Weekly active use of Initiatives in Linear Enterprise workspaces fell 20% in a month. How would you find the root cause?

Introduction

Initiatives are Linear's top layer of planning: a portfolio of Projects tied to a company goal, with owners, target dates, health status, initiative updates and, since mid-2025, sub-initiatives for nesting. In Enterprise workspaces they are mostly used by engineering directors, VPs, product leaders and program managers to answer "are we on track for this quarter's goals?" A 20% month-over-month drop in weekly active use of Initiatives in that segment matters because Initiatives are the feature that makes Linear credible to executives, not just to engineers, and executive buy-in drives Enterprise renewals.

Step 1

Clarifying Questions (3 minutes)

• How is "weekly active use of Initiatives" defined? Is it a user viewing an initiative page, or any write action such as posting an update or changing health?

Why it matters: a view-based metric is sensitive to navigation and notification changes; a write-based metric points to real behavior change. Expected answer: unique users per week who open an initiative page or the Initiatives list. Impact on approach: I'd split views and writes immediately.

• Is the drop sudden (a step change on a specific day) or gradual over the month?

Why it matters: a step points to a release, tracking change or config; a slope points to behavior or seasonality. Expected answer: a fairly sharp drop starting in the second week. Impact on approach: I'd line it up against the release log and changelog.

• Is it limited to Enterprise, or are Business workspaces also down?

Why it matters: Enterprise has unique settings (SAML/SCIM, private teams, advanced permissions) that could explain an isolated drop. Expected answer: Business is down slightly, Enterprise much more. Impact on approach: Enterprise-only features and admin settings move up the list.

• Have the number of initiatives, projects linked to initiatives, or initiative updates changed?

Why it matters: if the content still exists and is still updated, the problem is about how people reach it. Expected answer: initiative count is flat; updates are down a little. Impact on approach: focus on discovery and consumption paths.