Build vs. Run Team Restructuring
Executive Summary
RRI’s engineering team is structurally broken: everyone does everything, which means nothing gets done reliably. No sprint has closed in 3 weeks. The team burned out after 3–4 weeks of 10-hour days and half are currently sick or on vacation. Spork attends 6+ standing meetings daily, functioning as a human router instead of an engineering director.
This is a systems failure, not a people failure. The fix is proven: separate Run (Kanban, reactive, Spork) from Build (Scrum, planned, Justin) with a hard organizational wall between them.
Framework: Team Topologies (2025 update) — Run = Platform Team (Kanban), Build = Stream-Aligned Team (Scrum). Sprint velocity protection: Product Owner gates ALL unplanned work. No direct Slack pings to Build engineers about ops issues.
What Needs to Happen
- Phase 1 — Stabilize and Separate (Weeks 1-2) — Announce restructuring, create two Jira boards, establish P1/P2/P3 incident severity tiers, set WIP limits (
team_size+1), Spork stops Build standups, implement 20% interrupt buffer. - Kill Spork’s 6+ daily meetings BEFORE March 12 — Route status through Kingler (Chief of Staff AI). Erik Logan must cancel cross-department meetings. This is structural, not personal.
- Phase 2 — Hire and Stabilize (Weeks 3-8) — Post Run Team Lead + DevOps + Integration Engineer + Data Engineer. Install OpsGenie ($9/user/month). Documentation sprints for Zach and Johnny.
- Post Run Team Lead ($140-160K) — This is the #1 blocking hire. 45–55 days post-to-offer. Must post within 5 days of announcement.
- Phase 3 — Operational Cadence (Weeks 9-12) — Run Team Lead onboarded and independent. First quarterly roadmap planning. Swarmia DORA metrics baseline.
- Build Team: 2-week Scrum sprints — 20% interrupt buffer, first sprint deliberately at 50% velocity. No hero sprints.
- Run Team: Kanban with WIP limits — P1/P2/P3 incident severity tiers, OpsGenie on-call rotation.
Claude Code acceleration: No code acceleration possible. This initiative is entirely organizational — hiring timelines, team restructuring, meeting elimination, and cultural change. The 12-week timeline is driven by post-to-offer hiring cycles (60–75 days for senior roles), not engineering work.
New Hires Required
| Role | Team | Salary Range | Priority | Post-to-Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Run Team Lead | Run (Spork) | $140-160K | #1 BLOCKING | 60-75 days |
| Systems/DevOps Engineer | Run (Spork) | $130-150K | #2 | 60-75 days |
| Integration Engineer | Run (Spork) | $120-140K | #3 | 55-70 days |
| Data Engineer | Build (Justin) | $130-150K | #4 | 60-75 days |
| Event Ops Contractors (x2) | Run (event-gated) | $50-80K each | Immediate | 30-45 days |
Completion Criteria
- Two separate Jira boards operational: Run (Kanban) and Build (Scrum)
- P1/P2/P3 incident severity tiers documented and enforced
- Spork’s daily meeting count reduced from 6+ to 2 or fewer
- Run Team Lead hired, onboarded, and operating independently
- Build team completing 70%+ sprint velocity consistently
- P1 incidents resolved within 30 minutes
- No engineer working 10-hour days for 3+ consecutive days
- First quarterly roadmap planning session completed
- Swarmia DORA metrics baseline established
Initiative Attributes
Related Risks
| ID | Risk | Severity | Probability | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RF7 | Spork overload in Wave 0 (4 initiatives in 9 days) | MEDIUM | HIGH | Kill 6+ daily meetings before March 12. Route status through Kingler. Erik must cancel cross-department meetings. This is structural, not personal. |
| RF1 | Nick Jensen disengagement / departure | CRITICAL | MEDIUM | Lior 1:1 Week 1 post-UPW. Frame S3 + S5 ownership as growth opportunity. Load relief from H4. If Nick leaves, U2, U4, S3, S5 all at risk — he’s bus factor 1 on TonyRobbins.com. |