organizational-design

Organizational Design

Scope

Covers

• Designing or redesigning an organization's structure + operating model to improve speed, accountability, and customer outcomes
• Choosing between centralized vs decentralized models (Apple ↔ Amazon spectrum) and functional vs divisional/value-stream orientations
• Reducing coordination tax by minimizing dependencies and clarifying decision rights
• Setting management roles/layers so leaders know the work and can drive craft, not just process

When to use

• "Propose a reorg / org design for my product + engineering organization."
• "We're slow due to dependencies—redesign teams so we can run in parallel."
• "Our UX is fragmented—should we centralize decisions or strengthen functional leadership?"
• "We grew fast and added layers—help us simplify and get back to startup speed."

When NOT to use

• You need product strategy/vision first (use defining-product-vision or working-backwards).
• This is mainly a people-performance issue (use coaching/feedback workflows, not a reorg).
• You need compensation bands, leveling, hiring plans, or legal/HR guidance (involve HR/legal).
• You need a single high-stakes decision process (use running-decision-processes).
• You need a full organizational transformation program with change management, pilots, and culture change (use organizational-transformation; this skill produces the structural blueprint that transformation executes).
• You need to improve engineering practices, norms, or technical culture (use engineering-culture).
• You need to build team culture (values, rituals, norms) within existing teams (use building-team-culture).
• You need cross-team coordination processes without changing the org chart (use cross-functional-collaboration).

Inputs

Minimum required

• Org context: company stage, domain, size, and which functions are in-scope (e.g., Product/Eng/Design/Data)
• Current structure: teams, reporting lines (rough is fine), and how work is currently organized
• Primary goals: what must improve (e.g., speed, quality, integrated UX, ownership, cost)
• Key symptoms with examples (e.g., slow decisions, rework, unclear ownership, fragmented UX)
• Constraints/non-negotiables (headcount, timeline, critical launches, regulatory/compliance, leadership preferences)