Karri Saarinen
Co-founder and CEO of Linear; previously principal designer at Airbnb, where he led the Design Language System, and founding designer at Coinbase.
Karri Saarinen did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.
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Their wordsDon't become a software factory where you out like outsource all the work and thinking to somewhere else and like just focus on like how efficient can the output be because the output is not the product.
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 1st of 10 in this recording
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Their wordsSo making products produces two things. The the product and the learning.
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 2nd of 10 in this recording
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Our reading
A company that does not learn from the work it does would probably eventually lose its advantage.
Their wordseventually if you don't learn from the work you do I think eventually you would lose the advantage of what you have currently in your in your space or in your company
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 3rd of 10 in this recording
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Their wordsSo a lot of times people I think focus on what AI can do what it can execute but not what AI can teach you.
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 4th of 10 in this recording
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Our reading
Working alone with agents may be efficient, but it means people stop learning from each other.
Their wordsa lot of people are working alone with their agents building things and I think it's efficient but then there's also the problems like we not learning from each other anymore
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 5th of 10 in this recording
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Our reading
If colleagues seeing a feature for the first time are confused, users are likely confused too.
Their wordsSo they if they are confused it's likely that the the users are confused too.
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 6th of 10 in this recording
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Their wordswe should automate more of the known things like the things that are repeatable and maybe are not that impactful. It's not something we can learn a lot from.
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 7th of 10 in this recording
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Our reading
Intuition is not a magical force but something learned while working and listening to customers.
Their wordsintuition is not some like magical force that like and Star Wars or something that it's happens to you. It it is something that you have learned while working on something or listening to customers or something.
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 8th of 10 in this recording
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Their wordsthe better context those people have and like better understanding they have about the what they're supposed to do I think the products are better
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 9th of 10 in this recording
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Their wordsat linear I always thought that hiring people is the first step building great products
↗Context is now the product: Product leadership when software can build itself | Karri Saarinen (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com 10th of 10 in this recording
- 14 years earlier
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Their wordsLike sushi chefs, we as founders, designers or developers, need to develop our tastes, in order to build things people can be impressed about.
- 3 years earlier
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Their wordsAs a product visionary, trying to describe the product on a piece of paper with paragraphs and bullet points is like trying to paint the Sistine Chapel with a whiteboard marker.
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Their wordsIn making products, taste is not a matter of opinion, but an actual sense of sophistication that a person has. People who make new things need to practice taste and recognize beauty when they see it. Schools or education have very little to teach in the area of taste, you need to get involved in making something real.
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Their wordsFor the soul, you need a person with a great taste to be the living and breathing aspect of the product. The one forging the blades. The person who thinks about the in and outs of the product and the business.