I wish "operating system designer" was a job title
What if operating system designer was an actual job?
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From 2016-2019, I worked for a company that transformed other company’s operating systems. Every company has an “OS” — the fundamental beliefs, behaviors, and patterns that the organization runs on.
It was a dope job. I mean, your sole job being changing other company’s operating systems? That’s rad.
Fast forward to today — 2025 — I attended a conversation hosted by John Cutler on how operating systems are a design challenge.
>60 people attended! Which tells me… lots of people take interest in this stuff. Seeing an organization as a system, an environment that can be changed to better foster the behaviors that will help the organization succeed.
And I think seeing organizations as an OS has really benefitted my own career. It’s allowed me to have an impact in companies I’ve worked for and clients I’ve worked with. Whenever I talk to founders and leaders, they resonate with this thinking.
So… why does operating system design still feel like a “niche” thing? Lots of people think about organizations in this way. But maybe not as many as I might think? I dunno. Last I checked, there aren’t jobs out there called “operating system designers.” (If you search it, you’ll just see a bunch of software engineering jobs.)
I suppose people like us have been doing operating system design in our day jobs. Under our titles as leaders, founders, service designers, managers, consultants, practitioners, product managers, org designers.
It’s just what we do.
But what if there were more jobs where operating system design was the sole thing you focused on? Airbnb are hiring Organization Designers… what if more companies followed suit?
Will there be more jobs titled “org designers” and “operating system designers” in 2030? What do you think?
doesn't the OS designer role– in the case of the typical sort of business you might imagine– fall to the CEO/founders? Sure I guess they could outsource it to someone else but that seems a bit bonkers to me, "Here's my baby, pls design it". Hiring a coach or external agency who could help with organizational transformation makes more intuitive sense to me than having someone internal– I'm not sure why though. Maybe its just that, in a dominance hierarchy, the CEO is both the engine and governor (in the sense of limiting fuel) of any transformation? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I get the sense that many folks in leadership roles aren't sure what to do (as far as org/OS design) or hold some fear(s) about fucking up, so they run with the standard operating procedure and playbooks that keep them stuck at a local optimum (which often is pretty sucky for many people in the org).
I've been learning about Frederic Laloux's work recently– so far it seems like that might provide the core OS design I've been looking for. Excited to dive deeper though.
As always, thanks for sharing!