All Posts

36 essays. RSS feed.

Mar 12, 20263 min read
Redesign, Then AI: Why AI Transformation Requires a Multi-Learning Organization
AI tools alone don't transform organizations — they amplify existing silos.
Apr 28, 20252 min read
AI-Augmented Multi-Team PBRs
Multi-team Product Backlog Refinement is where teams learn together.
Apr 10, 20254 min read
AI-Supported Org Design
AI OD applies AI to continuously inform, accelerate and personalize how an organization is structured and how its people learn.
Feb 24, 202510 min read
Org Topologies meets EBM
Org Topologies provides the actionable changes; Evidence-Based Management provides the measure of success.
Feb 4, 202510 min read
Haier's RDHY vs. Bayer's DSO
Two of the boldest decentralization moves in modern industry — Haier's Rendanheyi and Bayer's Dynamic Shared Ownership — mapped side by side on Org Topologies.
Dec 13, 20244 min read
Matrix, Functional, Project, and Product Structures vs. Scrum and LeSS
Functional, project, matrix, and product structures all break Scrum in different ways.
Nov 17, 20242 min read
No. Not Everything Is A Product
Product thinking is useful, but treating value streams, internal components, and platforms as standalone products inflates complexity and kills agility.
Nov 17, 20241 min read
Microservices are Technical Debt
Microservices are technical debt — a conscious trade that buys short-term delivery speed for long-term complexity, fragmented ownership, and lower org adaptivity.
Oct 16, 20241 min read
Individuals and Interactions = Relationship (the Blah-Blah-Blah Manifesto)
Relationships are the roots of any process improvement and any change.Don't do change on someone — do it with someone.
Oct 16, 20241 min read
Fads Do Not Last
Management fads tend to rise and fall on a 5–7 year cycle unless they change underlying organizational dynamics.
Apr 5, 202419 min read
How Adaptive are Team Topologies?
Team Topologies promises fast flow at the component level — but narrow code ownership can reinforce Conway's Law and slow down customer feature flow.
Apr 3, 20241 min read
75% of those using Scrum will not succeed
Ken Schwaber predicted only 25% of Scrum adoptions would deliver the promised benefits.
Mar 23, 20242 min read
A missing team type in Team Topologies?
Team Topologies names four team types — but skips the broad, cross-product team that can work on any feature end-to-end.
Mar 23, 20246 min read
Extract Team Leads
Why the Team Lead role corrodes teams over time, and how Engineering Managers across several teams create healthier dynamics — leadership without the bottleneck.
Feb 10, 20242 min read
Three Contagious Organizational Diseases
Three contagious organizational syndromes — Silosis Multiplicatum, Scrum Shrinkingitis and Autonomitis Blockadus — mapped onto Org Topologies archetypes.
Oct 24, 20234 min read
Archetypes & Coaching Levers
Use Org Topologies to classify a work unit by the type of input it receives — then look inside the box to find the coaching lever between external archetype and internal dynamics.
Mar 10, 20237 min read
Don't Scale Agile. Descale Your Org.
Scaling agile to fit a complex org is the opposite of agile thinking.
Feb 16, 20234 min read
Cat Paw Management (Meets Recession)
Why feature teams that polish low-priority 'cat paws' get cut first in a downturn — and what to do as a company and as an employee to stay relevant.
Feb 8, 20233 min read
Human Framework Dependency Syndrome
Frameworks are not the problem — framework thinking is.
Dec 19, 20222 min read
Org Design Defines Managers' Scope
Why coaching product management without proper org design fails — the org you have dictates whether your managers can do macro-management or get stuck in micromanagement.
Dec 17, 20225 min read
Try Impact-Driven Product Backlog
Why epic-driven backlogs lock you into fixed-scope projects, and how to derive product backlog items from impact mapping and requirement bubbles instead.
Dec 16, 20223 min read
Avoid Epic-Driven Development
Epic-driven product backlogs trigger three failure modes: coarse-grained prioritization, implicit sub-backlogs, and the law of diminishing returns.
Nov 10, 20221 min read
SAFe Delusion?
A community-driven resource collecting case studies of failed SAFe adoptions — US Air Force, ThoughtWorks, FitBit and more — to help decision-makers think twice.
Nov 10, 20221 min read
Org Topologies at Agile Prague 2022
Together with Roland Flemm, I spoke at Agile Prague 2022 about Org Topologies — a map of recognizable organizational archetypes that helps make better org-design decisions.
Sep 30, 20223 min read
Organizational Topologies Are Here to Guide Your Transformation
A context-driven thinking tool for agile transformation.
May 4, 20224 min read
In Search of Adaptivity Fit
Why adaptivity is worth nurturing as organizations grow — costs, reactive reasons, and why even a stable environment is not an excuse to stop adapting.
Apr 30, 20214 min read
Agile Transformation Will Not Be Televised
Agile transformations don't exist in foresight — only in retrospect.
Jan 17, 20216 min read
Org Design Models, Part 2: Component & Project
Part 2 of the field guide to six org-design paradigms for software product development — Component Development and Overcomplicated Project Development, and the second management crisis.
Jan 16, 20217 min read
Org Design Models, Part 1: Startup & IT
A field guide to six organizational design paradigms for software product development — Part 1 covers Startup and Centralized IT Development, and the first management crisis on the way.
Mar 21, 20207 min read
Agile Product Roadmapping in Practice — How We Ran It at IPLAND
A two-day product roadmapping workshop, end to end.
Mar 21, 20205 min read
Agile Teams Working From Home, WTF?
Remote work doesn't kill agile collaboration — but bad virtual habits do.
Apr 19, 20185 min read
Requirements are like bubbles
Why 'epics' are black holes that swallow effort, and how bubble diagrams let teams visualise uncertainty and size so refinement actually delivers learning.
Aug 27, 20166 min read
Live Up to Your Coaching Visions
Scrum Masters get lost in routines and forget the dreams that brought them to the job.
Jun 22, 20164 min read
Scaling Scrum Meetings to 50+ People
Scaling isn't growth — it's mastering complexity by minimizing it.
Jun 19, 20165 min read
ScrumMaster is Not (Just) a Team Facilitator
Splitting agile coaches into team facilitators and enterprise gods is a false dichotomy.
Apr 27, 20163 min read
Why Scrum Is Silent on Team Leads
The Scrum Guide doesn't mention Team Leads — and that silence is the point.

