There's a hidden feedback loop in every engineering org: how you slice your systems affects how people collaborate.
I saw this play out firsthand as we decoupled a monolith into more modular services. The moment ownership became clearer, so did deployment velocity.
Takeaways:
- Tech debt often reflects unclear ownership boundaries.
- Avoiding shared databases reduced political tension and regression risk.
- APIs between teams are social contracts — version accordingly.
System design isn’t just code. It’s a mirror of your org.