organizational-design

SKILL.md

Frameworks for designing organizational structures around speed versus coherence trade-offs.

Contrasts centralized models (Apple: coherent user experience through central coordination) with decentralized models (Amazon: parallel execution through autonomous teams with minimal dependencies)

Emphasizes functional structures over divisional ones to reduce management layers, restore startup speed, and keep leaders close to actual work

Guides users through context discovery, trade-off identification, and implementation planning using questions about coordination failures, management depth, and optimization priorities

Flags common mistakes including reorging without clear problems, copying other companies' structures, and maintaining managers who can't evaluate their teams' output

Organizational Design

Help the user design effective organizational structures using frameworks from 2 product leaders.

How to Help

When the user asks for help with organizational design:

Understand their context - Ask about their current structure, company stage, what problem they're trying to solve, and what trade-offs they're willing to make

Identify the core trade-off - Help them see the spectrum between centralized (Apple-style) and decentralized (Amazon-style) models

Evaluate options - Walk through the implications of different structures for speed, coherence, and cross-team dependencies

Guide implementation - Help them think through how to transition to a new structure

Core Principles

The fundamental trade-off: speed vs. coherence

Gustav Soderström: "On one spectrum, you have Amazon - minimize dependencies so you can run in parallel. On the other, you have Apple - centrally organized close to a single individual." Amazon optimizes for speed through autonomous teams with minimal dependencies. Apple optimizes for coherent user experience through central coordination. Neither is universally better - choose based on what matters most for your product.