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Building Product with Craft: The Linear Method

Karri Saarinen
Co-founder & CEO, Linear
DESIGN & CRAFT
The Thesis

Craft is
Not Optional

1st100kTodayROUGHOKDESIGNREQUIREDCRAFTMANDATORYDESIGN BAR RISES WITH MARKET MATURITY
"The more a domain matters, the more design matters. When it's new, rough is fine. When there are 100,000 competitors, you need craft to be considered at all."
  • Each new paradigm (mobile, web) starts rough but matures fast
  • Design becomes table stakes as markets mature
  • Today, users expect craft from day one of any product
Framework

The Linear Method: Building with Taste

SHIP EARLYITERATE FASTTASTE &JUDGMENT
0
A/B tests run
1
head of product
  • No A/B tests: Decisions made on taste and customer understanding, not data
  • Minimal PMs: One head of product (Nan Yu). Ownership distributed to eng + design teams
  • Early shipping: Features shipped internally in week 1, then to opt-in users, then full release when crafted
  • Project-based teams: Small cross-functional teams assemble around features, then disperse
  • Deep customer context: Whole team talks to users, reads feedback, understands the problem
The founders' pactSuccess requires alignment on craft as a value. If founders don't believe it, the company can't build it. Domain matters too, Linear is in the retention business, so quality compounds every day.
Mechanics

How Craft Actually Gets Built

  • Week 1 ship: Design sketched, then immediately built and shipped to production (internal only)
  • Internal feedback: Team uses the rough feature, spots friction and polish gaps
  • Customer co-creation: Find 1–10 customers interested in early access, iterate alongside them (e.g., Vercel for roadmap features)
  • Trust over data: When someone sees a detail is wrong, we fix it. No metrics required
  • Taste is taught: Example: Andreas (engineer) improved the macOS submenu interaction by adding dynamic safe zones, no one asked for it, he just cared
The secret sauce

Craft happens when you remove the PM gatekeeper and give teams ownership. Engineers and designers see the whole problem and naturally optimize for quality.

The trade-off

Shipping takes longer in some dimensions (polish phase), but you ship faster in others (no reviews, no meetings). Net effect: faster quality product, not slower.

First Principles

Decision Framework

  • Magic + science: Talk to customers religiously (science), then use taste to decide (magic). Neither alone works.
  • Main quests only: Avoid side quests. Ask: "Does this help the customer? Does it help the product?" If no, it's a distraction.
  • Timing over perfection: Some features aren't important yet (e.g., SOC 2). Say no and move on.
  • Fail forward: You might make wrong choices. That's fine. Fix it and move. Data didn't make the choice for you.
YC principle (Karri's north star)Talk to customers. Build the product. Exercise. Don't do anything else.
Contrarian

The Anti-Playbook

✗Metrics drive product decisionsINSTEAD →✓ Customer understanding + taste drive decisions. Metrics answer specific questions, not the reverse.
✗PMs make the key decisionsINSTEAD →✓ Engineers and designers own the project. They see the details. They care. They ship better.
✗Ship fast, polish laterINSTEAD →✓ Ship fast internally, polish before users see it. The end result is a beautiful product, not a broken one.
✗All ideas are worth exploringINSTEAD →✓ Say no to side quests. Craft only emerges when you say no to 90% of ideas and go deep on the 10% that matter.
Based on Karri Saarinen's episode on Lenny's Podcast. All ideas on this page are from the episode.Watch on YouTubeFollow @karrisaarinen on X
GO DEEPER IN THE EPISODE
04:25 Overview of Linear06:43 Linear’s design process and its focus on quality12:25 Building a craft-oriented company16:41 Product management at Linear18:37 Strategies for launching a startup without a dedicated PM21:16 How Linear assists PMs in their roles23:46 Linear’s potential expansion in PM roles24:58 The importance of design29:08 Utilizing design and brand as distinct competitive advantages30:48 The importance of authenticity in branding and messaging33:08 How design reviews are conducted at Linear38:34 The Linear method for modern software development40:07 Why productivity software should be opinionated41:23 Why Linear created “cycles” and how it works43:27 Why Linear doesn’t have metric-based goals45:07 How a business can thrive without metrics, PMs, and A/B testing48:04 A customer-focused approach to building product50:02 Adapting strategies for diverse products and domains53:05 Three techniques Karri uses to maintain focus56:47 Linear’s hiring practices1:02:10 Paid work trials1:04:31 How to determine a candidate’s “product sense”1:08:21 Linear’s growth journey and milestones1:14:18 How pricing strategies were initially introduced at Linear1:16:18 Linear’s journey to finding product-market fit1:21:44 The importance of online presence and authenticity in business1:24:59 Insight into the corporate culture at Linear1:28:29 Lessons learned during Karri’s transition from IC to CEO1:30:21 Sneak peek into the upcoming “asks” feature at Linear1:32:04 Lightning round
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