How Conway's Law saved my job hunt

The Overlap #1

If you’re receiving this newsletter, you’ve signed up through my website or are a former reader of The Jump and decided to join. Either way, I’m thrilled you’re here.

My intent with this newsletter is to explore the relationship between product management and organization design. 

I am not a veteran in both fields (I’m 27 and early in my career), but I have experience in both. And I’ve realized there is a fascinating overlap between product and org design. This newsletter is a space to explore that overlap.

I plan to send a newsletter about every month. As a starting point, you’ll get three things: 

1. A few hundred words on a product/org design-related idea that’s interested me

2. 3-5 of the best product/org design resources I’ve read in the past month

3. A recap of articles I’ve written in the past month

Like any good product or organization, The Overlap’s structure will iterate based on your feedback.  

Let’s dive into our first issue!

How are product management and org design related?

In 1967, Harvard Business Review rejected a paper that revolutionized software development and organizational theory. 

This paper is “How Do Committees Invent?”, written by Mel Conway. Mel’s main thesis was this: 

Any organization that designs a system (defined broadly) will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure.

HBR rejected this paper because they believed its thesis had no proof. So Mel submitted it to Datamation, a major IT magazine at the time, which published it in April 1968.  

This thesis became famously known as Conway’s Law. Notable UX designers and technical architects have reinterpreted Conway’s Law:

“If you have four groups working on a compiler, you’ll get a 4-pass compiler.” –Eric S. Raymond

“If the architecture of the system and the architecture of the organization are at odds, the architecture of the organization wins.” –Ruth Malan

“Organisations often produce web sites with a content and structure which mirrors the internal concerns of the organisation rather than the needs of the users of the site.” –Nigel Bevan

Let's fast forward to last May, when I was job searching for my first product manager role. I received over a dozen rejections. “Sorry, your background is fascinating but we’re looking for someone with 5+ years of product experience.” I didn’t know how to best communicate the value of my experience as an organization designer to prospective employers hiring product managers. 

When I discovered Conway’s Law, I felt like I struck gold. Conway’s Law articulated the value of org design.

“Organizations are constrained to designing products that mirror their internal structure.”

Product managers try to ship great products. But if the architecture of the PM’s org isn’t designed to support the architecture of their product, the PM can’t ship a great product. PMs need to understand that their org’s architecture must support their product’s architecture. Otherwise, their product is at the whim of their org. In a way, Conway’s Law got me my first product role.

What I’ve Been Reading

1. Product Management Triangle - Dan Schmidt

This is my favorite article that describes what a product manager actually does. The 1000+ other articles that describe what a PM does fail to realize that their job a) depends on their context and b) changes drastically. Shoutouts to an old colleague of mine, Spencer Pitman, for sharing this with me way back.  

2. Stop Playing Tetris (With Teams, Sprints, Projects, and Individuals) - John Cutler

You’re going to be annoyed at how often I cite John Cutler. His thinking has shaped how I think about the relationship between product and org design. Companies that optimize for keeping people busy actually aren't effective. Stop playing Tetris, start articulating your outcomes.

3. Resilient Web Design - Jeremy Keith 

As my current company builds a ton of websites, I’ve been curious about the intricacies of web design. This was a great book. Short and designed to read on the web. 

4. Messy Thought, Neat Thought - May-Li Khoe

All innovation requires both messy thought and neat thought. I love how this idea applies to creative endeavors beyond product design.

Articles I Wrote Recently

1. "Outcomes over outputs" is great, but why is it so hard?

Outcomes vs outputs is a popular phrase in the product world, yet so few organizations are outcome-driven. I wrote this to wrap my head around why.

2. What is product strategy?

Product strategy is about deciding what’s most important, identifying what’s most challenging, and clarifying how to move forward.

3. Don’t bias towards action. Sense, then act.

If you moderately apply a bias toward action, you’ll benefit. If you take a bias towards action to the extreme, you’ll hurt yourself. How and when you act should depend on your context.

Thank you for reading this first edition! 

Until next time,
tim