323. Conway's Law

Your customers know all about your company's dysfunctional communications. Conway's Law proves that. It all starts with my Uncle Melvin's funeral.

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One of my first memories in life is getting ready for my Uncle Melvin’s funeral.

I must’ve been 4 or 5 when Melvin died. My cousin Jody was already a teenager. The only thing I can recall from that day is her saying this:

“Remember, Jeff, this is a funeral, so no jokes.”

At the ripe old age of 4-ish, I still remember thinking, “Of course I won’t tell jokes at the funeral. I know what a funeral is. However, have you heard the one about the Jewish kid that walks into his Uncle’s funeral?”

I got to reminiscing about this, not because I was thinking of my Uncle Melvin, but because I was thinking of Melvin Conway, who is not my uncle. Not even related. But I don’t know many Melvins, so who knows?

Melvin Conway is the person responsible for Conway’s Law.

But more on that in a minute.

Removing Your Dys-

As a leadership coach for leadership teams, my job is to remove the dys- from dysfunctional.

Recently, for instance, I was working with the five heads of the five departments of a tech company. I was called in by the COO because the company had a problem effectively building features that met the needs of the marketplace, and they didn’t understand why.

So I did what any insightful leadership coach would do: I sat in on their strategic planning meeting.

The purpose of the meeting was to talk through the strategic roadmap and come to an agreement on how to move forward. And that’s what they did. They discussed the roadmap, and though they had conflict, they resolved it and ended the meeting agreeing on the company’s strategic direction.

But when they walked away and went back to their respective departmental responsibilities, they all ended up doing their own thing, many of which were different than the agreed-upon direction.

What the hell?!

Watching this behavior, it became clear to me why the features they launched weren’t aligned with the direction they’d agreed upon.

It was Melvin Conway’s fault.

Conway’s Law

Conway’s Law, as defined by our good friend and potential long-lost uncle, is this:

Any organization that designs a system will produce a design that reflects the organization’s communication structure.

In other words, your company’s internal dysfunctions will be embodied in the products or services your company offers.

👎🏽 If your teams don’t talk with each other, your product will end up disjointed.

👎🏽 If your leaders are unclear in their direction, your roadmap will be directionless.

👎🏽 If there is a power struggle in leadership, your users will feel it in your company’s offerings.

The best way to create a streamlined, compelling offering is to create a streamlined, inspirational company structure. And this leads us to your company culture.

Conway’s Law And Your Company Culture

In its most basic sense, the level of dysfunction of your company culture is directly proportional to the dysfunction in your leadership’s communications.

If senior leadership communicates with fear, the culture will become one driven by fear. And a leadership team that can’t communicate effectively, will create a company that becomes a group of competitive silos.

Leadership behavior is inexorably intertwined with company processes and the company’s offerings. They’re all part of the same DNA.

The Leadership Behaviors That Kill Product

I was recently hired by a $225m company to help coach the leadership team and bring function to a dysfunctional environment.

Understanding Conway’s Law, the first thing I did was talk with the CEO to determine what dysfunction was being passed down from the top. It took less than a 30-minute conversation for me to realize that the CEO didn’t care about operations. In fact, he had so little interest in company operations that he couldn’t keep a COO in place.

When the CEO doesn’t care about operations, you're left with a company filled with stressful and chaotic processes.

People don’t want chaos. They want consistency.

In order to fix that company, I had to coach the CEO and help him understand the importance of operational leadership in helping him achieve his goals.

Miraculously, once we changed his mindset, the company culture’s chaos began to subside.

Thank you Melvin Conway.

How to Escape Conway’s Law

If you want to fix your product or services, you have to fix your communication patterns.

And if you want to fix your communication patterns, you need to explore how your company structure is causing them to fail.

Here’s a good way to start:

Ask yourself, “If our product behaved like the leadership team, what would it do?”

Then focus on changing that undesirable leadership behavior. Once you do that, you will naturally improve the product.

(Editor’s Note: I know a guy who can help)

Melvin Was Right

When my cousin Jody warned me not to tell jokes at Uncle Melvin’s funeral, what she was really saying was: “Read the room.”

That’s good advice for funerals. And great advice for leaders.
Because your company is a room - and it reflects everything you say and do.

If your team is misaligned, your product will be too. If your leaders are confused, your customers will be too.

So if you want a better product, a better service, a better culture… start by creating better, more unified leadership communications.

I guarantee, your customers will be able to tell.
It’s probably time you removed your dys- from your function.

Uncle Melvin would definitely approve.

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