How to Manage a GitHub Project as a Non-Developer

Navigate to your repository on github.com and click the "Issues" tab at the top. Click the green "New issue" button. Give it a descriptive title like "Add pricing section to the homepage" or "Bug: sign-up form doesn't submit on Safari." In the body, write a clear description of what needs to happen. Use plain English — describe the desired outcome from a user's perspective. You can drag and drop screenshots into the description for visual context. On the right sidebar, you'll see options for Assignees, Labels, and Milestone — we'll set those up in the next steps. Click "Submit new issue" to create it.

In the Issues tab, click the "Labels" button next to the search bar. GitHub comes with default labels like "bug" (red), "enhancement" (teal), and "documentation" (blue). To add custom labels, click the green "New label" button. Create labels that fit your workflow — for example: "urgent" (orange), "design" (purple), "AI-task" (yellow), "waiting-for-review" (gray). Give each label a clear description and pick a distinct color. After creating your labels, go back to any issue, click the "Labels" gear icon in the right sidebar, and apply the relevant labels. Now you can filter your issues by clicking any label.

Milestones let you group issues by deadline or release. Click the "Issues" tab, then click "Milestones" (next to "Labels"). Click "New milestone." Give it a title like "v1.0 Launch" or "March Release," add an optional due date, and write a brief description of what this milestone represents. Click "Create milestone." Now go to any issue, click the "Milestone" gear icon in the right sidebar, and assign it to your milestone. The Milestones page shows a progress bar tracking how many issues are open vs. closed — giving you a visual snapshot of progress toward your goal.

Click the "Projects" tab in your repository (if you don't see it, go to github.com/users/YOUR-USERNAME/projects). Click "New project." Choose "Board" as the layout and give it a name like "Product Roadmap" or "Sprint Board." Click "Create." The board starts with default columns. Click the column titles to rename them — use something like "Backlog," "To Do," "In Progress," "Review," and "Done." To add issues, click the "+" at the bottom of any column, then search for your existing issues. Drag cards between columns as work progresses. This board is your visual command center.

Open any issue and click the "Assignees" gear icon in the right sidebar. Search for GitHub usernames and click to assign. You can assign multiple people to one issue. If you're working solo, assign issues to yourself to track what you're working on. Assigned issues appear in each person's "Your Issues" feed on their GitHub dashboard, so nothing gets lost. If you're working with a developer or an AI tool like Cursor's background agents (which can pick up GitHub issues automatically), assigning the issue signals that it's ready for work.

When a developer or AI tool creates a Pull Request, it appears in the "Pull requests" tab. Click any PR to open it. Read the title and description to understand what changed. Click the "Files changed" tab to see the actual code modifications — green lines are additions, red lines are deletions. You don't need to understand the code; focus on whether the PR description matches what you asked for. Check if there's a preview URL (many deployment platforms generate one) and test the changes. If everything looks good, click the green "Merge pull request" button, then "Confirm merge." If something's wrong, leave a comment explaining the issue and click "Request changes."