Teaming
Your org chart is a design decision whether you treat it like one or not. These concepts cover the structural and cultural forces that determine what your teams can actually deliver.
Conway’s Law is the foundational insight here: your system architecture will mirror the communication structures of the organization that built it. Fight it or use it, but you can’t ignore it.
These concepts cover the structural and cultural forces that determine organizational capability. On the structural side, Team APIs and organizational layers define how teams interact and where decisions get made. On the cultural side, Westrum’s Typology and psychological safety determine whether information flows freely or gets buried. Both sides matter; a perfect team structure with a pathological culture still fails.
Team Topologies
A pattern language for organizing technology teams around the flow of change to minimize cognitive load.
Conway's Law Your software ends up shaped like your org chart.
Cross-functional Teams The smallest group that holds every perspective required to make good product decisions without waiting on anyone outside the room.
Goodhart's Law When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.
Organizational Layers Our light organizational hierarchy model that we use to target groups by decisions,
Psychological Safety A team climate where people feel safe to voice concerns, challenge the status quo, experiment, and risk failure without fear of punishment.
Teaming Teams, not individuals, are the fundamental unit of delivery. Organizing around team performance produces better outcomes than optimizing for individual contributors.
Westrum's Typology A model classifying organizational cultures as Pathological, Bureaucratic, or Generative based on how they handle information.
Working Agreements Explicit agreements about how a team collaborates, makes decisions, and handles conflicts.
Knowledge