Linear’s CEO, Karri Saarinen, was recently interviewed about the inner workings of the much-loved company. They famously do not have product managers (only a head of product). This revived some of the debate on the usefulness of product managers. Well, do we need them? As with many things in life, this is an “it depends” scenario. The critical insight into why Linear does not need product managers is that the product is one that most tech and tech-adjacent professionals have knowledge about. It is significantly easier to remove product managers and make product a function of a team when that team understands its customers and the domain in which the product exists. It is possible with Linear (and other developer tools for that matter) because the people building the product have all used similar products before and they are building it for people like themselves (i.e tech and tech-adjacent professionals). It is a great property of their business. It is also not that common.
do we need product managers
do we need product managers
do we need product managers
Linear’s CEO, Karri Saarinen, was recently interviewed about the inner workings of the much-loved company. They famously do not have product managers (only a head of product). This revived some of the debate on the usefulness of product managers. Well, do we need them? As with many things in life, this is an “it depends” scenario. The critical insight into why Linear does not need product managers is that the product is one that most tech and tech-adjacent professionals have knowledge about. It is significantly easier to remove product managers and make product a function of a team when that team understands its customers and the domain in which the product exists. It is possible with Linear (and other developer tools for that matter) because the people building the product have all used similar products before and they are building it for people like themselves (i.e tech and tech-adjacent professionals). It is a great property of their business. It is also not that common.