Organisational Design Mistakes That Stall Product Teams at Scale

When product delivery slows down in a growing SaaS company, the first instinct is often to look at individuals: Do we need better PMs? A stronger process? More alignment?

But more often than not, the real issue isn’t the people, it’s the structure they’re working within.

As companies grow, especially post funding rounds or post-M&A, they inherit complexity faster than they evolve their org design. Product managers get stretched across too many domains, teams duplicate work and decision-making slows. And despite hiring great people, the business can’t seem to move with clarity.

This is where org design becomes a strategic lever.

Done well, it creates the conditions for product teams to lead. Done poorly, or ignored altogether, it becomes the invisible hand that stalls growth, breeds confusion, and erodes accountability.

Let’s look at the most common org design mistakes that show up in scale-stage SaaS orgs and how to start fixing them.

Common Org Design Mistakes in Scaling SaaS Teams

Let’s look at the patterns that consistently block product momentum at scale.

1. You Have Product Managers, But No Real Product Org

On paper, you have PMs. In reality, they’re operating more like project managers or backlog administrators.

There’s no clear ownership of:

• Discovery

• Strategy

• Cross-functional alignment

• Outcomes tied to business goals

They’re working hard, but disconnected from strategic levers. There’s no infrastructure, no rituals, no consistent product ops function.

And leadership assumes “product is covered.”

2. You’ve Outgrown Your Structure, But Haven’t Replaced It

Early-stage orgs work by proximity. Everyone talks. Founders approve everything. Alignment is organic.

But as teams scale, the same structure leads to:

• Duplicate work across squads

• Confusion over who owns which problem space

• PMs with too wide a remit

• Engineering-first decision-making, rather than customer-led

Product ends up chasing delivery, not leading direction.

3. Roles Are Vague Or Overlapping

No one’s sure who decides what. PMs, engineering leads, and GTM all have influence, but there’s no clear accountability.

This leads to:

• Decision bottlenecks

• Shadow roadmaps

• Defensive behaviour

• Strategic drift

Melissa Perri calls this the “build trap”, where everyone’s building, but no one owns the outcome.

4. Your Structure Doesn’t Match Your Strategy

Trying to shift to PLG? Or integrating M&A products under one umbrella?

If you’re still operating in a traditional feature team or siloed model, the disconnect will show up fast:

• No one owns the full product experience

• Infrastructure decisions get delayed

• Teams optimise locally instead of strategically

Structure must evolve with the company’s strategic focus, not trail six months behind.

5. You're Copying Other Orgs Without Context

A common mistake:

“We’ll adopt a Spotify model”

“We need pods like Stripe”

“Let’s go cross-functional”

But org design isn’t plug-and-play. A structure that works for a 1,000-person product org will crumble in a 150-person company with different leadership DNA.

What works elsewhere won’t work for you, unless it fits your

stage, strategy, and culture.

What Does “Right Person in the Right Seat” Actually Mean?

It’s not just about talent or experience.

In high-functioning orgs, the “right person” means someone who:

• Knows what they own

• Has the support to lead

• Is empowered to say no

• Understands how their work connects to business strategy

And the “right seat” means:

• Their role is clearly defined (scope, influence, accountabilities)

• The org supports their success (structure, tooling, rituals, leadership)

• Their position makes sense in the company’s current stage

The moment a role becomes overloaded, ambiguous, or under-resourced, you’ve got a misalignment.

Lex Sisney frames this well:

“You need to match role complexity to org complexity, otherwise you’ll burn out your high performers or paralyse your decision-making.”

Org Design Isn’t Just About Teams, It’s About Flow

You don’t just want teams. You want flow:

• Flow of insight from customer to roadmap

• Flow of decisions across product and GTM

• Flow of accountability from strategy to execution

A good structure supports that flow .A poor one creates silos, slows decisions, and blocks ownership.

So What Does Good Structure Look Like?

It depends, but here are some healthy patterns:

You Can’t Bolt Good Structure onto Bad Leadership

One last truth: org structure will only work if it’s backed by strategic product leadership.

You can hire PMs, run workshops, create a RACI chart… But if product isn’t empowered, and leadership isn’t aligned, it won’t hold.

Structure is only as strong as the conviction behind it.

Start With This:

1. Audit your current structure

   • Who owns what? Where is ownership unclear or duplicated?

2. Map roles to strategy

   • Does your org setup support where the business is going?

3. Invest in strategic product leadership

   • Someone needs to own the structure and evolve it as you grow

4. Build for your context, not someone else’s

   • Copying Spotify won’t save you. Designing intentionally might.

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Need Support?

I work with SaaS companies navigating complexity - from M&A chaos and PLG transitions to building product teams that actually drive business growth.

If your org structure is stalling progress, I can help you assess, reset, and evolve it.

Get in touch to talk structure, roles, and product clarity.