Merge API Inc.

How Linear Builds and Maintains a Best-In-Class Product

Anuj Jhunjhunwala

Head of Product at Merge

Nan Yu

Head of Product at Linear

Learn how the Linear Product team aligns cross-functional partners to ensure a smooth launch every time.

How to approach product releases

See how the team has fine-tuned their processes over time, and what they've learned from early launch experiences.

Key learnings from the Product team at Linear

Explore Linear's commitment to their zero bug policy and what potential tradeoffs to consider.

Why Linear maintains a zero bug policy

A well-defined product strategy accelerates your career. It improves your odds of success. It inspires teams. In this highly interactive, case-based workshop, you'll learn six vital strategic frameworks, plus how to run a product strategy meeting as we simulate a modern-day Netflix Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting at the end of the session. THE CHALLENGES Today, product leaders are constantly challenged to act and think "more strategically." These tools frame their strategic thinking and accomplish work as metrics tied to each product strategy demonstrate. Another challenge is building alignment across an organization. Everyone in a company has a perspective on how a product can be better, even folks with no experience building products. These tools and frameworks enable product leaders to develop a common language and plan that resonates across the organization to build cross-functional alignment. Last, everyone within an organization has a point of view on how and where resources should be allocated. The simulated Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting enables students to participate in a meeting that will teach them to debate product strategy in open, more effective ways within their product organization and to allocate resources intelligently. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN You learn how to:1. Describe the positioning and "something bigger" of your product that helps to build a brand using language that appeals to your customers and is well-understood by your marketing partners.2. Craft a long-term product vision that provides clear direction. This vision also breaks down the plan into shorter, step-by-step "bite-size chews" that maintain flexibility as you encounter speedbumps and roadblocks.3. Define a succinct product strategy—a hypothesis on how you will move your key metrics—by developing hypotheses that will delight customers in hard-to-copy, margin-enhancing ways.4. Articulate metrics and tactics for each product strategy to effectively "align the wood behind the arrow."5. You'll learn to tease out how to prioritize Growth, Engagement, and Monetization, depending on the company's size and goals. You'll define a clear metric for each of these three factors.6. Communicate a quarterly plan using two roadmap formats: a "rolling four-quarter roadmap" and a "Now, Next, Later" approach.7. Debate 2-3 modern-day Netflix cases, demonstrating how these product strategy frameworks help to form a common language that enables better communication and more thoughtful debate. HOW THE COURSE WORKS The first session sets the table by articulating six product strategy frameworks illustrated through many examples and cases. The second session comprehensively applies the models, with applications to startups, B2B/enterprise companies, and consumer-focused companies. This course is very efficient. There are two 2.5-hour classes, and the last half-hour of each class is an optional Q&amp;A session. We'll open up the class fifteen minutes before the start time -- so you can ask questions and begin to get to know each other. Then, we'll review each framework with many juicy examples from Netflix's past and present. The session is sprinkled with many mini-cases where students are asked, "What would you do if you were the product leader at Netflix?" We'll use Slido to build engagement and draw all students into a fast-paced conversation. This is not a boring lecture. It's a lean-in experience, and you will be at the edge of your seat as you dive into the conversation—when you're up for it. At the end of the second session, we'll simulate a Netflix Quarterly Product Strategy meeting, allowing you to see how a world-class product organization thinks about and discusses product strategy. The two 2.5-hour sessions are a lot of fun. There will be plenty of "leave behind" materials. I will also provide pre-formatted Google Slides you can use to define your product strategy. AGENDA Cohort 4: April 1 and April 3 (9-11:30 am PT for both sessions)Cohort 5: October 28 and October 30 (9-11:30 am PT for both sessions) Pre-work- Executive summary of all strategy frameworks (reading)- Intro to Product Strategy video- Netflix strategy example + slides- Positioning and branding videos Session 1 (9:00-11:30 am PT)08:45 Welcome to join early to say "hello."09:00 Intro to Product Strategy09:10 GLEE product vision09:25 GEM prioritization09:50 DHM framework10:15 SMT lockup10:40 Roadmaps10:50 Conclusion11:00 Q&amp;A (optional)11:30 End Optional mid-course homework (B2B, startup, and B2C examples)Each product strategy example below includes a 10-minute video plus slides:- Stripe- Shopify- Square- Instagram- Spotify- Chegg (textbook rental startup, IPO 2013)- Pre-formatted Google Slides for you to build your strategy. Session 2: 9-11:30 am PT08:45 Available to say “hello” and do online polling to get to know you09:00 Intro09:05 Startup and B2B examples09:25 Netflix personalization swimlane09:50 Maven swimlane exercise10:20 Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting simulation10:50 Conclusion11:00 Q&amp;A (optional)11:30 End Post-workshop materialsMaven Product Strategy (startup example illustrated through both video and slides)

Become a "go-to" product leader as you learn to define a product strategy.

