How to Build in Public with Linear

Building in public means sharing your product journey openly—and Linear plus a public board makes it practical. Here's how to do it well.

Why Building in Public Builds Trust

When you share what you're working on, you show real progress instead of polished marketing. Users see actual issues, priorities, and progress. That transparency builds trust and turns observers into advocates.

What to Share on Your Public Board

Share issues that show momentum and direction without exposing sensitive details:

• Active work — Features and fixes currently in progress
• Planned improvements — Backlog items you're committed to
• Community ideas — Requests that align with your strategy

Keep internal discussions, pricing experiments, and security-sensitive work in private Linear projects.

What to Keep Private

Not everything belongs on a public board. Keep these internal:

• Security and infrastructure work
• Personnel or process changes
• Unvalidated experiments
• Competitive or strategic planning

Practical Setup Steps

1. Create a dedicated Linear project for public-facing work
2. Connect a public board with Linear integration so issues sync in real time
3. Apply custom themes so the board matches your brand
4. Enable community voting so users can upvote what matters most
5. Turn on email notifications so contributors stay informed when you reply or ship

Tools like OpenIssue sync with Linear and let you reply to users directly from Linear, so feedback stays in one place.