Expanding and enhancing the Team Topologies mission - activating the ecosystem

News

9 May

By Matthew Skelton, co-author of Team Topologies, and Director at Team Topologies Ltd

Since the publication of the book Team Topologies in 2019, countless organizations worldwide have used the patterns and principles from the book and the practices devised since by the amazing Team Topologies community to make their workplaces more effective and humane in the context of a fast flow of value.

The first phase of our mission - effectively the first 5+ years since the publication of the book - we spent directly helping organizations to understand and adopt the Team Topologies patterns. In this time we have:

Worked or consulted directly with over 300 organizations to understand their needs and expectations
Grown and shaped significant industry awareness and knowledge via extensive training and learning materials - many of which are freely available or easily accessible via online access
Built a growing ecosystem of enthusiasts, advocates, partners, etc. that is starting to flourish in the form of practitioner-led events such as the Fast Flow Conf events worldwide, and partner-led initiatives
Seen substantial proven results from adopting Team Topologies approaches, including whole-organization transformation at Telenet and Capra, substantial market expansion at Flo Health, and results from specific techniques like Thinnest Viable Platform at Trade Me

We’re also now seeing large-scale tenders (RFPs) from Governments, banks, and other large institutions that require Team Topologies expertise and patterns as part of the bid response, demonstrating that Team Topologies is becoming a mainstream approach for organizational transformation.

My co-author Manuel Pais and I - together with the core Team Topologies (TT) team - are proud to have accidentally created a growing movement around more purposeful, human-centred organizations, and we want to make these activities even more effective.

That’s why we’ve decided to turn the core operation of TT into a not-for-profit initiative, removing the for-profit pull of dividends, certification schemes, and so forth, to enable us to concentrate on the core mission:

…make work more humane and more effective for everyone via Team Topologies patterns and principles.

We actually cut off the "certification circus” route back in 2020, shortly after the book was published; you cannot become a Team Topologies Certified anything! Yes, Manuel and I could have made millions of dollars in certification fees by now, and the fact we deliberately avoided that route demonstrates our long-standing commitment to a human-centred mission.

Now, we're entering a new phase of our journey. Moving to a not-for-profit structure allows us to deepen our commitment to our mission: making work more humane and effective for everyone through Team Topologies patterns and principles. This transition reflects our belief that organizational effectiveness shouldn't be gatekept behind expensive certifications or consultancy-heavy implementations, but should be accessible to all who share our vision of better, more human-centered ways of working.

Growing the pie via a new not-for-profit parent company

In the next few months, we plan to put in place a new parent company - Team Topologies Holding Limited - that is the closest legal entity type in the UK to “not-for-profit”: a Company Limited By Guarantee. This type of company has no shareholders and so cannot pay dividends on profits. Instead, any profits are held for future reinvestment in the company. In the future, we may strengthen this commitment to public good by adopting a “Foundation” type status, too - that will be decided at a later date.

It might seem unusual for me and Manuel - as authors of a best-selling book (over 200k copies sold worldwide) - to deliberately structure our organization in a way that prevents us from extracting profit directly, but we want to demonstrate a clear commitment to a genuine mission in the public good.

To be clear, around the not-for-profit core of TT there is a vibrant and growing for-profit ecosystem including consulting partners, training partners, advocates, practitioners, customers, and community, and we want to support and “grow the pie” for everyone in this ecosystem. We feel we can best do this by treating the core TT operation as a kind of Thinnest Viable Platform (TVP) - a term we introduced in the 2019 book - providing materials, content, IP licensing agreements, sponsorship opportunities, etc. that help to nourish and grow the ecosystem for the benefit of all.

Creating a sustainable impact: an ambitious vision

Since the publication of the Team Topologies book in 2019, we've been humbled to witness its transformative impact across organizations worldwide. A conservative estimate suggests our approach has helped unlock over $2 billion in value globally through improved team effectiveness, reduced organizational friction, and accelerated delivery capabilities. The case studies from companies implementing Team Topologies principles consistently demonstrate profound improvements in alignment, dependency management, and time-to-value—creating both financial benefits and more humane workplaces.

