Org design

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From 6 people to 60

With six people, everyone talks to everyone. With 60, that is 1,770 pairs of people. Org design decides who works with whom, who decides what, and how news travels.

Ways to split a studio

Quick check

Shard Garden runs three games. Each needs artists, coders and testers every day. Which split should Kai pick?

  1. By game, with every skill in each team
  2. By skill only
  3. No teams at all
Show the answer

By game, with every skill in each team

Each game gets every skill it needs, every day, without waiting for another team.

True story: desks with wheels

In March 2012, Valve published its Handbook for New Employees. It says: "Hierarchy is great for maintaining predictability and repeatability." Valve chose to be flat instead: "we don't have any management". Desks have wheels, so people can move to the projects they choose.

The handbook also lists what Valve is not good at, including "Mentoring people" and "Making predictions longer than a few months out."

Source: Valve: Handbook for New Employees (March 2012), cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com

Quick check

What did Valve write that its flat structure is not good at?

  1. Mentoring people, and predictions more than a few months out
  2. Making games
  3. Hiring anyone at all
Show the answer

Mentoring people, and predictions more than a few months out

Valve wrote its own downsides down, beside the reasons it chose to be flat.

Every structure has a cost

Shard Garden writes its costs down too. Game teams ship fast, but artists in different teams can drift apart, so the art lead meets all the artists every week.

Fix the gap

Two game teams each build their own sign-in screen. What helps?

  1. A shared platform team that owns sign-in for every game
  2. Ban one team from building it
  3. Nothing
Show the answer

A shared platform team that owns sign-in for every game

Work every game needs belongs to one team that serves them all.

Teams of a size

Kai keeps each Shard Garden team between 5 and 9 people. A bigger team splits in two, each with a clear goal and its own column on the board.

Quick check

Adding people to a team always makes it faster.

Show the answer

False

Each new person adds conversations to keep up with. That is why Shard Garden splits teams above nine.

Someone to talk to

In a bigger studio, everyone needs regular time with their manager.

Bolt says: Next: managers and one-to-ones.

Fact-checked 12 October 2026