organizational-design
refoundai/lenny-skills
Design effective organizational structures by balancing speed vs. coherence.
What is organizational-design?
Help teams structure themselves using frameworks from product leaders like Brian Chesky and Gustav Soderström. Use this when planning reorganizations, choosing between functional vs. divisional models, or deciding how centralized vs. decentralized your organization should be.
- Understand current context and identify the core problem driving restructuring
- Map the fundamental trade-off between centralized (Apple-style) and decentralized (Amazon-style) models
- Evaluate implications of different structures for speed, coherence, and cross-team dependencies
- Guide implementation of organizational transitions
- Flag common mistakes like reorging without clear problems or copying other companies' structures
How to install organizational-design
npx skills add https://github.com/refoundai/lenny-skills --skill organizational-designHow to use organizational-design
- 1.Ask clarifying questions about current structure, company stage, and the specific problem being solved
- 2.Help identify whether the priority is speed (parallel execution) or coherence (integrated experience)
- 3.Walk through implications of centralized vs. decentralized approaches for their context
- 4.Evaluate current management layers and whether managers understand their teams' output
- 5.Guide transition planning for the chosen structure
Use cases
- Planning a company restructuring from divisional to functional model
- Deciding whether to centralize or decentralize decision-making authority
- Reducing management layers and latency between executives and individual contributors
- Addressing coordination failures between teams
- Evaluating whether current managers have sufficient context to make decisions
- Founders and CEOs planning organizational changes
- Product leaders designing team structures
- Executives managing reorganizations
- Managers evaluating their span of control and decision-making authority
organizational-design FAQ
It depends on your strategy. Functional models (like Airbnb's restructuring) optimize for speed and reduce management layers by concentrating expertise. Divisional models work better when you need independent, parallel execution. Choose based on whether you prioritize coherence or speed.
Every layer adds latency and information loss. Minimize the distance between decision-makers and the people doing the work. If managers can't review and understand their team's actual output, the structure is broken.
No. Amazon's decentralized structure works for Amazon's strategy, and Apple's centralized model works for Apple's needs. Design your structure based on your specific strategy, product needs, and what problems you're trying to solve.
Speed vs. coherence. Amazon minimizes dependencies for parallel execution (speed). Apple centralizes coordination for a coherent user experience (coherence). Neither is universally better—choose based on what matters most for your product and strategy.
Only when you have a clear problem to solve. Restructuring is disruptive, so be specific about what coordination failures, speed bottlenecks, or coherence issues you're addressing.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from refoundai/lenny-skills.
name: organizational-design description: Help users design effective organizational structures. Use when someone is thinking about team structure, deciding between functional vs. divisional models, planning a reorg, or figuring out how to structure product teams.
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:
- 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
- Identify the core trade-off - Help them see the spectrum between centralized (Apple-style) and decentralized (Amazon-style) models
- Evaluate options - Walk through the implications of different structures for speed, coherence, and cross-team dependencies
- 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.
Functional models can restore startup speed
Brian Chesky: "We went to a functional model. We went back to a startup." Airbnb eliminated divisional structures and management layers that separated leaders from the work. Functional models concentrate expertise and reduce the "telephone game" between executives and ICs.
Eliminate managers who don't know the work
Brian Chesky's restructuring removed "people managers" who couldn't do the work themselves. Leaders should have enough context to make decisions, not just manage reports. If a manager can't review the actual output, the structure is broken.
Structure follows strategy
The right org structure depends on what you're optimizing for. If you need rapid, parallel execution on independent initiatives: decentralize. If you need a tightly integrated product experience: centralize.
Questions to Help Users
- "What problem are you trying to solve with this restructuring?"
- "Do you optimize more for speed of independent teams, or coherence across the product?"
- "How many layers are between your executives and the people doing the work?"
- "Can your managers actually review and understand the output of their teams?"
- "What are the biggest coordination failures you're experiencing today?"
Common Mistakes to Flag
- Reorging without a clear problem - Structure changes are disruptive. Be clear about what specific problem you're solving
- Copying another company's structure - Amazon's structure works for Amazon's strategy. Make sure you're choosing based on your needs, not prestige
- Too many management layers - Every layer adds latency and information loss. Minimize distance between decision-makers and work
- Managers who can't do the work - If leaders don't understand the output, they can't make good decisions about it
Deep Dive
For all 2 insights from 2 guests, see references/guest-insights.md
Related Skills
- Building Team Culture
- Organizational Transformation
- Managing Up
- Delegating Work
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