Rockstars: Celebrate Your Team's Top Performers

Rockstars transforms project metrics into team recognition. This leaderboard surfaces the contributors driving your project forward—highlighting who's closing tasks, putting in effort, and logging hours. It's visibility into performance without micromanagement.

Why Recognition Matters

High-performing teams share a common trait: they see their impact. When contributions are visible, motivation follows naturally. Rockstars provides that visibility by aggregating three key metrics into a public leaderboard:

• Closed Issues: Tasks completed and moved to done
• Efforts: Story points or effort units delivered
• Time Worked: Hours logged against project work

These aren't vanity metrics. They're the tangible outputs that move projects forward.

The Rockstar Leaderboard

Access Rockstars from your project sidebar. The view displays a centered grid of team member cards, each showcasing an individual's contribution.

Header Section

The page opens with context:

Title: "Rockstar Team" — identifies the leaderboard purpose

Subtitle: "Highlighting the key contributors driving the success of [Project Name]" — dynamic based on your current project, reinforcing that recognition is project-specific

Team Member Cards

Each contributor displays in an individual card containing:

Avatar: Team member's profile image, prominently displayed for instant recognition

Name: Full name as configured in their profile

Headline: Professional title or role (falls back to "N/A" if not set)

Performance Metrics (displayed at card bottom):

• Closed: Number of completed tasks
• Efforts: Total effort points delivered
• Worked: Time logged (displayed as duration or "N/A" if no time tracked)

Card Layout

Cards arrange in a responsive grid:

• Centered on screen with consistent spacing
• Fixed width (250px) ensuring readable content
• Minimum height (280px) maintaining visual consistency
• Dark elevated background matching GitScrum's design system

On smaller screens, cards stack appropriately while maintaining the centered layout.

Metrics Explained

Closed Issues Count

This represents tasks moved to a "Done" or closed status. It's the most direct measure of completion.

What counts:

• Any task the team member closes
• Tasks where they're the assignee at completion
• All task types (tasks, bugs, features)

What it indicates:

• Throughput capacity
• Completion rate
• Task resolution speed

Total Efforts

Story points or effort units accumulated from completed tasks. This normalizes contribution beyond raw task count.

What counts:

• Effort points from tasks the member completes
• Accumulated from the task's effort field
• Reflects estimated complexity delivered

Why it matters:

• A single 13-point task differs from thirteen 1-point tasks
• Measures complexity handled, not just volume
• Better indicator of actual work delivered

Duration Worked

Total time logged against project tasks. This requires the Time Tracking feature.

What counts:

• All time entries logged by the team member
• Time associated with project tasks
• Billable and non-billable hours combined

What it shows:

• Investment of actual hours
• Engagement level
• Resource allocation reality

N/A display: If a team member hasn't logged time (or time tracking isn't used), "N/A" appears instead of a zero value—acknowledging that absence of data differs from zero contribution.

Display Configuration

The Rockstars view fetches the top performers with these defaults:

Quantity: 15 team members maximum Sort By: Task completion (closed issues count)

This means the leaderboard shows your top 15 contributors ranked by tasks completed, with efforts and time as secondary context.

Use Cases

Sprint Retrospectives

Pull up Rockstars during retros to:

• Acknowledge top contributors publicly
• Identify who carried heavy loads
• Recognize consistent performers

Team Meetings

Use the leaderboard to:

• Start meetings on a positive note
• Surface contributors who might otherwise go unnoticed
• Create natural recognition moments

Performance Reviews

Reference Rockstars data for:

• Objective contribution evidence
• Trend identification over time
• Fair assessment foundation

New Team Member Onboarding

Show new hires:

• Who the go-to contributors are
• What high performance looks like in metrics
• Team culture around recognition

Design Philosophy

Rockstars deliberately keeps it simple. Three metrics, clean cards, no gamification complexity.

No badges or achievements: Focus stays on actual contribution, not game mechanics

No historical comparison: Current performance matters, not past rankings

No competitive elements: Recognition without creating unhealthy competition

No individual targets: Visibility without pressure

The goal is celebrating contribution, not engineering behavior.

Best Practices

For Team Leads

Make it visible: Reference Rockstars in team channels periodically. Recognition only works if people see it.

Context matters: A team member closing 50 tasks might be handling simple work. One closing 10 complex features may be contributing more. Use Rockstars as conversation starters, not rankings.

Acknowledge different strengths: Not everyone shows up equally in these metrics. Code review, mentoring, architecture work—all valuable, none captured here. Use Rockstars as one input among many.

Rotate attention: Don't always highlight the same top performers. Find opportunities to recognize improvement, consistency, or recovery from tough periods.

For Team Members

Don't game it: Closing many small tasks to top the leaderboard defeats the purpose. The team notices.

Appreciate peers: Rockstars works best when team members recognize each other, not just when leads point it out.

Provide context: If you're at the top, share what's working. If you're not appearing, explain what you're working on that might not show in these metrics.

For Organizations

Celebrate, don't rank: Rockstars shows contributions, not employee value. People contribute differently.

Watch for burnout signals: Consistently high numbers might indicate someone carrying too much. Check in.

Seasonal variation: Accept that contributions fluctuate. A quiet sprint might follow an intense release.

Integration with Other Features

Rockstars draws data from several GitScrum features:

Tasks: Closed issues count comes from task completion events

Effort Points: Configured on tasks, accumulated on completion

Time Tracking: Logged time entries roll up per team member

Team Members: Profile data (avatar, name, headline) displays on cards

The leaderboard is read-only—all data modification happens in the source features.

Limitations to Understand

Project-scoped: Rockstars shows contribution to the current project only. Cross-project contribution isn't aggregated.

Current state: The view shows accumulated totals, not trends or recent performance.

Task-centric: Work that doesn't result in task closure (research, planning, support) won't appear.

Assignee-based: Only the assignee at completion gets credit. Collaborative work goes to whoever closes.

Privacy Considerations

Rockstars is visible to all project members. There's no private mode.

What everyone sees:

• All team members' metrics
• Names and avatars
• Headlines if provided

Team agreement: Ensure your team is comfortable with performance visibility before using Rockstars regularly in meetings or reviews.

When to Use Rockstars

Good moments:

• Celebrating sprint completion
• Quarterly recognition
• Team morale boost
• Onboarding context

Avoid using for:

• Individual performance criticism
• Compensation decisions (alone)
• Pressure tactics
• Public shaming

The tool exists for recognition, not evaluation. The distinction matters.

Technical Details

Data Fetching

Rockstars queries the API with:

• Company and project slugs (context)
• Quantity limit (15)
• Sort parameter (tasks)

Data refreshes when:

• Page loads
• Project context changes
• Route parameters update

Loading State

While data fetches, a loading indicator displays. This typically completes in under a second for most teams.

Error Handling

If data fails to load, the view handles gracefully. Check network connectivity or project access if Rockstars shows empty unexpectedly.

Mobile Experience

Rockstars works on mobile devices:

• Cards stack vertically on narrow screens
• Touch scrolling navigates the grid
• Avatar images scale appropriately
• Metrics remain readable at smaller sizes

The centered grid layout ensures consistent experience across device sizes.

Rockstars is recognition made simple. Surface your top contributors, celebrate their impact, and let the team see what moving projects forward actually looks like. The metrics tell a story—make sure your team hears it.