Shape Intelligence with Mandates: The Org Design Lever Nobody Talks AboutMandates set the ceiling of what an organization can handle. The skills a unit is allowed to use and the scope of work it's trusted with…Jul 24, 2026 · 5 min read
Five Shifts in Professional Agentic Product EngineeringI've spent months listening inside orgs that take agentic product engineering seriously. Five shifts keep showing up as a pattern — from…Jul 20, 2026 · 3 min read
A Bad System Beats a Good Person: Drive Performance with Org DesignAll organizations are perfectly designed to get the results they get. If you want ten times the performance, don't exhort people harder —…Jul 17, 2026 · 4 min read
Own, Not Rent: Why Change Can't Be OutsourcedBuy-in is permission to proceed, not ownership. A change you hand off is a change that gets handed back. The first principle from 10X ORG…Jul 10, 2026 · 4 min read
A Sprint Is Not a Mini-WaterfallGoogle's AI SDLC whitepaper models a sprint as a tiny waterfall with phases. That misses the core of iterative development — and it's exa…Jul 8, 2026 · 4 min read
The AI Rush Is Self-InflictedOutside the frontier labs, the feeling of being behind on AI is mostly self-inflicted. Put the tools aside, decide what you actually want…Jul 8, 2026 · 3 min read
Building Organizations of the Future Today: RehireAI workshops on top of a 2019 job definition get you the same org, slightly faster. The move: define the AI-Partnered Worker profile — a…Jul 5, 2026 · 4 min read
When Contributors Are Complete (1/2): The Super Individual Contributor and the Guild HypothesisAI restores the end-to-end craftsperson — a Complete Super Individual Contributor (IC). But whole individuals alone aren't an organizatio…Jun 29, 2026 · 6 min read
When Contributors Are Complete (2/2): Extreme Cocreation and the Product PulseA guild of whole craftspeople produces privateers, not a fleet. The flotilla — guild plus shared intelligence — and the Product Pulse tur…Jun 29, 2026 · 7 min read
Extracting and Scaling Intellectual Assets with AIYou can't copy an expert's time. But you can copy the way they reason — and that part can be shared. That's the Intellectual Asset.Jun 17, 2026 · 3 min read
AI Impact = Fluency × Flow × FitOrganization-wide AI impact isn't just AI fluency of the individuals. It's Fluency × Flow × Fit — a multiplication, where your weakest la…Jun 4, 2026 · 3 min read
Agentic Factory: Which Level Are You Automating?Coding Loop, Feature Loop, Impact Loop — three nested agentic loops. Most agentic tools stop at the middle. The outer loop is the one tha…Jun 2, 2026 · 5 min read
Specialization, Generalization, and Who Gets to Be CompleteSpecialize when demand is infinite and stable. Generalize when it's dynamic. AI is washing away the stable narrow demand in software — bu…Jun 2, 2026 · 5 min read
Vibing or AI Engineering? A Spectrum for Personal GrowthVibing feels like a slot machine — drop a prompt and hope. But it's a spectrum, not two camps. Used right, AI isn't a slot machine but a…May 30, 2026 · 3 min read
AI-Native, AI-Augmented, AI-Sprinkled: The Three AI Strategies That Explain the Performance GapThree AI strategies: 100X (AI-native, clean-slate), 10X (AI-augmented, deliberately restructured), 1X (AI-sprinkled, same structure + too…May 28, 2026 · 4 min read
AI Replaces Tasks, Not People — Unless Your Org Is Designed That WayWhen your job equals the task you do, AI finishes the task and you sit idle. The fix is organizational, not technological — broaden manda…May 20, 2026 · 7 min read
DORA 2026: Developers Faster, Teams MessierDORA's 2026 data confirms it: individual developers are measurably faster with AI, but team-level delivery is flat or worse. The 280x inf…May 12, 2026 · 1 min read
Multi-Learning: 200 Years of the Wrong ModelFor six million years our brains evolved to learn across domains. Two hundred years of factory logic pinned people to single tasks. AI is…May 9, 2026 · 1 min read
Two Wings of a 10X BirdA 10X organization needs two wings: near-zero transaction costs (no handoffs slowing the learning loop) and near-zero switching costs (re…May 2, 2026 · 2 min read
Agile Was Homework, AI Is the AssignmentYou could fake agile for a decade — rename roles, run ceremonies, call it transformation. AI-native startups shipping at 100X just made f…May 1, 2026 · 9 min read
The Subsidized Tokens Are EndingCheap AI tokens masked the difference between real restructuring and AI theater. When prices rise, companies that wove AI into their deli…Apr 28, 2026 · 3 min read
AI-Native Startups Are Moving at 100XAI-native startups move at 100X with no legacy structure. Your organization will be benchmarked against that baseline. The org design cho…Apr 28, 2026 · 3 min read
