Designing remote work at Linear

When we began back in 2019, building remote-first was a design choice. We believed builders deserve freedom: freedom of place, freedom of rhythm, freedom of deep focus. And we believed quality doesn’t come automatically, it needs to be intentional. That’s why we built Linear around trust and autonomy. We wanted to give people space to do their best work, without extra layers of process.

That vision still shapes how Linear works. Today, our 99-person team spans more than 15 countries and 10 time zones. Because we are distributed, each year we bring our whole team together in one place. This year it was Copenhagen, where we spent a week working side by side, sharing ideas, and aligning on what’s next for us as a company.

We wanted to capture what working at Linear feels like, so we brought a film crew along with us. They joined us for team sessions and other activities, filming the moments that make Linear what it is. Along the way, they interviewed members of our team who talked about what being remote-first means for us, how we stay connected across time zones, and the ways we come together in person throughout the year.

We wrapped that footage into this video, which shares what it’s like to work at Linear, told through the people who build it every day.

How we work⁠

We maximize for trust in our builders. Teams set their own rhythms, communicate directly, and keep meetings to a minimum. There are few distractions, and a shared respect for uninterrupted focus. Deep thinking time is treated as something worth protecting. We believe that quality compounds when work has time to develop.

At Linear that means:

• Small teams, clear ownership. Two to four people is typical. Teams assemble around a project and disband when done. Project leads rotate. Often engineers or designers lead.
• One product team, one roadmap. We do not use OKRs or run A/B tests. We align on a north star and make decisions with judgment, customer insight, and taste.
• Short specs, fast feedback. Specs focus on context and intent. We ship behind feature flags to internal users first, then invite select customers through Origins when it helps. Weekly written updates auto-post to Slack so everyone can follow progress without a meeting.
• Protect quality. We keep a zero-bugs policy with SLAs. Bugs get fixed now, not later. We review a weekly bug dashboard to rebalance load and spot patterns.
• Practice the craft. Quality Wednesdays train the team to see what is off. More than 1,000 small fixes over two years have raised the bar and changed how we build in the first place. Feature roasts help us ship with better judgment.
• Use constraints. Constraints create clarity. We ask why a feature matters, why now, and for whom. We keep the bar high by saying no.
• Stay close to customers. We build what customers need, not just what they ask for. Customer Requests pulls signals from support and Slack into Linear so product and engineering can see patterns next to the work.
• Plan for unplanned work. Triage and a “goalie” rotation handle inbound so projects keep momentum. SLAs make expectations explicit.

This rhythm allows people to plan their days around their lives. What matters is doing great work and getting things done.

Profitability and ownership⁠

Profitability is freedom. It lets you control your destiny and keep standards high. We’ve hired slowly, stayed focused, and built a business that funds itself. Having bigger teams does not guarantee better work. Usually it means the opposite. We hire the next person who raises the bar.

We want people to be able to choose Linear for the long term. Alongside our Series C, we ran a tender offer so current and former teammates could sell a portion of vested options at the same $1.25B price as investors. Our equity program includes a 10-year exercise window, early exercise in the US, refreshers over time, and Linear Infinity, which provides paths to liquidity along with recharge sabbaticals so people choose to keep working here.

Connection⁠

We make space for connection too. We meet monthly for a one-hour all-hands to share metrics, demo upcoming releases, and reflect on what’s working and what we can do better. Once or twice a year, the team runs Hack Week to step away from regular work and build for the fun of it. Smaller rituals, like the Great Linear Bake-Off or regular coffee chats, bring people together outside of project work and help maintain a sense of closeness across distance.

Once a year, we bring the entire company together for an offsite as we did in Copenhagen in 2025. Past offsites have been in Mexico City, Helsinki, and Lisbon.

We use these offsites to prioritize building a shared understanding of how we’ve grown, what we’ve learned, and what we’ll do to preserve the essential elements of Linear’s culture as we scale. But we also keep the agenda intentionally light to make room for unstructured time together, coworking, or discussions while exploring the city around us.

At other times during the year teams meet in smaller groups for planning sessions, project kickoffs, or to welcome new teammates. Most teams plan at least one meetup a year, usually in the opposite season from the company offsite, and anyone on the team can suggest or host one.

Coworking hubs⁠

While we’re a remote-first culture, in 2025 we introduced coworking hubs in Berlin, New York, and San Francisco. These are places for anyone who wants to work alongside teammates in person. There’s no expectation to show up, but many people build it into their week in a way that works for them.

In San Francisco, for example, someone usually starts a Slack thread at the beginning of the week to see who’s around. People share their plans, line up a few overlapping days, and end up working together, grabbing coffee, or going for lunch.

Why it matters⁠

We’ve built Linear with a deliberate balance of work styles that achieves the best of both worlds: the freedom to do your best work anywhere and the shared rhythm that keeps us aligned and cohesive as one team.

Our remote-first approach is part of how we live our mission to inspire and accelerate builders. By giving people autonomy, focus, and clarity of purpose, we create the conditions for world-class builders to do their most meaningful work. The systems, rituals, and offsites all exist to support that creative momentum and preserve the craftsmanship that defines Linear.

If this sounds like a place you’d want to help build, we’re hiring.