Systems
I can't help but see everything as systems, processes, and procedures.
My morning routine. The way I set up my desk. How I organize a team. Once I notice how the pieces fit together, I start wondering why they're arranged that way. What are we trying to accomplish? Where does it get unnecessarily complicated?
For a business, the system is how teams, tools, and responsibilities fit together. Bringing a new customer onboard is one process within it. The instructions for setting up their account and handing it over to the right team are the procedures. People might handle some steps. Software might handle others. It all needs to work together.
And putting it on paper is only the beginning. You try it. See where people get stuck. Look at the results and adjust. I like that part just as much as designing the thing in the first place.
Business systems
For a business, the system is how teams, tools, and responsibilities fit together. Bringing a new customer onboard is one process within it. The instructions for setting up their account and handing it over to the right team are the procedures. People might handle some steps. Software might handle others. It all needs to work together.
And putting it on paper is only the beginning. You try it. See where people get stuck. Look at the results and adjust. I like that part just as much as designing the thing in the first place.
People & work
Before I map an organization, I think about three kinds of work.
Entrepreneurial work looks ahead. Where are we going, and why should anyone care? Managerial work turns that direction into something repeatable. It uses past results to improve how the team operates. Technical work gets things done today. Serving customers, building the product, and keeping the organization moving.
These aren't three different kinds of people. Everyone does some of each. What changes is the balance, depending on their role and what the organization needs at that stage.
That balance helps me think about how to structure a team and where each person can contribute most.
Then I map how work actually moves. Who owns each step? What tools do they use? Where does information get lost between one person and the next?
A system in practice
Once the pieces are mapped, I look at how they work together. The output of one process often becomes the input for another. Those connections can reveal problems that aren't obvious when each team looks only at its own work.
Revenue is the example here. The same approach applies to hiring, product development, or any other part of the business.
Making it work
This is where ownership and handoffs become instructions people can follow. The reporting should tell us where the process needs attention, not just produce another dashboard.
AI systems
Conceptual architecture
The same questions apply when agents take on part of the work. Who sets direction? What can they access? When does a person need to step in?
We designed around those questions. Clear responsibilities, shared context, and human oversight built into the architecture.
Healthcare systems
Anonymized proposals
Healthcare is the example here. The same approach applies across industries. Start with the people doing the work, map how the pieces connect, and design around what they need.
Our healthcare work focused on connecting scattered tools and information. We mapped how work moved across the organization, then designed a shared data foundation to support it.