Pair Programming in the AI EraPair programming is not dead in the AI era. The navigator's job was never reading code line-by-line — it was holding the broader frame: w…Apr 16, 2026 · 1 min read
I Hired a Scrum Master AIAn AI agent now coaches my team by reading session memories and surfacing recurring dysfunctions — approval gate violations, destructive…Mar 21, 2026 · 1 min read
The Gigantic ShiftCompanies are using AI as an excuse to cut headcount while single-person unicorns loom. Old recipes are expiring. Organizations cannot le…Mar 19, 2026 · 1 min read
Redesign, Then AI: Why AI Transformation Requires a Multi-Learning OrganizationAI tools without org redesign just amplify existing silos. AI collapses the cost of learning, which erodes the advantage of narrow specia…Mar 12, 2026 · 3 min read
The Ferrari TrapAI is an accelerator — but it accelerates whatever is. Developers expected 24% speedup from AI — actual result: 19% slower. The Ferrari T…Feb 20, 2026 · 9 min read
Routine vs. Adaptive ExpertiseRoutine expertise executes known procedures well in stable conditions. Adaptive expertise handles novelty without freezing. Post-COVID re…Jan 28, 2026 · 3 min read
Craig Larman on 10X and The Future of JobsCraig Larman's thesis: within years, AI will meaningfully replace entire job categories. A 10% improvement pitch won't save humans when A…Nov 20, 2025 · 4 min read
Copenhagen: Flat Danish ManagementA memoir of joining a Danish company in 2004 — flat culture where sales and developers sat in a circle each morning without ceremony. Int…Sep 30, 2025 · 2 min read
Why Scrum Masters Are Getting FiredScrum Masters get fired because org design locked them into team-level influence where they couldn't show real value. A vicious cycle: na…Sep 27, 2025 · 2 min read
Reactive to Creative LeadershipLeadership style and organizational structure are inseparable. Reactive leaders — fear-driven, controlling — lock organizations into rigi…Sep 2, 2025 · 11 min read
Remote Work: Synthesizing the StudiesA synthesis of remote work studies reveals consistent themes: loss of spontaneous interaction weakens cohesion, informal learning collaps…Aug 8, 2025 · 2 min read
Multi-Learning in the Age of AIThree patterns for matching skills to work: Static Matching locks people in place, Dynamic Reteaming shuffles them reactively, Multi-Lear…May 16, 2025 · 2 min read
Learning Modes of Adaptive TopologyFour deliberate learning patterns for adaptive teams: Scouting (sense early), Mirroring (build empathy), Weaving (integrate across teams)…May 2, 2025 · 4 min read
AI-Augmented Multi-Team PBRsMulti-team PBRs are where teams learn together. AI applied during refinement — not before or after — lets teams interrogate knowledge dir…Apr 28, 2025 · 2 min read
Shopify CEO: Reflexive AI UsageShopify's reflexive AI mandate is bold but insufficient. Amplifying a single skill with AI won't save you — single-skill jobs are the fir…Apr 12, 2025 · 2 min read
AI-Supported Org DesignAI OD is the strategic use of AI to evolve how organizations are structured and how people learn. Two anchoring principles: AI makes vers…Apr 10, 2025 · 4 min read
Org Topologies meets EBMOT tells you what to change in the structure; EBM tells you whether it worked. Together they close the loop: EBM identifies symptoms, OT…Feb 24, 2025 · 10 min read
Strategic AI AdoptionAI makes specialization cheap — broader skill mandates and higher archetypes become feasible. Don't spray AI generically. Three strategic…Feb 15, 2025 · 3 min read
Haier's RDHY vs. Bayer's DSOHaier and Bayer both dismantled hierarchies but took different paths. Haier's micro-enterprises are independent P&L centers with digital…Feb 4, 2025 · 10 min read
Teams and Scope of Skills MandateThe difference between functional and multi-function teams is not individual skills — it is the team's organizational mandate. What scope…Jan 15, 2025 · 7 min read
Tailwind Career PathsTraditional career ladders reward narrow specialization and punish breadth. Tailwind career paths flip this: broad roles like Product Dev…Dec 17, 2024 · 5 min read
Elevating Katas™ for Organizational AgilityElevating Katas are repeatable routines that shift an organization toward higher adaptivity — not one-off workshops or transformation pro…Dec 17, 2024 · 9 min read
Matrix, Functional, Project, and Product Structures vs. Scrum and LeSSFunctional, project, and matrix structures all break Scrum in predictable ways: silos, dual reporting, resource-pool teams, disempowered…Dec 13, 2024 · 4 min read
The Myth of Conway's LawConway's Law is treated as destiny — your org must mirror your architecture. Twenty years of LeSS adoptions prove otherwise. Cross-team c…Nov 28, 2024 · 1 min read
