Atlassian and the new blueprint for product-led growth

Walk into any product conversation at Atlassian, and one idea keeps surfacing: the product should speak for itself. For a company that built Jira, Confluence, and Rovo, tools that have shaped how teams work across the world, that belief defines how it operates.

Instead of chasing noise, Atlassian has stayed focused on a simple principle to build products that earn trust through usability, reliability, and clarity, and let that focus guide everything from how teams are structured to how decisions are made.

And now, a significant part of that story is being written out of India.

Over the past few years, Atlassian’s India office has grown from a small engineering hub into a global R&D center — home to complete product charters, AI-led innovation, and a growing community of product thinkers.

Leading this transformation is Anand Narayanan, Head of Product, India at Atlassian, who believes that great products come from empowered teams and a deep curiosity about why something should be built.

“Atlassian’s strength has always been its people,” he says. “The teams here have the autonomy to think long-term, build with purpose, and solve for customers in ways that create real impact.”

Building products the Atlassian way

Atlassian’s approach to product development is built on a straightforward principle – what’s right for the customer? Everything else follows from there.

“There’s a core value here ‘Don’t f#$* the customer’, and it genuinely shows up in how decisions are made,” says Anand. “Many companies say they’re customer-first, but very few will make choices that might hurt their short-term numbers but are right for the user. Atlassian does.”

That philosophy shapes how product teams work with just enough structure to stay aligned and enough freedom to experiment. “We have strong frameworks, shared design systems, and consistent data models,” Anand explains. “But how you get to the outcome … that’s up to you. Jira itself started as an experiment that just worked. That spirit still defines us.”

Innovation from India

The product team in India has grown rapidly in both scale and scope. “We have close to 80 product managers now,” Anand says. “In just a few years, the number of products managed out of India has multiplied, and the complexity of what we own has deepened.”

He points to several examples that illustrate this shift. The team in India has built Admin AI, an intelligent copilot for Jira administrators that simplifies complex configuration processes for millions of users. They’ve also delivered “runs on Atlassian”, a way for app partners to show that the app runs entirely on Atlassian, delivered the opsGenie migration and delivered the promise of AI Ops in JSM from India. Then there is Rovo AI Agents for ITSM, a suite that brings intelligent automation into service management. It includes a Release Notes Agent that formats release notes to Atlassian standards, an IT Ops Agent that assists with incident response, and a Virtual Support Agent that delivers knowledge-based support with recommended follow-up actions.

Another milestone, Anand adds, is the work done to scale Jira to support up to 100,000 users in a single instance, which is a massive leap from the 500-user limit of its early days.

“These are core innovations driving Atlassian’s global roadmap, and they’re being led from India,” he shares.

That momentum has also helped Atlassian build a strong brand in the Indian product community. “We recently hosted Product Tales, where over a hundred PMs from companies like Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn joined us for a day of conversations about building and scaling products. The discussions were deeply insightful,” Anand says.

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The human side of product

Anand’s views on building products are shaped not only by years of experience across tech and leadership but also by where he comes from.

After spending his early childhood in Germany, his family moved to a small village in Kerala, far from the world of technology. “We lived on a farm surrounded by rivers and coconut trees, with no internet,” he recalls. “So I found ways to stay curious and taught myself to play the keyboard, played chess by switching sides of the board, and that habit of figuring things out has stayed with me.”

He sees that same curiosity reflected across Atlassian. “The moment you stop experimenting, you stop growing. You have to learn by doing whether it’s building something new or fixing what doesn’t work. That’s the mindset that keeps us moving.”

That instinct, to explore, question, and learn by doing, sits at the heart of Atlassian’s product culture. It’s what allows teams to adapt to change rather than be defined by it.

And change, Anand says, is arriving faster than ever.

The product manager in the AI era

AI is transforming how product managers think and work not by replacing them, but by expanding what they can do.

“AI won’t replace PMs. But AI-enabled PMs will replace those who aren’t,” he says. “This is the biggest shift since the internet, and curiosity is your only defence.”

Atlassian’s India teams are already driving many of the company’s AI initiatives, but Anand emphasizes that AI is meant to amplify human capability, not remove it.

“You can automate analysis, synthesis, even parts of design,” he says. “But you can’t automate judgment, empathy, or taste. You cannot yet train an algorithm to understand why a customer feels frustrated or why a feature delights them. That’s still human work, and that’s what makes great PMs invaluable.”

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A culture of trust, not control

For a company known for its software, Atlassian’s defining feature might just be its culture. The global Team Anywhere model gives employees full flexibility to work from wherever they’re most productive.

“I go to the office maybe two to three times a month,” Anand says. “The rest of the time, I work from home. We empower our employees to choose where they work from. Trust is given from day one, and it’s never taken away unless you break it.”

That trust extends into how teams make decisions and solve problems. Atlassian encourages what it calls clean escalation — raising issues openly and early, without politics or blame. “It’s about alignment, not hierarchy,” he explains.

When teams do meet, they do so intentionally. Through Intentional Team Gatherings (ITGs); these are quarterly in-person sessions focused on planning and collaboration where teams get time to think deeply, build relationships, and realign. “It’s not about being in office five days a week,” Anand says. “It’s about coming together with purpose.”

The Bengaluru office, he adds, reflects that mindset. “It’s built for collaboration and creativity — there’s great food, a football field, a pickleball court. It’s where you want to spend time, not where you’re told to.”

Why product builders choose Atlassian

Ask Anand what makes Atlassian stand out for product talent, and he doesn’t hesitate. “It’s the balance,” he says. “We operate at the scale of a global enterprise, but we move with the energy of a startup. You get structure, but you also get freedom.”

The Product team in India today includes leaders who were founders, CXOs, and senior leaders in previous roles - a mix Anand says brings depth and diversity of thought. “Everyone here brings a different way of thinking,” Anand says. “People here are driven, but they’re also kind. That combination of high IQ and high EQ is what makes this place work.”

Product as a craft

If there’s one thing Anand hopes young PMs take away from his journey, it’s that product management isn’t a checklist but a craft.

“Product isn’t a title, it’s a mindset,” he says. “If you don’t feel that urge to ask why something should exist, this may not be the right career for you. Stay curious, stay close to your users, and never stop learning.”

That philosophy of curiosity, empathy, and long-term thinking runs through everything Atlassian builds. It’s what connects a global product philosophy to a growing India team, and what keeps Atlassian doing what it does best: building products that make teams, and people, better together.

As Anand puts it, “Great products are built when people are trusted to think, create, and ask why.” If that’s the kind of environment where you do your best work, Atlassian might be the place for you.

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