Redesign, Then AI: Why AI Transformation Requires a Multi-Learning Organization

AI-Augmented Multi-Team PBRs

AI-Supported Org Design

Org Topologies meets EBM

Haier's RDHY vs. Bayer's DSO

Matrix, Functional, Project, and Product Structures vs. Scrum and LeSS

No. Not Everything Is A Product

Microservices are Technical Debt

Individuals and Interactions = Relationship (the Blah-Blah-Blah Manifesto)

Fads Do Not Last

How Adaptive are Team Topologies?

75% of those using Scrum will not succeed

A missing team type in Team Topologies?

Extract Team Leads

Three Contagious Organizational Diseases

Archetypes & Coaching Levers

Don't Scale Agile. Descale Your Org.

Cat Paw Management (Meets Recession)

Human Framework Dependency Syndrome

Org Design Defines Managers' Scope

Try Impact-Driven Product Backlog

Avoid Epic-Driven Development

SAFe Delusion?

Org Topologies at Agile Prague 2022

Organizational Topologies Are Here to Guide Your Transformation

In Search of Adaptivity Fit

Agile Transformation Will Not Be Televised

Org Design Models, Part 2: Component & Project

Org Design Models, Part 1: Startup & IT

Agile Product Roadmapping in Practice — How We Ran It at IPLAND

Agile Teams Working From Home, WTF?

Requirements are like bubbles

Live Up to Your Coaching Visions

Scaling Scrum Meetings to 50+ People

ScrumMaster is Not (Just) a Team Facilitator

Why Scrum Is Silent on Team Leads