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Karri Saarinen

1 episode

Episodes

Inside Linear: Building with taste, craft, and focus | Karri Saarinen (co-founder, designer, CEO)

Oct 8, 20231h 39m

Guest: Karri Saarinen - Co-founder and CEO of Linear. Karri was the founding designer at Coinbase, principal designer at Airbnb, and co-founder of two previous startups. He is recognized for his unique approach to building high-quality, opinionated software. Key Takeaways: Design as a Differentiator: In crowded markets, high-quality design becomes crucial for standing out. Early-stage startups should focus on design to set themselves apart and attract users. Opinionated Software: Linear focuses on providing opinionated solutions that reduce user decision fatigue, allowing teams to focus on their work rather than configuring tools. Cycles Over Sprints: Linear uses automated cycles to help teams focus on specific tasks, reducing distractions from an ever-growing task list. Hiring for Breadth: Linear hires individuals who can operate beyond their specific roles, looking for candidates with product sensibility and broader skill sets. Growth Strategy: Linear initially targeted early-stage startups, using a waitlist and selective onboarding to refine their product, gradually expanding to larger companies. Topics Covered: Design as a differentiator, opinionated software, cycles vs. sprints, product market fit, hiring strategies, growth tactics, Linear Method, building company culture.

Notable Quotes

โ€œQuality is so hard to define. If you actually start thinking about it, it's like, how do you define it? It's really hard to pin down, but it's like when you try something or see it, then you know if it's quality or not.โ€

Quality in design

โ€œCooperation only happens if people use the product, and our product is supposed to help the cooperation.โ€

Importance of user experience

โ€œSometimes you have too much urgency and you are rushing things, and what happens is that you rushed it and now you need to come back to fix it.โ€

Pace of work in startups