Retool is pioneering a new way of building internal software. Linear keeps their teams customer-focused.
Internal tools shape how companies operate, yet they've long been an afterthought in the software ecosystem. Retool is changing this reality – their platform enables ambitious teams at Stripe, Amazon and Pinterest to build bespoke internal tools that streamline operations. For Retool, shipping high-quality software is non-negotiable – it's how their customers achieve operational excellence.
As the team scaled, they needed to balance new product work with maintaining business-critical features. Before Linear, they struggled with legacy tools and slow processes. Now, they can quickly review tickets and monitor team progress at a glance. The speed is their main reason for using Linear.
Other tools felt like tons of tech debt in your face. It was weirdly hard to do things. I've never run into that with Linear. It feels more like software I want to use.
With Linear's ability to auto-detect and quickly merge duplicate issues, Retool managed to prune their substantial backlog. "I like how Linear isn't some agnostic tool that lets you do everything any way you want," shares Donald Hruska, Engineering Manager. "Their opinionated features like auto-closing tickets consistently prove valuable—teams report cleaner backlogs, fewer stale issues, and better visibility into actual work. As a leader, I can confidently enable these features knowing they've been proven successful across thousands of engineering teams."
Triage automatically assigns incoming issues to the appropriate Retool engineer, while Linear's Slack integration keeps key stakeholders informed. Alex Tapper, Head of Internal Tools, notes: "We're able to get back to users faster when we fix bugs and ship features thanks to the GitHub automation, which sends a notification once a PR is merged. We also use Linear comments extensively. It's the place where people have conversations and share updates — and we point to Linear as the source of truth."
Every quarter, teams self-assign projects, divide up the work, and drive toward specific goals using milestones. "They are a good push for the team," explains Jennifer Zhang, Engineering Manager, "helping us plan a sprint of work and see the progress graph over time. Just seeing how the team works through a set of tickets and the velocity they're moving at is motivating."
At Retool, we're focused on quality, and Linear has helped us form a definition of what 'quality' means. We literally have a project in Linear called 'Quality,' and every engineer on the team is taking one roughly four-hour task every week that improves the quality of Retool – and it's directly sourced from customer feedback that lands in Linear.
The combination of a clear workspace, clear ownership, and clear to-dos has Retool engineers moving at a higher velocity, shipping the features customers need to manage their internal operations with confidence.