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This sounds like a great idea at Amazon's current scale, but I struggle to see how this is possible at a company with <20 head count. There are so many different areas that need attention when running a business, and many of them require less than one person's full time. ...Maybe the move is to bring process-driven management to the startup. You outsource all non-core processes, including payroll, benefits, invoicing, accounting, legal, HR, finance, etc. You could then have an eng leader, a product leader, a sales leader, a customer success leader, and a "vision" leader. Sounds like a lot of the VC backed startup world, actually. ...but at that scale, each "single thread" contains multitudes. In "engineering," there's recruiting, mentorship, internal tooling, existing process maintenance, new project scoping & architecture, sprint planning and execution, the list goes on. So the "single-threaded" eng leader is actually multi-threaded across all these different sub-areas. |
1/ As you mentioned, this is not a good approach for start-ups. The single-threaded model keeps teams autonomous and focused by eliminating alignment in big companies. It tries to replicate the nimbleness of start-ups within business units and teams. A startup should already be focused on finding a market fit as fast as possible.
2/ Not everything should be run as single-threaded. For example, AWS sales and support teams run as functional teams because otherwise, it will impact the customer's experience.
A better approach for start-ups and small businesses is using something similar to the Directly Responsible Individuals approach. Its focus is on decision-making ownership and speed. [1]
Thanks for the feedback. I will try to incorporate it into the post.
[1] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/directly-resp...