Linear’s designer: concept choice precedes code

Primary source. Karri Saarinen, “Design is more than code,” Linear, December 19, 2025. A first-person design argument from Linear’s CEO/cofounder; no experiment or retrospective tracing a particular agent-built feature.

Claim. Separate conceptual work (what form solves the problem) from execution (make it work and test). Concepts may be worked out in words, on paper, in a tool or in code; in the execution phase, code can also be a disposable sketch, which removes production constraints. Defining goal, context and direction before guiding an agent matters more than choosing a single prototyping medium. In Linear’s own projects example, the team chose a dedicated entity instead of a label, folder or large issue to give projects recognizable form and meaningful connections to issues. That is a described design decision, not evidence of relative quality against the alternatives.

Connection and disagreement. Aligns with Dru’s distinction between interactive discovery and inheriting a quick implementation. But the author does not require all discovery code to be thrown away: choose the appropriate medium and resist defaulting straight to production. A disposable implementation alone will not remove conceptual anchoring if its structure remains embedded in a final specification. See the open comparative test and design decision rights.