4. Autonomy of How

Strong teams have the Autonomy of How.

We empower everyone to identify problems and continuously improve everything about our environment. Engineers make dozens of decisions every day that define output, speed and quality. Their decisions make the difference between minutes and months of delivery time. Those decisions are more complex and more impactful than e.g. meeting attendance. Micromanaging e.g. meetings presence time is treating expensive, smart professionals like little kids.

How do we make decisions?

This matrix explains where decisions reside and thereby outlines the boundaries in which squads have the autonomy of how.

• "decide" implies gathering input before.

• "delegate" usually happens with constraints

Decision	VP Prod	CTO	Vertical	Squad	Individual
Product Strategy	decide	inform	-	-	-
Vertical’s Product Strategy	delegate	-	decide (HoP)	inform	-
Backlog prioritization	-	-	delegate	decide (PO)	inform
Acquisitions (build-vs-buy)	decide	inform	-	-	-
Acquisitons for Talent	inform	decide	-	-	-
Reporting Structure	inform	decide	inform	-	-
Outsourcing	decide	decide	-	-	-
Staffing (roles & seniorities)	-	delegate	decide	inform	-
Infrastructure	-	delegate	decide	decide	-
Agile methodologies	inform	delegate	decide	decide	-
Fundamental technologies (months to replace)	-	decide	decide	-	-
Reversible technologies (weeks to replace)	-	-	delegate	decide	inform
Day-to-day technologies (days to replace)	-	-	-	delegate	decide
Productivity tools (e.g. IDE)	-	-	-	delegate	decide

Culture over Rules

Both solve the same problems. Culture empowers us to understand, question and grow.