Paulius Mui, MD

Shopify's product team has a neat framework for clarifying responsibilities on projects. It's called the AAA framework. Each team member is assigned one of three roles: 1. Aiming: responsible for strategy and direction of what we are building 2. Assembling: responsible for bringing the right people together and keeping them on track 3. Achieving: responsible for the day-to-day work of getting shit done (GSD) like design, code, etc. As @glencoates shared with me, "I think most companies think of hierarchy and jobs basically as this sort of single line of leadership downward, based on how senior you are. But a few years ago we introduced the AAA framework. You don’t want to take on a leadership job and suddenly be responsible for aiming when you’re really passionate about assembly, or the other way around. It’s helped us put people in the right roles and not just have one dimension of leadership that everyone has to conform to. On projects, it’s really good to be able to know who’s the aimer, responsible for the strategy. It may not be the most senior person in the room; it may be the staff designer or the staff engineer. It’s sometimes good to know that the team’s manager actually isn’t the aimer, which is by design. Then there’s usually dedicated product ops and program management people who are responsible for the assembly. And of course, the achievers, who actually do the work." Read more about @Shopify's product development process in the thread below...