When a tech company grows, teams organize themselves around technical divisions (front-end, back-end, infrastructure, DevOps…). This division is quite natural, as it brings groups with similar skills. But this organization isn’t without problems.
IMO, this organization has many downsides. Features are designed and split across multiple teams. Responsibilities are diluted, and teams can blame each other when problems occur. With this organization, there’s no global vision, teams don’t understand other teams’ challenges. It generates silos and company performance decreased.
High-performing teams organize themselves around functional splits. Each team is autonomous and there are fully responsible for a given domain. Those teams are multidisciplinary. Team members know everyone’s challenges. They move forward together toward a common goal. Responsibilities are no longer split. The whale team is responsible for the domain.
Autonomy is the key to ownership.
