Product and Organization Systems
Connect product direction, metrics, choice environments, Conway effects, and team interfaces as one socio-technical system.
- Depth
- Practical
- Steps
- 7 existing graph entries
- 1
Start From the User
Good products and designs begin from the needs of the people who will use them and reason backward to the solution, rather than starting from the technology, the implementation, or internal convenience. The user's experience is the fixed point; everything else is negotiable in...
Anchor the path in user outcomes before organization mechanics.
Related within this path
- References: Working Backwards
- 2
Working Backwards
A product development approach that starts from the desired customer experience and reasons backward to what must be built, rather than starting from existing capabilities and pushing forward. Its signature mechanism is the PR/FAQ: before building anything, write the press rel...
Turn the desired customer state into a clearer planning sequence.
Related within this path
- References: Start From the User
- Related To: Input vs Output Metrics
- 3
Input vs Output Metrics
A distinction between metrics you control directly (inputs, such as selection, in stock rate, or page load speed) and metrics that report results you want but cannot move directly (outputs, such as revenue, profit, or stock price). The discipline is to find the controllable in...
Separate controllable activity from the outcomes it is meant to influence.
Related within this path
- Related To: Working Backwards
- 4
Choice Architecture
The design of the environment in which a decision is presented: the order and number of options, the defaults, the wording, and the feedback. The person who arranges these is a "choice architect." There is no neutral arrangement; every design influences what people choose. Bec...
Look at how defaults and environments shape decisions.
- 5
Conway's Law
Organizations produce system designs that mirror their own communication structures. The corollary, the Inverse (Reverse) Conway Maneuver, is to deliberately shape teams and communication paths so the system evolves toward a target architecture. Architecture and organization a...
Bring the organization design back into the shape of the product and systems.
- 6
Team API
The explicit interface a team presents to the rest of the organization: its code and services, documentation, ways of working, and the expectations others can hold of it. Interacting with a team should go through its API, just as using a module goes through its interface. Team...
Make team interaction boundaries explicit enough to reason about.
- 7
Team-First Thinking
The team, not the individual, is the fundamental unit of software delivery. Teams should be long lived, stable, and small enough to sustain trust, and work should flow to teams rather than to individuals. Durable software is built and owned by durable teams. Optimizing around...
Close with the team as a design unit, not just an implementation resource.