Understanding Product Team Topology
Product team topology is about organizing teams to optimize for autonomy, innovation, and delivery. Based on Marty Cagan's principles of empowered teams and modern organizational design practices.
Core Team Types
1. Product Teams
- Purpose: Solve customer problems and deliver business results
- Composition: Product, design, engineering (typically 6-8 people)
- Characteristics: Autonomous, customer-focused, outcome-oriented
- Best For: Core product development and innovation
2. Platform Teams
- Purpose: Enable and accelerate product teams
- Composition: Engineering-heavy with product and design support
- Characteristics: Service-oriented, scalability-focused
- Best For: Shared infrastructure and capabilities
3. Growth Teams
- Purpose: Optimize key business metrics
- Composition: Product, design, engineering, data science
- Characteristics: Data-driven, rapid experimentation
- Best For: Optimization and scaling
Team Interaction Models
- Collaboration
- Direct team-to-team work
- Shared goals and outcomes
- Regular synchronization
- X-as-a-Service
- Platform team provides services
- Clear service agreements
- API-first mindset
- Facilitating
- Enabling team capabilities
- Knowledge sharing
- Best practice guidance
Organizational Design Principles
- Conway's Law - Team structure influences architecture
- Two-Pizza Rule - Teams small enough to feed with two pizzas
- Autonomy-Alignment - Balance between freedom and coordination
- Domain Ownership - Clear boundaries and responsibilities
Team Structure Assessment Template
Team Structure Analysis
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Organization:
Date:
Assessor:
Current State
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1. Team Inventory
- List all teams
- Current composition
- Primary responsibilities
- Key dependencies
2. Interaction Analysis
- Team dependencies
- Communication patterns
- Bottlenecks
- Coordination overhead
3. Effectiveness Assessment
- Speed of delivery
- Quality of outcomes
- Team satisfaction
- Customer impact
Proposed Structure
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1. Team Organization
- Product teams
- Platform teams
- Growth teams
- Support functions
2. Interaction Model
- Collaboration patterns
- Service agreements
- Communication channels
- Decision rights
3. Implementation Plan
- Phasing
- Key milestones
- Risk mitigation
- Success metrics
Governance Model
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1. Decision Making
- Team autonomy
- Coordination mechanisms
- Escalation paths
2. Metrics & Review
- Team health
- Delivery metrics
- Business outcomes
- Regular reviews
Implementation Best Practices
- Start Small - Begin with pilot teams
- Clear Ownership - Define responsibilities explicitly
- Support Transitions - Provide coaching and guidance
- Measure Impact - Track key performance indicators
- Iterate Structure - Adjust based on learnings
Common Challenges
- Dependencies between teams
- Unclear decision rights
- Resource allocation
- Communication overhead
- Maintaining alignment
Success Factors
- Strong product leadership
- Clear team missions
- Well-defined interfaces
- Regular retrospectives
- Continuous improvement