Provide a brief description for each module as a way to sell the value of what students will be learning throughout the course.

First Module

Second Module

Third Module

Course syllabus

You're a consumer or enterprise product leader, from entry-level to "Chief."

You're in a product management, project management, engineering, design, or data role, from APM to "Chief Product Officer."

You're a founder in a startup or Head of Product at any stage of a company.

Who is this course for

Apply proven tools, models, and frameworks to define a product strategy in a step-by-step way.

You'll define what your product or service is, the benefit you'll deliver to customers, along with the "personality" of your product and "brand promise."

Positioning

The GLE model (Get big, Lead, Expand) helps you outline steps for how your product will "dent the universe" in the long term.

Product Vision

You'll learn to outline product strategies using the DHM model to "Delight customers in Hard-to-copy, Margin-enhancing ways" to deliver both customer and shareholder value.

To build alignment across all company functions, you'll prioritize three factors—Growth, Engagement, and Monetization.

You'll align Strategies, Metrics, and Tactics. You'll identify proxy metrics for each product strategy and assign tactics to each.

You'll build a roadmap, demonstrating how your product strategies will come to life over time.

Rolling, Four-quarter Roadmap

We'll simulate a modern-day Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting, demonstrating how Netflix defines and debates product strategy on an ongoing basis.

Quarterly Product Strategy Meeting

I provide videos and slides illustrating the product strategy for multiple consumer and enterprise companies, including startups.

B2B, B2C & startup examples

Use the step-by-step approach I developed at Netflix to craft a product vision, align around strategy, and hold product teams accountable.

Gibson Biddle

Former VP/CPO  at both Netflix & Chegg

Cohort 3

Cohort 4

MtL offers a unique learning experience for leaders in that your team is one of a cohort of teams and where YOUR CASE&nbsp;IS&nbsp;the Course in a flipped classroom. ﻿You come away with real solutions to real problems and with initiatives you can implement immediately to improve your business. Topic content, practice cases, role plays, and YOUR CASE applications are blended with real-time feedback from fellow students and instructors in ten two-hour weekly live sessions. MtL Tools and Methods make doable actions driven by seven simple truths that are otherwise anything but easy.

Your own organization is the case on which you apply MtL tools and methods. 

Ahead of our first live session, open and work through the Get Started and Ramp Up modules.

Course Opens

Plan on at least:<ul><li>40-minutes prep for live sessions</li><li>20-minutes post live sessions</li></ul>

Weekly Assignments

Weekly 2-hour live sessions on Thursdays

Your work in MtL culminates with a management presentation that you prepare and run through with at least one outside executive, factor input into your final submission, and that you turn in one week after the last live session for evalution and grading.

Management Presentation

Schedule

Professionally financed management teams driving to complete value creation initiatives.

Organization, unit, and function leaders driving change initiatives to grow faster/perform better.

Owner-Operators who are ready to transition but whose organizations are not transition ready.

Leaders and their team with a change in mind to make to accomplish a mission, leave a legacy, or get promoted.

Startup Entrepenuers looking to go from Powerpoint to Profits.

Manage to Lead is for:

MtL is a leadership team management and development system of integrated Tools & Methods to architect, build, govern, & change your business

Your mandate is what you target to achieve by when. Think of it as the game you are playing. In MtL you learn how to always know:<ul><li>Where things are now.</li><li>Why things must change.</li><li>How you want things to be.</li><li>How to get them there.</li></ul>

Master the Change Framework:

While business leaders agree that alignment is key to success, research shows that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.spiceworks.com/marketing/marketing-strategy/news/94-percent-leaders-believe-aligning-marketing-and-sales-gained-importance/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&lt;33% say their top team is fully aligned</a>. MtL Tools and Methods, developed and honed by a team of successful CXO's, lead to clearity and alignment through collaboration.

Discover disconnects and align your team:

Determine which of five common operating models most closely matches that of your organization and draft a DO-SELL-GROW process map for the one that most constrains performance and growth.

Learn how to set up, assess, and mature key processes:

For financial and other KPIs you learn to measure performance relative to past, plan, and peers.

Decide what to watch, and how, to know how well you are doing:

Learn how to decide which initiatives to pursue first and <a href="https://intelliven.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Manage-to-Lead_FactSheet.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">what to do</a> to guarantee they will be completed on target, on time, and on budget!

Launch Strategic Inititiaves

Most people think you either lead or manage. The truth is you need to do both. The first thing a good leader needs to manage, is themself!

