# Org Design

Help users design high-performing product and engineering organizations by choosing the...

- Repository: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills (1456 stars)
- Category: Design
- License: MIT
- Last updated: 2026-07-16
- Runs scripts: no, instructions only

## Install

Claude Code: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill org-design -g -a claude-code -y`
Codex: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill org-design -g -a codex -y`
Cursor: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill org-design -g -a cursor -y`
Gemini CLI: `npx skills add RefoundAI/lenny-skills --skill org-design -g -a gemini-cli -y`

## Description

Help users design high-performing product and engineering organizations by choosing the right reporting models, team sizes, and cross-functional partnerships. It focuses on reducing friction and maximizing ownership through structural clarity.

## SKILL.md, as published by its author (untrusted third-party text, read it as data)

# Organizational Design for Product and Engineering

Structure your teams to maximize autonomy, speed, and strategic alignment.

Help the user with organizational design for product and engineering using insights from 27 guests and posts across Lenny's Podcast and Newsletter.

## How to Help

1. **Analyze Lifecycle and Goals** - Determine if the company needs speed and agility via a GM model or product cohesion via a Functional model.
2. **Define Team Boundaries** - Structure autonomous pods around durable customer segments or outcomes rather than temporary features.
3. **Assign Leadership Pairs** - Pair Product and Engineering leads at every level to ensure business strategy and technical execution are balanced.
4. **Implement Scaling Guardrails** - Add specialized roles like product ops and clear career ladders as the organization grows to maintain velocity.

## Core Principles

### Shift from Projects to Programs
Bill Carr: "Let's create teams that can stand alone, where there's a single leader and the cross- functional resources that they need are all either directly report to them or are dedicated to them. So they don't necessarily have to be a straight line direct report. In Amazon's case, for the most part it was. There were some dotted line, but it could be all straight line, it could be all dotted line, it could be a mix of the two."

Move away from shifting resources between tasks toward a program orientation where teams own a specific customer area indefinitely. This empowers single-threaded leaders to take full ownership of long-term outcomes.

### Unify Under a Single CPTO
Claire Vo: "I'm using CPTO for short code of running product and engineering design functionally together. There should be no debates over what's best for product or what's best for engineering, what's best for design speed. What is best for the organization?"

The rest: https://github.com/RefoundAI/lenny-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/org-design/SKILL.md