org-design
Org design
Structure determines what is easy and what requires heroics. Most persistent coordination problems are structural and cannot be fixed by asking people to communicate better.
Design from the work
Start with the work that must happen and its natural boundaries — where handoffs are expensive, and where they are cheap. Draw team lines at the cheap handoffs.
Then check: can each team deliver something meaningful without waiting on another? A team that cannot ship without three dependencies is not a team, it is a queue.
Design the org for the work, not around the people currently in it. Then reconcile deliberately, noting where you have compromised and why. Structures built around individuals fail when those individuals leave, and everyone can see they were built that way.