No. Not Everything Is A ProductCalling everything a product — value streams, components, platforms — inflates complexity instead of reducing it. Each 'product' spawns i…Nov 17, 2024 · 2 min read
Microservices are Technical DebtMicroservices are technical debt — a conscious trade-off, not shitty code. You gain short-term delivery speed in a narrow area. You pay w…Nov 17, 2024 · 1 min read
Product Definition with Dave WestDave West's product-as-abstraction framing is useful, but 'everything is a product' is dangerous. Each new product boundary spawns its ow…Oct 31, 2024 · 2 min read
Individuals and Interactions = Relationship (the Blah-Blah-Blah Manifesto)Individuals and interactions is really just one word: relationships. Relationships are the root of any process improvement and any change…Oct 16, 2024 · 1 min read
Fads Do Not LastManagement fads rise and fall on a 5-7 year cycle. Spotify Model is generating consulting work from failed adoptions. SAFe has a long tai…Oct 16, 2024 · 1 min read
Elevate Product ManagementMost product owners own parts, not Products. Parts cannot demonstrate business impact — only costs. So POs become team-level business ana…Jul 19, 2024 · 15 min read
Avoid Premature PlatformizationPremature platformization creates a chasm between platform teams and customer-facing delivery. It fragments ownership, stifles adaptabili…Jul 16, 2024 · 5 min read
Elevate a SAFe AdoptionA typical SAFe adoption lives in Resource or Delivery Topology — managing dependencies instead of eliminating them. Elevate one ART at a…Jul 15, 2024 · 8 min read
Elevate Scrum!Team-level Scrum creates silos, not business agility. Elevate by merging backlogs to business-level objectives, empowering Product Owners…Jul 13, 2024 · 5 min read
Systemic Reduction of Cognitive LoadLimiting code ownership is the popular fix for cognitive load, but it trades individual relief for systemic complexity: queues, long lead…Apr 28, 2024 · 5 min read
Agile in the Age of AIAI breaks core Agile assumptions. Cross-functional teams matter less when AI fills knowledge gaps — teams shrink to 2 humans plus AI. Cod…Apr 8, 2024 · 9 min read
How Adaptive are Team Topologies?Team Topologies promises fast flow through narrow code ownership, but this reinforces blocking dependencies between teams and hinders cus…Apr 5, 2024 · 19 min read
75% of those using Scrum will not succeedKen Schwaber predicted 75% of Scrum adoptions would fail. The real number is likely higher. The structural change most organizations neve…Apr 3, 2024 · 1 min read
A missing team type in Team Topologies?Team Topologies names four team types but skips the most important one: a broad, cross-product team capable of working on any feature end…Mar 23, 2024 · 2 min read
Extract Team LeadsThe Team Lead role always starts with good intentions but culture follows structure: the power figure prevails, the team stops acting, an…Mar 23, 2024 · 6 min read
LeSS Adoption at Poster POSA deep LeSS adoption at a Ukrainian SaaS company — started during COVID lockdowns, continued through full-scale war. Component teams beca…Mar 16, 2024 · 4 min read
The Three EcosystemsBeyond the waterfall-vs-agile binary, adding a 'scope of work' vertical axis reveals three distinct organizational ecosystems. This two-d…Feb 23, 2024 · 8 min read
Three Contagious Organizational DiseasesThree org diseases: Silosis Multiplicatum (silos needing project management as pain relief), Scrum Shrinkingitis (Scrum contracted to tea…Feb 10, 2024 · 2 min read
Agile Frameworks Don't Make You AgileYou can have System Demos and Scrum Masters everywhere and still not be agile. You can use no framework and be insanely agile. At the cor…Jan 25, 2024 · 1 min read
The Second Wave of Agile RevolutionTeam-level agile failed because organizations focused on local ways of working instead of systemic improvements. The second wave shifts e…Nov 5, 2023 · 3 min read
Case Study: from Component Teams to Team Topologies to FaST AgileA company with 42 component teams had 97% waste or wait time. They moved through three paradigms — component teams, stream-aligned teams…Oct 26, 2023 · 14 min read
Archetypes & Coaching LeversClassify a work unit by what it receives as input: tasks (Y-level), feature requests (A-level), or business objectives (B/C-level). Then…Oct 24, 2023 · 4 min read
Multi-Team Product Backlog RefinementMulti-team PBR brings all teams into one refinement session instead of separate ones. The goal: shared understanding of the whole product…Sep 23, 2023 · 10 min read
A practical approach to improve the performance of your agile teamsAn A-level ecosystem has teams working on features but not business objectives. Information scatters across many backlogs, work runs asyn…Jul 17, 2023 · 8 min read
