The Stool Is Not the Problem

I recently came across a design leadership colleague's heartfelt post about her mixed experiences with the three-legged stool (AKA EPD triad, AKA "three in a box") model of Design team collaboration with Engineering and Product Management.

I have the utmost empathy for the fact that, in practice, this model often falls short of the cross-functional collaboration bliss it promises.

But, I think that blaming the model distracts us from the real issues implicit in implementing it.

No organizational structure survives contact with high power differential and gaslighting dynamics of some of the participants towards others intact. The three-legged stool is no exception to that rule in my experience.

I have experienced this from Engineering and Product leaders towards Design. I have also experienced it from Engineering towards Product, from Product towards Engineering, and, sadly, from toxic Design leaders towards folks on their teams.

To the extent that these behaviours exist and organizational culture allows them to be perpetuated, the resulting environment will always be a dysfunctional trap.

The three-legged stool model can't, and shouldn't, be blamed for this. It's just an organizational design artifact, no more and no less.