Looking forward, we believe we can increase this impact tenfold over the next five years. To realize this ambitious goal, Manuel and I are deepening our personal commitment to the mission by dedicating significant energy to raising awareness through keynotes, executive engagements with Fortune 500 companies, and thought leadership - work we've been passionate about for over five years now. We're also embracing the evolving landscape of work by exploring how Team Topologies principles can create more humane and effective workplaces in the age of AI and automation.

Beyond our current focus on content, newsletters, and IP, we're committed to nurturing a vibrant ecosystem of tools, products, and services built around Team Topologies principles. This ecosystem will magnify our impact by providing practical implementations that help organizations of all sizes apply these patterns effectively.

New sources of revenue: sponsorships and supporter status

For the first few years since the book was published, we used consulting to fund the core operation of TT, but consulting is a cost-heavy approach. As part of our shift to not-for-profit, we've decided to evolve our revenue model:

Partnership-focused consulting: The core TT operation will soon no longer undertake direct consulting work with end customers (except partners in the TT partner program, with whom we will continue to work closely). Consulting will be executed by a select group of trusted partners, supported by the core TT crew, especially our Team Topologies Valued Practitioners (TTVPs).

This will enable us to significantly scale up the support that end customers can get from experienced and informed TT partners, whilst minimizing the operational overheads of the core TT operation.

Expanded learning resources: We will be expanding our range of training and learning materials into a wider variety of formats and channels.
Strategic co-branding and IP licensing: We will be co-branding events, training, materials, and tools to generate license revenue with minimal operational cost.
Community support model: We will be inviting individuals, partners, and organizations to support our mission through sponsorships and supporter status (similar to platforms like GoFundMe, Kickstarter, GitHub Sponsors, and other community funding initiatives).

As a sponsor or supporter, you can be confident that your contributions will go to help expand the support of our core mission, rather than funding shareholder dividends. Once the not-for-profit parent company is established, there will be no legal mechanism for paying dividends to any shareholders.

Manuel and I - as Directors, and therefore liable for company performance, compliance, and other risks - will take a modest, sustainable salary from the core TT operation, growing modestly and sustainably as additional revenue is generated. We commit to making these figures transparent and public (subject to legal compliance requirements). The core TT operation is not the main source of our personal income and will never intentionally be - we commit to that.

Manuel is involved in several initiatives that build on Team Topologies ideas and principles:

Team Topologies Academy - self-paced online training for fast flow
Teamperature - managing cognitive load for healthier teams
Speaking & Training (via LinkedIn)

I, Matthew, I'm also involved in several things related to Team Topologies:

CEO/CTO at Conflux - creating thriving organizations, delivering at speed™
Keynotes and workshops globally (via MatthewSkelton.com)

Join our mission: ways to support Team Topologies

We love the growing worldwide community of Team Topologies enthusiasts and advocates, active in many different forums and locations but especially the online community at community.teamtopologies.com Joining and participating in community discussions about Team Topologies is a great way to help further the Team Topologies mission.

Some other things you can do include:

Sign up to our regular Newsletter and share it with your friends and colleagues - the newsletter has hugely valuable examples and advice to help you with adopting and using Team Topologies
Encourage people to buy and read the books and consider running a book club to get into the details
Encourage people to join communities to particulate in discussions about Team Topologies
Become a Team Topologies Advocate (TTA) and get recognition for your enthusiasm, expertise, and advocacy
Attend and speak at a conference (or even help organize!), sharing your Team Topologies experience - we really love Fast Flow Conf but other conferences also exist!
Devise a new content template on GitHub/GitLab/Miro/etc. - ideally using the Creative Commons licensing approach (CC BY-SA, etc.)

We also need to grow our operating revenue significantly to support our mission and scale up the creation of materials, guides, training, newsletter, livestream, etc., grow the ecosystem, support partners and advocates, and generally increase the awareness of current and new ideas around Team Topologies.

Your support would be really welcome in one or more of these ways:

Become a supporter by donating in exchange for recognition online and in our newsletter - coming soon
Become a sponsor and have your logo featured in our newsletter, website and other materials
Become an official partner in consulting or training
Simply donate to support our mission and help us continue creating value for the community

If you find the Team Topologies materials, ideas, and movement to be inspiring and helpful, please help us in return to continue to provide high-quality content by supporting the core not-for-profit mission using one or more of the options above.

Together, we can build more humane and effective organizations. Welcome on board!

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