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:

1. 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
2. Identify the core trade-off - Help them see the spectrum between centralized (Apple-style) and decentralized (Amazon-style) models
3. Evaluate options - Walk through the implications of different structures for speed, coherence, and cross-team dependencies
4. 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.