Linear: move fast with little process (with first engineering manager Sabin Roman)

Brought to you by:• Launch Darkly — a platform for high-velocity engineering teams to release, monitor, and optimize great software. • Sevalla — Deploy anything from preview environments to Docker images.• WorkOS — The modern identity platform for B2B SaaS.—On today’s episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I’m joined by fellow Uber alum, Sabin Roman, now the first Engineering Manager at Linear. Linear, known for its powerful project and issue-tracking system, streamlines workflows throughout the product development process.In our conversation today, Sabin and I compare building projects at Linear versus our experiences at Uber. He shares insights into Linear’s unique approaches, including:• How Linear handles internal communications• The “goalie” program to address customer concerns and Linear’s zero bug policy• How Linear keeps teams connected despite working entirely remotely• An in-depth, step-by-step walkthrough of a project at Linear• Linear’s focus on quality and creativity over fash shipping • Titles at Linear, Sabin’s learnings from Uber, and much more!Timestamps(00:00) Intro(01:41) Sabin’s background(02:45) Why Linear rarely uses e-mail internally(07:32) An overview of Linear's company profile(08:03) Linear’s tech stack(08:20) How Linear operated without product people(09:40) How Linear stays close to customers(11:27) The shortcomings of Support Engineers at Uber and why Linear’s “goalies” work better(16:35) Focusing on bugs vs. new features(18:55) Linear’s hiring process(21:57) An overview of a typical call with a hiring manager at Linear(24:13) The pros and cons of Linear’s remote work culture(29:30) The challenge of managing teams remotely(31:44) A step-by-step walkthrough of how Sabin built a project at Linear (45:47) Why Linear’s unique working process works (49:57) The Helix project at Uber and differences in operations working at a large company(57:47) How senior engineers operate at Linear vs. at a large company(1:01:30) Why Linear has no levels for engineers (1:07:13) Less experienced engineers at Linear(1:08:56) Sabin’s big learnings from Uber(1:09:47) Rapid fire round—The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:• The story of Linear, as told by its CTO• An update on Linear, after their $35M fundraise• Software engineers leading projects• Netflix’s historic introduction of levels for software engineers—Where to find Sabin Roman:• X: https://x.com/sabin_roman• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sabinroman/Where to find Gergely:• Newsletter: https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/mrgergelyorosz• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gergelyorosz/• X: https://x.com/GergelyOrosz—References and Transcripts:See the transcript and other references from the episode at https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected]. Get full access to The Pragmatic Engineer at newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/subscribe