Designing the Org Behind a Product You Would Run: Structure and Rationale

Imagine you are the CEO, or the VP in charge, of a product you love. How would you organize the people who build and run it, and what makes that the right structure? ```hint Strategy before boxes Say what the product has to get right over the next few years before drawing an org chart, then test each candidate structure against those priorities. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Am I the CEO of the whole company, with sales, finance and legal reporting to me, or a VP running only product, design and engineering for this product? - Roughly how large is the organization: a startup of a few dozen people or a company of thousands? - Should the structure fit the product as it is today, or the next stage of its strategy? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - The product's strategy and hardest problems, stated before the structure, with the structure traced back to them - The primary way of grouping teams, compared with at least one alternative grouping and its costs - Where shared capabilities such as infrastructure, data and design sit, and how the teams that depend on them get served - Who owns which decisions and metrics, and how conflicts between teams get resolved - How the structure should change with growth, and the failure modes to watch for ### Follow-up Questions - Two of your groups need the same platform team in the same quarter. Who decides, and how? - You have to cut headcount significantly. Which parts of the structure change first, and why? - A year after the change, how would you tell whether the new structure is working?