korrents

← Mental models

Conway's law

What an organisation builds ends up shaped like the organisation that built it.

Our reading of the idea · 4 claims from 4 people, in their own words

Who thinks with this

Elena VernaMitchell HashimotoRoman UgarteThuan Pham

An AI product that adds a tab for each new form factor is shipping its org chart, and users seem to be reacting negatively to it.

  1. Roman Ugarte Leads product for Grok Bot at SpaceX AI instead it's three different visions that all kind of share a screen and you can hop between but it is kind of a shipping your org chart style thing that I think users are reacting negatively to. How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)youtube.com · 8 Sept 2026 · 0:10:27 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsinstead it's three different visions that all kind of share a screen and you can hop between but it is kind of a shipping your org chart style thing that I think users are reacting negatively to.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:10:27 plays here

    ↗How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)youtube.com

    8 Sept 2026 · video · 1h 22m · spoken · machine transcript

When the cost of building falls below the cost of coordinating, the org chart should change.

  1. Elena Verna Leads growth at Lovable; previously led growth at Miro When the cost of building falls below the cost of coordinating, the org chart should change. The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com · 10 Sept 2026 · 5:59 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsWhen the cost of building falls below the cost of coordinating, the org chart should change.

    Where this was said

    Watch from 5:59 plays here

    ↗The rise of HI-ICs | Elena Verna (Lovable) (Lenny & Friends Summit, San Francisco, 10 September 2026)youtube.com

    10 Sept 2026 · video · 19m · spoken · machine transcript

A functionally organised engineering team seizes up at around a hundred people, because every feature then has to be negotiated against every other team's bandwidth.

  1. Thuan Pham Uber's first Chief Technology Officer, from 2013 to 2020 every feature that we want to put out has to be queued up on mobile development bandwidth dispatch bandwidth and it become impossible to navigate tradeoff because every feature you want to do you have to go negotiate with so many team Scaling Uber with Thuan Pham (Uber's first CTO)youtube.com · 1 Apr 2026 · 0:48:14 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    Their wordsevery feature that we want to put out has to be queued up on mobile development bandwidth dispatch bandwidth and it become impossible to navigate tradeoff because every feature you want to do you have to go negotiate with so many team

    Where this was said

    Watch from 0:48:14 plays here

    ↗Scaling Uber with Thuan Pham (Uber's first CTO)youtube.com

    1 Apr 2026 · video · 1h 39m · spoken · machine transcript

More in systems

Feedback loops Compounding Bottlenecks When a measure becomes a target Power laws Exponential growth S-curves and diminishing returns Emergence Everything decays without maintenance Cheaper means more, not less