Don't Scale Agile. Descale Your Org.Scaling agile means adding complexity to fit a broken org. Descaling means simplifying the org until agility emerges naturally. Ask: how…Mar 10, 2023 · 7 min read
Cat Paw Management (Meets Recession)Teams narrowly specialized in low-priority features — the 'cat paw' teams — get cut first when recession hits. Narrow specialization crea…Feb 16, 2023 · 4 min read
Human Framework Dependency SyndromeImplementing a framework cannot be the goal of an org transformation. HFDS — Human Framework Dependency Syndrome — is hoping a slide deck…Feb 8, 2023 · 3 min read
Case Study: Studying LeSS Adoption at Poster POS Inc. with Org TopologiesPoster POS's LeSS adoption mapped through three Org Topologies scans: the pre-LeSS component setup (TASKS-2/CAPS-2), the initial blueprin…Jan 12, 2023 · 13 min read
Org Design Defines Managers' ScopeOrg design dictates what kind of management is possible. Weak teams force managers into micromanagement — task breakdown, assignment, con…Dec 19, 2022 · 2 min read
Try Impact-Driven Product BacklogEpics lock you into fixed-scope projects disguised as agile. Instead, derive backlog items from impacts using impact mapping: goals to ac…Dec 17, 2022 · 5 min read
Avoid Epic-Driven DevelopmentEpic-driven backlogs trigger three failure modes: coarse-grained prioritization that looks like projects, implicit sub-backlogs per epic…Dec 16, 2022 · 3 min read
Map Your Route to Mastering Agile FluencyThe Agile Fluency Model inspired Org Topologies. Map the fluency stages onto OT: Focusing is a vertical move toward understanding value…Nov 6, 2022 · 6 min read
Mapping Marty Cagan's Empowered Product Teams to Org TopologiesCagan's empowered product teams work from independent backlogs with embedded product managers — great for team autonomy, but a local opti…Oct 22, 2022 · 19 min read
How Adaptive is the "Spotify Model"?The Spotify model looks promising on paper, but post-transformation reality is different. Most adoptions produce non-autonomous teams wit…Oct 1, 2022 · 13 min read
In Search of Adaptivity FitAdaptivity costs real money: iterative practices, new roles, cultural shifts, consulting. Benefits are invisible at first. The default ar…May 4, 2022 · 4 min read
Agile Transformation Will Not Be TelevisedPowerPoint-driven agile transformations produce change theater, not real change. Making slides and making decisions require different ski…Apr 30, 2021 · 4 min read
Org Design Models, Part 4: Product SlicingFive ways to slice a product organization: functional, sales funnel, business lines, one-business-one-product, and adaptive product areas…Jan 19, 2021 · 9 min read
Org Design Models, Part 3: Satellite & ProductSatellite development is the shortcut that avoids real transformation — spinning off a side team to innovate while the core stays unchang…Jan 18, 2021 · 8 min read
Org Design Models, Part 2: Component & ProjectAs IT departments grow, they split into component groups around technology layers — backend, frontend, core, test, ops. This architectura…Jan 17, 2021 · 6 min read
Org Design Models, Part 1: Startup & ITSix org-design paradigms for software product development, from Simplified Startup to Vertical Product. Some grow naturally as headcount…Jan 16, 2021 · 7 min read
Agile Product Roadmapping in Practice — How We Ran It at IPLANDA two-day product roadmapping workshop, end to end. Roadmapping is a process, not an artifact — the point is building shared understandin…Mar 21, 2020 · 7 min read
Agile Teams Working From Home, WTF?Distance is a thing of mind, not space. You can be remote in the same building and close across continents. The key question is not how t…Mar 21, 2020 · 5 min read
Requirements are like bubblesEpics are black holes that swallow infinite effort. Requirements are bubbles — they have size (effort) and uncertainty (how likely is sco…Apr 19, 2018 · 5 min read
Live Up to Your Coaching VisionsScrum Masters get lost in routines and forget the dreams that brought them to the job. The Agile Coaching Canvas reconnects you with the…Aug 27, 2016 · 6 min read
Scaling Scrum Meetings to 50+ PeopleGrowth adds hierarchy and roles. Scaling increases intelligence while minimizing complexity. Scrum scales naturally by pushing intelligen…Jun 22, 2016 · 4 min read
ScrumMaster is Not (Just) a Team FacilitatorThe team facilitator vs. enterprise coach ladder is a false dichotomy invented by certification bodies. A real ScrumMaster coaches the wh…Jun 19, 2016 · 5 min read
Why Scrum Is Silent on Team LeadsThe Scrum Guide does not mention Team Leads — and that silence is intentional. The role is not relevant to Scrum. But it is present in yo…Apr 27, 2016 · 3 min read
