Alignment: Process

Process gets a bad rap. Most people hear "process" and think of bureaucracy, red tape, and soul-crushing meetings that could have been emails. But that's not what good process looks like. Good process is what happens when smart people figure out how to work together effectively and then make it repeatable.

When teams are aligned, it's not because they got lucky or because everyone just naturally thinks the same way. It's because they've developed processes that help information flow, decisions get made, and context gets preserved. Process is the operating system that lets great people do their best work.

Why process matters for alignment

Without process, alignment depends entirely on individual relationships and institutional memory. You end up with a system that works great when the right people are in the room but falls apart the moment someone goes on vacation or leaves the company.

Process creates reliability. It ensures that important conversations happen, that the right people have input on decisions, and that context doesn't get lost when projects change hands. Process will change as you grow. What works for 5 people will not work for 50, or 500.

Think about Amazon's famous six-page narratives. Jeff Bezos didn't create this process because he enjoyed reading long documents. He created it because he realized that PowerPoint presentations were terrible at forcing people to think clearly about problems. The six-page format requires authors to think through their logic, consider counterarguments, and provide enough context for readers to make informed decisions.

This wasn't about control—it was about alignment. By standardizing how complex ideas get communicated, Amazon made sure that good ideas could be understood and evaluated consistently, regardless of who was presenting them or who was in the room.

What good process looks like

The best processes are invisible. They feel natural because they're designed around how people actually work, not how someone thinks they should work. Good process has several characteristics:

It reduces cognitive load. Instead of people having to remember when to do things or who to include, the process handles it. This frees up mental energy for the actual work.

It captures context by default. Good processes don't just move work forward; they preserve the reasoning behind decisions so future teams can understand why choices were made.

It connects related work. Instead of treating each project as isolated, good processes help people see how their work relates to other initiatives and priorities.

It surfaces problems early. The best processes include natural checkpoints that catch issues before they become expensive mistakes.

It gets better over time. Good processes evolve based on what teams learn. They're not rigid rules but living systems that adapt as circumstances change.

Process anti-patterns

Most process problems come from solving the wrong problem or copying solutions that worked in different contexts:

Process for process sake. Creating elaborate workflows to look "professional" without considering whether they actually help people work better together. This usually happens when companies try to copy what they think successful companies do rather than solving their own problems.

The meeting trap. Assuming that more meetings mean better communication. In reality, bad meetings often create the illusion of alignment without actually creating shared understanding.

Documentation theater. Writing detailed specifications and plans that nobody reads or that become outdated immediately. Good documentation serves the team; bad documentation serves compliance.

One-size-fits-all thinking. Using the same process for every type of work, regardless of complexity, timeline, or stakeholders involved. A bug fix shouldn't require the same process as a major feature launch.

Process as punishment. Creating processes in response to specific failures without understanding the root cause. This usually results in processes that prevent the last problem but don't help with future ones.

Designing process for your team

The key to good process design is starting with the outcome you want and working backwards. What decisions need to be made? Who needs to have input? What information needs to be preserved? How will you know if it's working?

Spotify's squad model became famous because it solved a specific problem: how do you maintain startup-like agility as you grow? They didn't copy someone else's organizational structure; they designed a system that let small, autonomous teams move fast while staying connected to the broader mission.

The process included regular retrospectives, cross-team communications, and clear accountability structures. But the genius was in what they left out—they eliminated most traditional project management overhead because it wasn't helping their teams work better together.

Process as a forcing function

The best processes don't just organize work; they force better thinking. When you have to write down your assumptions, you realize which ones don't make sense. When you have to explain your reasoning to someone from a different function, you discover gaps in your logic.

This is why companies like Basecamp (and us here at Rough) write detailed "pitches" for new features before any development work begins. The process of writing the pitch forces them to think through the problem, consider alternatives, and articulate why this particular solution makes sense. By the time development starts, everyone understands not just what they're building, but why they're building it.

Making process stick

Creating good process is only half the battle. The other half is getting people to actually follow it. This is where most companies fail—they design elegant processes but don't consider how to make them feel natural and valuable to the people who need to use them.

Start small and iterate. Don't try to design the perfect process upfront. Start with something simple that solves an immediate problem, then improve it based on what you learn.

Make it obviously valuable. People will follow processes that clearly make their work easier or better. If you have to convince people that a process is helpful, it probably isn't.

Build it with the team, not for the team. The people who will use the process should be involved in designing it. They understand the real constraints and will catch problems that outsiders miss.

Lead by example. If leadership doesn't follow the process, nobody else will either. Consistency at the top creates consistency throughout the organization.

When process becomes the problem

Even good processes can become problems if they're not maintained. What worked for a 20-person team might not work for a 200-person team. What made sense when you were pre-revenue might not make sense after you've found product-market fit.

The warning signs are usually obvious: people start working around the process instead of with it, important decisions get delayed because the process is too cumbersome, or teams spend more time managing the process than doing the actual work.

When this happens, don't just add more process to fix the problems. Go back to first principles: what outcome are you trying to achieve? What's preventing that from happening? How can you design something that serves the team rather than the other way around?

Process enables everything else

At its best, process is what lets great people do great work together. It's the infrastructure that supports culture, the framework that makes tools useful, and the system that turns individual talent into collective impact.

Without good process, alignment becomes dependent on heroic individual efforts and informal relationships. With good process, alignment becomes systematic and sustainable. The best part is that good process actually creates more freedom, not less—when people know how to work together effectively, they can focus on the work that matters rather than figuring out how to collaborate.

The most aligned companies aren't the ones with the most sophisticated processes. They're the ones where process feels natural, serves the team, and gets better over time. When process is working well, people barely notice it's there—they just notice that work flows smoothly and good ideas consistently turn into great results.