

The Shine supports multiple workspaces for different projects or clients.

Managing Workspaces

In the left sidebar at the top, you can switch between your workspaces by clicking the workspace name.

To create a new workspace, click the plus icon near the organization name.

Inviting Members

Collaborate with your team in real-time.

  1. Click your Organization Name in the top-left to open Settings.
  2. Go to the Members tab.
  3. Enter an email address and click Invite.

To remove a member, click the removing button while hovering over the member's email.

Member roles:

  • Editor: Can create and edit boards.
  • Admin: Can manage billing and organization settings.

Plans & Pricing

The Shine offers simple, transparent pricing for organizations.

  • Monthly Plan: €5 / month per organization. Great for short-term projects or flexibility.
  • Annual Plan: €50 / year per organization. Best value, saving you 2 months of billing.

Additionally, we offer an optional AI add-on for €25 / month or €250 / year per organization. All AI features are included in this plan with a limit of 100 AI requests per month per organization which is more than enough for most use cases.

Free Trial: All subscription plans come with a 14-days trial period so you can experience the full power of The Shine before committing.

To upgrade, go to the workspace settings (click the organization icon in the right sidebar) and choose "Subscription" tab from where you'll be able to choose on of the plans.

Every transaction will go through Stripe.

Free Account Restrictions

If you are using a free account, you have a few restrictions:

  • You can create up to 3 boards per organization.
  • You can use only 5 AI requests per month (e.g., you can generate suggestions only 5 times per month)

Everything else is free to use.