Org Design is (Largely) an Information Architecture Challenge

As my career progressed from practitioner to executive, I found that what I set aside at one point (practicing information architecture) I revisited as I became responsible for organizations.

Information architecture is a valuable skill for anyone designing how teams and organizations grow and operate.

IA tools such as labeling, creating taxonomies, and lumping and splitting ‘right-size’ categories were essential to the crafting of “Org Design for Design Orgs.” It applies information architecture to the development of principles of a successful organization, the creation of roles within a design team, how people navigate their career through a levels framework, and the evolution of a design organization.

I’ve long felt information architecture did itself a disservice by being so closely bound up with end-user experience. There are countless valuable applications of “IA Thinking,” and organization design is one.