For Tech & Product
// Treating the org like a distributed system.
Most “people problems” in delivery are interface problems.
- implicit contracts
- untyped ownership
- hidden coupling
- undefined failure modes
We don’t fix this with vibes.
We fix it with architecture.
Problem:
Lower coordination cost without flattening real complexity.
Solution:
Apply engineering discipline to human systems.
In Practice
Decision-making as a first-class primitive
Explicit problem & solution space.
Explicit commit(ment)s.
Explicit owners.
No magical thinking.
Ownership boundaries defined like service boundaries
Clear responsibility.
Clear escalation paths.
No shared-nothing-by-accident.
Alignment treated as protocol design
Not meetings.
Structured handshakes.
Known retry semantics.
Reduced decision latency
Shared models of:
- risk
- trade-offs
- priorities
So teams can decide locally
without waiting on global locks.
Conflict treated as signal
Not failure to avoid.
Debugging the system.
Not blaming the nodes.
Outcomes
- Fewer late-stage escalations.
- Roadmaps that survive contact with reality.
- Aligned reasoning across teams.
- Less coordination tax.
- More time spent building.
systemic.engineering doesn’t replace:
- your stack
- your frameworks
- your rituals
It’s the missing architecture layer.
The one that makes your org:
- observable
- debuggable
- designable
Less firefighting.
More coherence.
Proceed at your own risk.
You’ve been warned.
