Linear CEO Karri Saarinen on quality-first design in the agentic age
soleio · x · 2026-11-05
First of Kind S3 E03 features Linear co-founder and CEO Karri Saarinen, exploring how a designer-founder who ignores VC playbook rules built an iconic company, and whether his uncompromising quality-first approach survives the agentic age.
Key topics (by chapter):
- Quality Is Directional: quality as direction, not checklist
- Do You Design in Code?
- Owning the Problem / Beyond the Issue Tracker
- Do We Still Need UI? — the future of UI when agents do the work
- Never Build the MVP
- Linear Recalibrates the Palate: how Linear resets user taste
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