Code of Leadership S2E29 Materials: Organizational Redesign and Handing Over Authority (Series #Management)
My solo Code of Leadership episode “Organizational Redesign for a Division of 1,000 Engineers” (S2E29, #87) came out on November 5. I’ve put together all the materials.
In 2023 my remit grew from around 600 people to more than a thousand, with about twenty direct reports. As I switched between areas, I had less and less time to understand what caused the problems. We divided the organization into five units. Then came the most interesting part: how do you give new CTOs the authority to make decisions and reach agreements with the business when you’re still accountable for the whole result?
In the episode:
🔸 Where to draw a boundary The shared web and mobile platform team plans ahead: which components will be needed and when to address technical debt. The digital ecosystem team is constantly settling disputes over space on the home screen. Every product has its own priorities.
🔸 How to choose a CTO for the job Maintaining a mature, regulated product and bringing several teams together call for different work. Before the appointment, it helps to know who will pick up the candidate’s existing commitments.
🔸 How to hand over decisions in practice In meetings with the business, I let the new CTO lead the conversation. We worked through the details one on one. Independence became visible when the CTO could explain why they chose a course of action and reach an agreement with the business on their own.
🔸 What stayed shared I handed over the budgets I could by the end of 2024. Reliability, security, and shared goals still required agreements across the units.
Another redesign changed the structure again in 2025. If I went through the transition again, I’d draw clearer boundaries between the units and spend more time understanding their long-term plans.
— Episode page with timestamps and slides — Video: YouTube, VK Video — Audio: Podster, Apple Podcasts — Written summary
If you’ve handed over a management role, which decision showed you that the new leader could handle it without you?
#Management #Leadership #OrgDesign #Engineering #Podcast