REBORRN Operating System
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How we structure our teams

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Self-managed is the way to go. Table of Contents: 1. Structure 2. Roles 3. Self-managed

1️⃣ Structure

Our structure is flat and non-hierarchical. Given that we are self-managed, the people manager’s role is definitely not to micro-manage or know every little detail of someone’s projects but rather to coach, support and ensure that their teams have the right capabilities. Anyone can collaborate with anyone in the company, vertically or horizontally, without needing to involve their direct manager. For example, an intern may discuss an idea or work on a project directly with a partner from another team.

However, we do have teams to foster a sense of belonging as well as knowledge sharing and practice growth. This is how we are structured:

2️⃣ Roles

Our roles fall mostly under two categories:

Consultants

These are generalists who lead client projects and have business experience in areas such as strategy, customer experience, marketing, and organisation design. None of our consultants have previous experience in consultancies. This helps us maintain a hands-on, impact-first approach compared to theories and frameworks.

Our consultants are deeply involved in projects, ensuring that they go beyond creating beautiful decks and see-through to their implementation.

Makers

Although our consultants are also makers, we use this distinction to refer to the specialists who ensure that our deliverables are holistic. Examples of makers include visual and motion designers, software engineers, AI engineers, data analysts, and CRM technologists.

This categorisation does not affect the importance of the roles—they are both equally critical and are paid the same (with shared pay ranges per level). The only difference lies in the capabilities and responsibilities. For example, we expect consultants to manage clients, while this is not the case for makers.

We have also consciously decided not to follow the path of other consultancies and avoid multiple levels that (falsely) cater to the need for career growth. We are clearly not a good match for people driven (only) by titles. Instead, we prioritise providing opportunities and support to everyone, and, of course, this is accompanied by the respective roles.

The levels that we have (shown in the above Miro) primarily depict the difference in the complexity we expect each one to handle.

3️⃣ Self-managed

Our people and teams are self-managed. This is what it means for us:

  • Everyone is responsible for their backlog. If they have slack, they should raise their hand to take on more tasks. If they are overloaded, they should ask for help from their team and manager.
  • We are all responsible for our schedule. No one will monitor what time we start working, end our day, or if we run an errand during the day. Our responsibility is to deliver impact.
  • While we don’t have a strict time schedule, our aim is to work from 10 AM to 6 PM. The reason behind this is to provide the teams with the opportunity to collaborate. If we work on a project with a team in a different time zone, we will adjust accordingly.
  • We decide on our own when to take time off. We know best when we are busy and when we are not. We don’t follow the minimum legal holidays. We are aware of the downside of this policy, which may result in someone taking fewer days than they should, so we also nudge each other to take adequate time off. The end result until now is people taking more days than their legal quota.