- Middle Management Roles: Described Like Never Before
- Middle Management Roles: The Intended Audience
- Org Structure Casestudy: A Technology Company
- The project OVES
- Product Marketing Manager: The Job of Showing The Money
- Marketing Director: Marketing Strategy For The Portfolio
- Engineering Director: Accountability for R&D Management
- PMO Practice Head: Driving Delivery Of All Projects
- Engineering Manager: The Job of Line Management
- Program Manager: Delivery Responsibility of the Program
- Lead Architect: Clarity of Technical Roles (Or Lack of It)
- Software Release Manager: Highly Meticulous Job
The organization chart:
This is an imaginary company – PolarLight Inc. The company is into video based products and services. It has many products and services. It has many sets of products. The products are sold as individual products. They are also sold as group of multiple products together as solutions.
The org chart shows:
- Major R&D departments (under two R&D directors). Product development and maintenance.
- Marketing: Creating roadmaps, product market strategies, getting customer feedback and making it part of product roadmap
- Sales, channel management, customer relationship etc.
Few groups are not explicitly shown to avoid too much details:
- Product support group is not explicitly shown. It is structured under marketing.
- Technical publications, which creates user manuals is not shown. The organization
- Corporate communication and branding team. The group takes care of how the brand should be presented, also takes care of major internal and external communications. It also takes care of public relations.
- HR
- Finance, Operations and Facilities including IT
- There are external consultant organizations. These include legal, external auditors etc. For cutting edge research, they partner with external companies and universities.
Project and Roles
To understand more about the technology, let us dive deep into a project. Polar Light is considering a new project. Creating a new service offering called OVES – Online Video Editing Service. Marketing manager is pushing for it. She is showing lot of data to the management about advantages and returns if it is pursued.
I am going to explain the story of how this service came into existence. Its inception, who was involved and how. Many groups in R&D, marketing and other support groups are to be involved in making it a success.
- Product Marketing Manager
- Engineering Director
- Marketing Director
- Engineering Manager
- Program Manager
- Architect
- Test team
- Sales Director
- Sales Manager
- Tech Support
And many more roles depending upon organization
Further about the project and the roles, see here
Does org chart work the way shown in chart? Do the personalities define their sphere of influence and ‘practical’ power ?Meanwhile I am curious to hear your interpretations of this structure. Any issues do you see?
If you are in technology business, any comments on the org chart? What works and what does not , per your experience ?