Tech Companies Are 3D, Not Flat

Peeking Under the Invisibility Cloak

Under the invisibility cloak of calling themselves non-hierarchical, tech companies hide the power dynamics and imbalances that, unseen, remain unmanaged and unchallenged.

Inter and intra-team power imbalances create the friction that cannot be explained if everyone and every role held the same power.

Scanning the Power Setup

A typical power setup is:

Founder > Engineering or Sales > Product > Design

*Engineering or Sales, depending on whether the organization is Engineering-Led or Sales-Led.

Quick check for PMs: In your org, is it more common to see engineering playing with technology that has no connection to user needs, or to run after impossible features sold by sales without any connection to the roadmap?

** I have yet to see Product-Led companies where the Product function holds the greatest power after the founder. What is typically called Product-Led is just Growth-Led, which is a fancier and more modern term for Sales-Led.

*** Design is often fighting for a seat at the table.

If you accept this as a truthful rough sketch, then it is no wonder why it’s so easy for users to become an afterthought, not to mention any planetary impact concerns.

If 80% of the decision power about what gets built is in the first two layers, you’d better guarantee (pray?) that the founder you are dealing with cares about users and the purpose of what is being built.

If she just cares about technology or sales, then that is just further compounded on the next layer, pushing the users, the planet, and humanity out of the way.

If you buy into the myth that tech companies are flat, the friction — within product teams (engineering, product, design) and between teams like sales and product — can seem inexplicable. That’s the gaslighting power of the “flat” invisibility cloak.

If every role within the product team had the same power, design wouldn’t need to fight for a seat at the table, and product managers wouldn’t have to plead to engineers to focus on satisfying user needs.

Reporting Lines: The Visible Third Axis

Like it or not, organizational power is crystallized in the presence of clear reporting lines.

Notice that only the product managers are asked to convince themselves of the “noble virtue” of only managing by influence, without anyone reporting to them, while the tech team lead gets to keep his 9 reportees.

(Guess who those reportees are going to side with when you are discussing the future direction of the product).

And designers are often pooled into a messy hierarchy setup: a matrix organization in which they report to their subject lead and also informally to the product lead, and worse, jump from team to team on an as-needed basis.

Once You See It, You Can’t Unsee It

Once the invisibility cloak stops working on you and you discover this third axis — power — it becomes one of the most important angles from which to assess a tech company: whether you are considering working for it, have it as a client, or even use its products.

More than titles, you want to assess where the power over what gets built lies, and whether it aligns with your values and priorities. Adding this perspective to your analysis can spare you much of the heartache that comes from ignoring it.