Cohort 15

Peter DiGiammarino

Professional CEO; Course Designer and Lead Instructor

Joyce Reynolds

MtL Course Designer and Co-Instructor

Cohort 14

Cohort 16

If you're a senior IC or product leader who dreams of building impactful 0-1 products, you've likely already demonstrated your talent and execution. But to bring big ideas to life, it's not just about what you can do—it's about inspiring others, driving cross-functional collaboration, and creating the internal momentum necessary to build something truly innovative. Unfortunately, no one gives us a playbook on how to do this from scratch. The reality is, creating bottoms-up momentum can be intimidating. You'll likely face skepticism, pushback, or apathy when trying to challenge the status quo and advocate for projects you believe in. Most of the time, this doesn't even appear to be an option. But with the right tools, frameworks, and strategies, you can navigate these hurdles, rally your team, and drive meaningful impact. This course is designed to help you do just that. It provides the tactics and lessons I learned while incepting, pitching, and building Figma Slides—a rollercoaster of a journey that taught me how to turn a vision into reality. WHAT TO EXPECT: This highly interactive course will walk you through the key strategies that helped build Figma Slides from the ground up. You’ll dive into frameworks, case studies, and real-world examples with live discussions and Q&amp;A. Over the course of 9 hours of live instruction, you’ll learn how to:- Build internal momentum and hype around your ideas- Present a compelling vision and align stakeholders- Work effectively with cross-functional teams- Advocate for projects with confidence and clarity- Tell stories that resonate and inspire action- Pitch your ideas to senior leaders to gain support- Navigate challenges with practical, battle-tested strategies RESOURCES:This course includes exclusive resources that contributed to the success of Figma Slides and other 0-1 products:- The original hackathon pitch strategy- The first vision deck, complete with design prototypes- Documentation of our North Star, which guided our product development- Tips and tricks for effectively engaging senior leaders- Tactics for smooth cross-functional collaboration- Public speaking advice for presenting your ideas with impact All live sessions will be recorded so you can review the material later WHO WILL BENEFIT MOST FROM THIS COURSE:This course is ideal for senior PMs, ICs, and other product leads who:- Want to create 0-1 products that challenge the status quo- Are passionate about driving impact and influencing company-level strategy- Are ambitious, open-minded, and ready to sharpen their skills in storytelling and vision-building WHO THIS IS NOT FOR:This course is not for those looking for 1:1 coaching or a slow-paced experience. It’s designed for busy operators who want to drastically improve their ability to influence and drive action.

Going 0-1 can be one of the most impactful moments in a career

8am - 8:30am PST11am - 11:30pm EST8:30pm - 9pm IST Optional meet &amp; greet. Get to know your fellow students.

December 9, 2024

8am - 9:30am PST11am - 12:30pm EST8:30pm - 10pm IST

December 10, 2024

December 12, 2024

December 17, 2024

December 19, 2024

This course will be interactive, so get ready to chime into Zoom chat, unmute to share, etc.

Live workshops, Q&A, group discussion, exercises, real-life examples

Do you want feedback on a piece of communication? You'll have the opportunity to submit your homework for a live teardown. (You can redact before submitting.) I'll pick to share the most useful ones with the class.

Submit your homework for live review in class

Course schedule

Senior ICs who are looking for an angle change in impact and internal company influence

Product leaders who must collaborate with and influence founders, executives and other cross functional leaders

Any senior tech worker or XFN who wants to build a 0-1 product at their company.

In this course, you will learn:

Learn to craft and communicate a strong vision, backed by designs, that aligns teams and drives action. You'll gain tools to present actionable ideas and build excitement around your product vision.

Building a vision that wins over your CEO

Master the art of influencing key stakeholders without formal authority. Learn strategies to align goals, build rapport, and gain support from leaders, peers, and cross-functional teams.

Influencing stakeholders upwards, downwards and sideways to get things done

Create compelling narratives that make your ideas resonate. Learn how to simplify complex concepts, tailor your message to different audiences, and ensure your story drives action.

The art of product-led storytelling that goes internally viral

Build bottoms-up momentum for your ideas by getting buy-in from colleagues and leaders. Discover ways to rally support, generate excitement, and create an internal movement for your vision.

How to sell internally and generate momentum across your entire company

Navigate uncertainty and make progress in unclear situations when building 0-1. Learn how to make decisions with limited information and balance short-term goals with long-term vision.

Building through ambiguity and limited resources

Deliver pitches with confidence and clarity. Learn techniques to handle tough questions, manage pressure, and structure presentations that captivate stakeholders and drive decisions.

Presenting & pitching with confidence

Learn to build conviction, generate internal momentum, tell powerful stories, build and sell an impactful product vision.

