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“The fundamental thing that Linear did differently was this idea of being highly opinionated,” she says. “They understood that, the truth is, most companies have no idea what the right software development process is,” Zhan says. “The subset who do would much prefer focusing on building their product than dedicating time to shaping this process—cu

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We've been thinking a lot about this in the context of @linear. Linear is often described as "opinionated", but "purpose-built" is a much better way to describe it (h/t @karrisaarinen) Most issue trackers out there are general-purpose tools. They are endlessly flexible to support any use case. They treat task management as the end goal. Linear i... See more

How is Linear opinionated?

Jacob:  I think that the Linear Method has caused a lot of people to call Linear, opinionated. What are some of the strong opinions that Linear has built into the product itself that maybe people say, “wow, it might not be flexible, but this is exactly how it should work.”

Nan:  I think this is gonna cause some

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Your average e-mail client, browser software, spreadsheet software does not have an opinion regarding how it should be used. Instead, it provides a maximum of flexibility which is appreciated by the average user, yet, not optimal for particular target groups. This enables an untapped potential for challenger firms which are capable of two things ( ... See more

Today hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people might develop a piece of software. This has led to two things, Saarinen says: a focus on process over product, and removing engineers from positions of influence. “I think people get too focused on the different frameworks and processes,” he says, “and you start to forget, what are you actually doing?

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But Linear is a rebuttal to Jira. It is notably fast and only minimally customizable, defined by its meticulous design—in the fonts and colors, but also in the logic of how the product functions. Built for Agile workflows, Jira is exhaustively customizable in a way that some engineers find onerous. In contrast, the first version of Linear was desi

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