In Systeric we basically build whatever kind of software is needed to serve our client’s objectives, so to some degree we have a lot of unpredictability in terms of way of working, tech stack, etc depending on the client.

We started on March 1st 2021 with 7 people. We grew our team to ~20 by June 2021, and by October 2021 we were close to 50, basically 2x every three months.

Once we hit those numbers it started to hit walls, I don’t have visibility across all projects anymore, there are times where our company initiatives are failing, because again, we don’t have the frameworks to control and govern the company.

We didn’t have the problems when we were a small team, but once we grew, it started to feel like we need to design our process and workflows for scale. Especially when we want to scale it 3-5x in one year. I needed a way to make sure we can replicate the process, to make sure we achieve our goals, and I need to transform our culture

The problem I often see is that people think of organizations like it’s a machine, let’s try to find what’s wrong with the machine, and when we’ve found which part of it is malfunctioning, let’s just change that part and see. But instead we have people, not machines, which is unpredictable.

We need to think of it in a different way, think of it more like a garden, an ecosystem, they’re all at once interconnected, dynamic, and ever-changing. We can’t change one part and expect everything to be fixed. We need to design how we communicate, how information flows, and how we work together. We need to do something on our culture.

Niels Pflaeging has a unique take on culture:

“Culture is like a shadow. You cannot change it, but it changes all the time. Culture is read-only. Indeed, trying to change culture is like trying to change the weather — yell at it all you want, it’s unlikely to respond” - Niels Pflaeging

What is the relationship between our workflow and our structure?

When we do something new, but we still fundamentally work in the same way as before, people will automatically default back to how they are used to working, and thats my challenge.

I need to create a system where I can make sure people follow the process that we want without me needing to micro manage down the command chain. I need to design the “defaults” that will happen across the company, the preset behaviors and habits that happen almost automatically.

I need to rethink how we work, I need to shape the terrains so that the water can flow like it should. I need to shape the organization so that the flow of information and decisions will work like it should.

Before I can come up with any solutions, I need to ask a lot of questions, such as:

• What’s my ideal workflow?
• How do we decide and delegate?
• What should be centralized and decentralized?
• What is safe to try, and what is not
• What kind information do I want?
• How do we share information?
• What do we expect from one another?
• How do we give and receive feedback?
• How do we learn and evolve?
• How do we approach learning and development?
• How can I make sure everyone follows the process
• Who controls it?
• What should be contained or controlled?
• How do we maintain visibility across all our projects?
• How we invest our resources (time, capital, effort, space)

Our Approach in Systeric

The challenging part is that have a unique way of working, so we can’t use the templates or ‘best practices’ that are available out there. We need to design our organization so that it serves the dynamic requirements of the projects that we have, while maintaining the standards and rigidity it needs for us to replicate for scale.

So this is our current approach that we use, keep in mind this might evolve with time:

Project Team Composition

Career Path

P.s

I’ve intentionally left out things like which roles we need (which answers the question of who is responsible to what) and reporting line for simplicity.

If you’re interested on my thinking behind this and you want to discuss about the topics in more detail, feel free to contact me. Let’s meet or schedule a call to discuss on this.

I might also write in more details on how we work in and what are the responsibilities of each team member in another article in the future.