john mark lowry
§ org design · 2022–present

founding the product owner discipline

One agency-side PO role, designed into a governed team of six.

the short version

I was the first agency-side product owner at Team One. The job after the job was building the discipline itself: prioritization standards, roadmap governance, decision-lane clarity, and training structures for incoming mid-level POs — scaled from one role into a team of six, with product vision spanning a 98-person digital organization across eight teams.

Org design responds to the same instincts as system design. Define the interfaces, make ownership explicit, and the structure outlasts you.

Org-as-system diagram: one role designed into a discipline through decision lanes, prioritization standards, and training structures, producing a governed team of six
the discipline as a designed system — interfaces first, headcount second

Full case study in progress — artifacts pending clearance or writing time. The insight below is already earned.

A discipline is a designed system — governance, guardrails, ownership lanes — applied to people instead of code.

the insight

part of the practice — product ownership at platform scale.

← all work