An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management

by Will Larson

Once you’ve grounded yourself, here are some additional considerations: Can you write a crisp mission statement for each team? Would you personally be excited to be a member of each of the teams, as well as to be the manager of each of those teams? Put teams that work together (especially poorly) as close together as possible. This minimizes the distance for escalations during disagreements, allowing arbiters to have sufficient context. Also, most poor working relationships are the by-product of information gaps, and nothing fills those faster than proximity. Can you define clear interfaces for each team? Can you list the areas of ownership for each team? Have you created a gap-less map of ownership, such that each responsibility is owned by a team? Try to avoid implicitly creating holes of ownership. If you need to create explicit holes of ownership, that’s a better solution (essentially, defining unstaffed teams). Are there compelling candidate pitches for each of those teams? As always, are you over-optimizing on individuals versus establishing a sensible structure?