Mihika Kapoor

Founding PM for Figma Slides

Cohort 2

✅ TL;DR - a short version- I am a Lead PM @Booking.com &amp; ex-Dev, so I've been in both the tech and product worlds- I focus only on what PMs should know: "what"/"why" of tech, because "how" is infinite, and it is not our job- 1500+ students have already enjoyed the course online and offline; see reviews below- This course is 20% theory and 80% practice: you'll solve 200+ exercises yourself because that's the way to learn- Schedule: (a) a live session on Tech 101, (b) 2 weeks of self-practice, (c) a live session on building a product architecture together- Check out what the exercises look like in this 5 min learning: just get the Free Resource below. And now a longer version... ✅ WHY THIS COURSEAccording to the survey (650 respondents), these are the top 3 reasons why PMs want to boost Tech skills:- 56% want to speak the same language with their team: communicate effectively in the "devs" language, and understand what decisions the team makes- 61% want to be able to pre-estimate features without being dependent on their team and, more generally, deliver projects on time- 39% want to get a job in a BigTech company, where tech skills are a must, and 28% already landed a job with a product requiring tech skills- and now, there's one more reason: AI prototyping is hyper-hyped, and Replit/Bolt just built a full-stack app for you in 2 minutes. But... what actually happened? You really need to understand the principles behind what LLM is doing for you. If you found yourself in one or more categories, this course will help you, as it has already helped 1500+ students (see the review screenshots below). ✅ WHO IS THE AUTHORI am a Lead PM @ Booking.com, started 10 years ago as one of the first Tech PMs in the company. Before that, I was a Software Developer / PhD in Computer Science. I have knowledge from both the tech and product worlds, and I am happy to share it with product managers across the globe. ✅ ONLY WHAT PM SHOULD KNOW, NOT MOREEven though tech can be fun, it is not necessary (and sometimes harmful) to dive into "how" too much—this is the developer's territory. That's why, in my course, I only focus on "what/why" you need as a product leader. No GIT, no databases internals, no load balancers—you just don't need it to do your job, so kindly leave it for your team and focus on what you should know as a PM—there is already enough to master. ✅ THE COURSE STRUCTURE 1️⃣&nbsp;Part 1: Live session: Tech 101sWe start with a Tech 101 live session. In 3 hours, we learn and immediately practice the most important tech topics: Frontend/ Backend, Services, APIs, and Testing. If you only do this session, you already know the core. 2️⃣ Part 2: Practice (200+ exercises)Time to roll up the sleeves. I have a 10-chapter story full of exercises based on real job situations. You will build a Taxi startup, evolving it with a Food delivery department, a Scooter rental app, and even a music streaming service like Spotify! Check the course's table of contents: one by one, you will master these topics with virtual colleagues like the CEO Daniel (he is bossy), Principal PM Jane (she guides), Jr. PM Ivar (he always needs help himself), your Engineering Manager Helen, and so on. If you want to understand if such a format suits you, check out this mini-lesson, which consists of three small exercises — just get the Free Resource below. Now, imagine you need to solve 200+ such exercises. Sounds like fun? 3️⃣ Part 3: Live session: building a product architecture togetherAfter you have mastered the theory and practiced yourself, we meet again, choose a product (e.g., a social network for car owners), and build an architecture, API, etc., in groups of PMs. Students love this part! if the group wants more, I offer an optional session to solve one more start up use case together. ✅ CHOOSE YOUR LEVELI understand that everyone has different aspirations and time schedules. That's why you can pick the depth yourself: - Bare minimum: attend both live workshops- Solid knowledge: solve all 10 chapters of the exercises; they are self-sufficient in explaining the material (can finish after the cohort's end date)- Full Package: both live workshops + all 10 chapters of the exercises (can finish after the cohort's end date)- God Mode: all of the above + one more end-to-end bonus use case with my feedback

Start to speak the same language with your team

Tech 101s: we'll get to know each other and master the tech basics.

Live workshop 1: Tech 101s

Solve 200+ exercises and practice on 5 use cases.

Self-paced work

Now, after you have practiced enough, we will meet as a group and build a start-up's architecture from scratch.

Live workshop 2: architecture of a start-up

Non-tech Product/Program Managers: to effectively communicate with the team and assess the complexity of&nbsp;projects

Jr. Product managers to quickly start their careers, gain respect from the team, and deliver their first projects successfully.

Entrepreneurs/founders to build confidence in a world of technology, hire the right team and turn ideas into services

What you’ll get out of this course

Understand all core concepts of tech and lead the team with "what/why" without getting into "how" of development

Speak the same language with your development team

Build a skill to estimate the development complexity of the features and products you deliver

Better estimate projects/features and meet deadlines

Prepare to answer BigTech's PM interview questions like "Can you build the architecture of a Taxi app?"

Become more confident with technical interview

Learn tech by doing. Master only the topics product leaders need, and leave the rest to your team.

Lightning Lessons

How Linear Builds and Maintains a Best-In-Class Product