Rather than permanently attaching a PM to a team, Whatnot maps PMs to problems and projects through a six-month planning cycle, assigning each initiative a DRI (Directly Responsible Individual). PM allocation follows where the hardest problems are during that cycle rather than mirroring the org chart.
This is the deployment mechanism for the scarce PM headcount described in "We Regret That Product Management Exists" (Whatnot's PM-Scarcity Principle). Where a single DRI needs authority over two competing levers to prevent cross-team stalemates, see Single-Owner Accountability for Competing Levers.
At Whatnot, the Directly Responsible Individual for a given initiative doesn't have to be the PM — it can be a PM, an engineer, or a designer, chosen per initiative from the six-month priority list produced by the Six-Month "What Must Be True" Planning Cycle. Whoever holds it is routed through the same process (e.g., product review) as anyone else, regardless of title.
Из тем: Transformation in Practice