Linear’s secret to building beloved B2B products | Nan Yu (Head of Product)

Linear Head of Product Nan Yu explains how the company avoids bloat by hardcoding a refusal to build customization features for middle managers.

• Linear’s #1 survey result: engineers most want to switch from Jira to Linear if their IT department allowed it.
• Hard rule: any feature request that improves manager reporting at the cost of IC workflow is an automatic no, no debate.
• Speed and quality are not a tradeoff — competence drives both; slow teams are usually also expensive teams.
• At 10% of time elapsed, Linear expects a working internal prototype, not a polished design or spec.
• Enterprise growth is now leading other segments; brand tipping point reached where large companies say ‘Linear is for us.’
• Double triangle framework: PM sits between engineering/design and sales/marketing, not just the builder triad.
• Job interview tactic: identify the hiring manager’s specific burning problem, then position yourself as the binary solution to it.
• Deadlines are treated as P0 — scope gets cut aggressively, engineers are pulled off everything else, almost no time spent on estimation.

2025-01-30 · Watch on YouTube