Organizational Design
26 articlesThe CTO and chief product officer in the Age of Generative AI: A New Playbook for Technology Leadership
Last week, I watched an AI agent debug a production issue, write a fix, create comprehensive tests, and deploy the solution—all while the product and tech ...
The Power Playbook: Decoding Leadership Dynamics in OpenAI’s Executive Announcement
The Meta-Strategy: Controlling the Narrative In the high-stakes world of AI leadership, those who control the narrative control reality itself. A recent pr...
Travel Checklist for Personal & Business Trips (2024 Edition)
Pre-Trip Preparations Carry in Person (Personal Items) Clothes Worn While Traveling Choose appropriate items based on the following tags: Tags Items Packin...
Beyond Outcomes: Why Great Leaders Prioritize Inputs
Introduction Mediocre leaders focus on outputs, good leaders focus on outcomes, but great leaders, the truly transformative visionaries, prioritize inputs....
Understanding the Role of Product in Media Companies and Tech Companies
I enumerated the role of product management in my earlier article titled The Many Hats of Product Managers: Their Indispensable Hands-On Roles as Individua...
Roles and Responsibilities for Digital Product Development Teams
I'm writing this article to share some insights on a topic that's been crucial throughout my professional journey – Roles and Responsibilities in Digital P...
Power, for All by Julie Battilana and Tiziana Casciaro (Book Review)
I've been a keen student of power dynamics throughout my career, and my friend, Professor Jeff Pfeffer's works on power have provided valuable insights in ...
My Personal and Professional Values: Keys to Collaborative Success
Shared values and principles are the driving force behind any successful team. I hold certain values dear, not only in my professional life but also in my ...
Management & Technical Career Growth Tracks (v3)
In follow-up to earlier work on a) versions one and two of these technical and related career tracks, b) pathways for career development in product enginee...
How to be an effective CTO
A CTO's job combines Culture, Technology, and Operations. Each of the three is necessary; a field of knowledge, experimentation, and learning in itself; an...
90 Day Plan for a CTO in a New Job
Starting as a CTO in a new organization is like conducting an orchestra you've never heard before. You need to understand the musicians, learn the repertoi...
3 Dimensions of a Technology Team
Organizing Software Engineering Teams to Balance Products, Partners & Professions This organizational design for a technology department aims to optimally ...
Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business – Guest Speaker on Organizational Behavior
At Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Rajiv was a guest speaker / panelist and spoke about organizational behavior at two sessions to MBA s...
Ray Dalio, Randall Munroe and I Think Alike – Culture of Courage & Candor
On the matter of bad behavior of complaining against others behind their backs, Ray Dalio, Randall Munroe and I share the same viewpoint. This article star...
Three Pillars of a Media/Publishing Company
Questions: Where should product be depicted? Is product an extension of the journalism (newsroom)? In this way of thinking, all products including Web, mob...
HR Classification and Discretionary/Business Job Titles for Makers, Managers and Leaders in Technology
This article presents an organization system and policy for job titles of maker, manager and leader roles in technology staffs. Separate job titles for HR ...
Case for a Consistent, Comprehensible & Cost-Effective Vacation Policy
This article makes a case for having a vacation policy that is simple, sane and standard across the organization. Some organizations have unnecessarily com...
Management & Technical Career Growth Tracks (v2)
This second version of the diagram illustrating technical career tracks reflects the following updates since version one: A product management track is now...
Organizing a Digital Technology Department in a Media Company By Functional Areas
This article presents a system to organize your digital technology department in a media company. It is written for a CTO, CIO or EVP Technology looking fo...
Confidence in Leaders & Managers and Their Performance: Reinforcing Loop
When stakeholders, executives and team members have confidence in the abilities of a leader/manager, it results in their lending greater support to that le...
Some Pathways for Career Development in a Product Engineering Organization
The diagram below illustrates some pathways for career development in an engineering-focussed product development organization. It shows an organization wh...
Trinity Method of Technology Management
In the Trinity Method of Technology Management, tasks and responsibilities are categorized under three types of roles: Creator, Guardian and Recycler. If y...
Build and maintain a cohesive leadership team
For an executive, having a management team of people who are good at their jobs and work well with each other is one of the most important factors that lea...
Organizing a Digital Technology Department of Medium Size in a Media Company
There are many good ways to organize your technology department. This article presents some of them. It is written for a CTO or VP Technology leading a med...
Management & Technical Career Growth Tracks
Described here is one way to enable technologists to grow their careers in your organization while still allowing them to focus on the type of work they ar...
An All-Nighter at Work Followed by a Terrorism Threat Scare
We had too much excitement at work pulling an all-nighter. Then when we thought we could go home and sleep, there was a terrorism threat at our building. A...