I've said in the past that as an organization grows from sports car size to big rig, it has a choice to make.

· Bits and Bobs 8/26/24

Either behave like a swarm of sports cars

Local autonomy and agility of teams, at the downside of externally-visible decreased coherence.

Of behave like a big rig

They can go fast, they just can't pivot as much, and need much more scaffolding and investment in coordination.

One of the deciders of which is a better fit for your organization is what external users think of as a product.

If there's one product, that will tilt you in the direction of big rig.

If there's a suite of products that will tilt you in the direction of swarm of sports cars.

Note that product does not map 1:1 to app (although it often does)

AirBnB is one app, one product.

AWS is a suite of products.

WeChat is one app, but a suite of internal products.