Context
An engineering organisation had grown organically into separate front-end and back-end disciplines. Features required coordination across multiple teams, creating slow handoffs, unclear ownership, and a constant state of partial work in progress.
Challenge
Convincing engineers and managers that the discipline-based structure was the problem — not individual performance — required careful framing. There was also real risk that moving specialist engineers into mixed squads would dilute expertise and slow delivery in the short term.
Approach
I ran discovery sessions with engineers, tech leads, and product managers to surface the actual friction points. The redesign was grounded in their input, not imposed from the top. I piloted the new squad model on one product area first, used the results to build confidence, then rolled it out org-wide. I also created communities of practice to preserve specialist knowledge outside the squad structure.
Outcome
Feature cycle time dropped significantly. Squads reported higher ownership and clarity of purpose. Attrition decreased. The community of practice model became an ongoing part of the engineering culture.