three houses, one household.
three offices that mostly run themselves, and a small exec team for the few things that don't stay local.
how we organize
there is no ticket-pusher middle layer. partners claim work, form teams, and use retros to surface gaps. leads and PMs coordinate; they do not turn the organization into a reporting ladder.
offices
three offices. denver is headquarters and the largest presence, amsterdam is the secondary office, and zurich is a satellite.
the executive team
there's a small executive team for the decisions that actually cross offices: big budgets, governance, ties. everything else stays local.
executive responsibilities:
- keeping the offices in sync
- spending above the local thresholds
- tie-breaking when local consensus cannot be reached
- changes to how the org works
- quarterly planning and goals
teams
work happens in teams. you can be on more than one. they're not departments with org charts, just groups of people working on the same stuff. explore open positions across these teams
how decisions get made
without a management hierarchy, mutuol relies on process and consensus to make decisions. this isn't perfect, but it's documented and it works.
for day-to-day decisions:
consensus within the team or office affected. if you're doing work that mostly impacts your local context, you decide. retros catch it when a local decision affects someone else.
for cross-team or cross-office decisions:
lazy consensus: propose the change, give reasonable time for objection, and proceed unless someone raises a block. objections require justification and an alternative proposal.
for organizational changes:
RFC-style proposals with documented discussion periods. major changes (budgeting, governance, partner policies) go through the exec team for sign-off.
when consensus fails:
if local consensus can't settle something, the exec team breaks the tie. it's meant to be rare; most things resolve in retros or just by talking.
inter-office coordination
offices run independently but need to not drift apart. here's how we do that. for details on work arrangements, see our work policy.
- cross-office retros: monthly retros with someone from each office. the agenda is whatever's drifting between them.
- shared documentation: decisions, handoffs, and recurring work get written down where the people using them can find them.
- federal budgeting: each office has authority over its own budget up to a limit. bigger spending goes through the exec team.
- partner mobility: partners can work from any mutuol office with advance notice. the local office will make space for you.