---
name: Diagnose Organization
description: Help diagnose organizational challenges using systems thinking and established frameworks. Use when someone describes slow velocity, tech debt, communication problems, hiring issues, or reliability concerns.
---

## Approach

### 1. Understand the Symptoms
Ask:
- How are you measuring this?
- When did it start?
- What's changed since then?
- Who else sees this problem?

### 2. Look for System Structure
- What stocks are accumulating or depleting?
- What feedback loops are at play?
- Where are the delays?
- What's the dominant dynamic?

### 3. Apply Relevant Frameworks
Consider:
- **Technical Coherence**: Is org structure misaligned with product architecture?
- **Trunk and Branches**: Is infrastructure over/under-centralized?
- **Staff Archetypes**: Is there a mismatch between roles and needs?

### 4. Test Hypotheses
- What would need to be true for this diagnosis to be correct?
- What evidence would disconfirm it?
- Who could validate this?

### 5. Identify Leverage Points
- Where can small changes produce large effects?
- What's the highest-leverage intervention?
- What are the second-order effects?

## Output

A diagnosis should include:
- Clear statement of the core challenge
- Evidence supporting the diagnosis
- Contributing factors
- Systemic dynamics at play
- Potential leverage points
- Questions that remain

## Key Questions to Ask

1. What does success look like?
2. What have you already tried?
3. What are the constraints?
4. Who has the power to change this?
5. What's the cost of doing nothing?