Conway's Law and Cross-Hatching
Summary
The piece explores Conway's Law and the idea that an organization's structure shapes its systems, culture, and decisions. It introduces cross-hatching as a way to balance tensions within engineering teams (e.g., Forward Deployed Engineers vs. Software Engineers, people leads vs. project leads) and discusses how open-source vs. proprietary work streams can create frictions that, if harnessed, better align outcomes with customer needs. The author also reflects on remote work, team sizing, and the need for scaffolding that preserves context across pods and product lines.