Building for Quality in a World of AI Slop with Linear's Karri Saarinen
About this episode
Karri Saarinen discusses the evolution of Linear and its focus on quality and speed in product development amidst the rise of AI.
Karri Saarinen is the co-founder and CEO of Linear, the product and issue tracking platform built for high-performing software teams. A designer by training — with stints at Airbnb and Coinbase — Karri took a different path to founding than most Silicon Valley CEOs. Linear has become one of the most beloved tools in the startup ecosystem, known for its speed, design quality, and now its deep integration with AI agents. What you'll learn: How Linear evolved from issue tracking to a full product-building system with AI agents Why speed and quality — not features — were Linear's winning strategy in a crowded market How Karri thinks about AI's role in design and why average startup design is getting worse Why designers rarely become founders and whether AI will change that The "Quality Wednesday" ritual Linear uses to keep polish standards high at 120 people How Linear's feature roast process catches blind spots before anything ships What Linear borrowed from Coinbase's hiring playbook — and how work trials outperform interviews How Linear built an open agent platform and why it now hosts more agents than any tool in its category Karri's take on whether designers should write code —…
Topics covered
- AI integration
- product design
- startup ecosystem
- quality assurance
- founder journeys
- software development
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