Shreyas Doshi argues that people do three types of work in company: production for external stakeholders, organization to produce work, and self promotion1. He attributes this model to thinking by Ray Dalio within Principles.
| Type | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Produce | produce artifacts to serve the companyâs external stakeholders | products, eng. infra, sales deals, services, support |
| Organize | creating the necessary structures & process to produce work | internal processes, resource planning, status updates, re-orgs, |
| Self-promotion | creating a proxy for their own competence and impact | performance reviews, status updates, 1:1s with their manager |
From this idea he argues that companies reach a crossover proint where the majority of the work is the latter two rather than production2:
Naturally, a start up is more centered on the
left of the graph, while large Corp is on the right.
1. Doshi, S. People do 3 types of work within companies. Produce: Creating artifacts to serve the companyâs external stakeholders. Organize: Creating the necessary structures & processes for Produce work. Self-promote: Creating a proxy for their own competence & impact. A short tutorialđđž. https://x.com/shreyas/status/1329330848919810049 (2020).
2. Doshi, S. There comes a point in a companyâs life when it becomes its own largest customer. This is the crossover point in the đĽ-pattern below. Left side of đĽ is largely about Produce work. Right side largely Organize+Self-promote work. Crossover is inevitable, but defer it if you can https://t.co/xapPXvNDqO. https://x.com/shreyas/status/1332889514079965186 (2020).