Circles

Why I want to ditch traditional Job Titles

Not long ago, I found myself staring at an org chart that looked like it was frozen in time. I and probably you, too, used to take that classic chart for granted: a big box labeled “Founder & CEO” at the top, lines branching down to “VPs and Heads,” more boxes for “Managers,” and eventually trickling down to the rest of the team.

It worked well enough, right? At least, that’s what I assumed—until I realized how much we’d outgrown it.

I’ve launched multiple companies, from B2B services, agencies to tech-focused SaaS products. We’re often at the cutting edge of innovation and rapid adaptation—whether it’s building email deliverability platforms (looking at you, Folderly!) or creating next-gen marketing solutions(Belkins 👋).

Yet ironically, while we were pioneering new products and services, our internal structures remained stuck in an old medevil industrial-age approach to hierarchy.

I began asking, “Why do we still have rigid titles that don’t capture people’s real capabilities? Why does a simple decision need multiple handoffs?” It felt like we were bogged down in a system that punishes agility when we need the freedom to experiment and adapt.

Let’s face it: the old pyramid can drain the life out of both the “visionary” at the top and the “creative” minds below.

That’s when I started creating Circles, a self-organizing model that breaks down departmental walls, values roles over static job titles, and allows rapid restructuring as needed.

The more I researched, the more I found these principles in Brian Robertson’s “Holacracy,” a blueprint for distributing authority and embedding continuous evolution into every corner of an organization.

It sounded almost too good to be true, yet it aligned perfectly with the culture of innovation I strive for personally.

Midjourney/prompt: "Imagine “Holacracy”

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Why Traditional Hierarchies Are Holding Us Back

1. Titles Mask Talents
   A “Sales Manager” might be a closet whiz at product UX. A “Developer” could secretly excel at copywriting. Traditional titles rarely reveal these hidden skills—or encourage them to flourish.

2. Silos Devour Speed & Creativity
   In classic org charts, cross-team collaboration often means navigating multiple sign-offs, waiting for a “Heads Only” meeting, or simply not collaborating at all. You can't afford that drag when you’re trying to keep up with, say, shifting acquisition channels for getting new clients or sudden market trends.

3. Rigid Layers Don’t Suit Rapid Change
   Brian Robertson’s Holacracy emphasizes that organizations in volatile environments must be able to self-correct frequently. Hierarchies are notoriously slow to pivot, often missing the moment of greatest opportunity.

4. People Want Purpose, Not Titles
   From Holacracy’s standpoint, roles evolve continually, giving people a clearer sense of purpose. “Director” or “VP” might feel impressive, but it can be shallow if it locks you into one lane. Circles, conversely, let you shift as your passions and the business’s needs evolve.

   

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Enter Circles

While we’re not implementing Holacracy verbatim in all my companies, we’re drawing heavily on its core principles to shape this Circles approach. In Holacracy, teams organize around roles that can be updated anytime.

Midjourney/prompt: "Imagine “Circles”

Similarly, my Circles are:

• Mission-Focused: Each Circle has a clear outcome—like shipping next-gen AI features or expanding a new client base—so it’s easy to see what you’re contributing to and why.

• Role-Centric: Instead of rigid job titles, you might be “Deliverability at Folderly” or “Growth, Community & Content” or “Vision & Strategy,” in my case. You update your role if your skill set changes—or the company’s needs do.

• Evolving Accountability: Borrowing from Holacracy’s governance aspect, we schedule regular sessions (Circle meetings) to adapt roles, policies, and priorities. No one is waiting for an annual reorg; you update the structure when you spot a gap.

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An Example: Folderly’s Shift to Circles

Though I’m rolling out Circles across multiple companies, Folderly is the pilot. I’m rolling it out this month. I would say it’s a prime candidate, given its fast-moving space—email deliverability—where weekly changes can alter strategies overnight.

• Product Circle

  • Focus: Continually refine Folderly’s spam detection, domain monitoring tools, and overall platform.

  • Roles:

    • Architecture & Engineering (e.g., formerly CTO)

    • Product Vision & Roadmapping (formerly Head of Product)

    • Engineering (Front-End, Back-End, QA & Automation)

• Growth Circle

  • Focus: Reach new audiences, highlight Folderly’s ROI, and ensure we stand out in deliverability.

  • Roles:

    • Vision & Strategy – Growth (exec-level market focus)

    • GTM Engineer (formerly BDR)

    • Acquisition (formerly Sales Exec)

    • Growth, Community, & Content (merged marketing/community role)

• Customer Circle

  • Focus: Guarantee that customers see real, lasting value—onboarding, education, and advanced deliverability fixes.

  • Roles:

    • Deliverability (e.g., formerly Deliverability Manager)

    • Onboarding & Retention (formerly CSM)

    • Customer Experience (support, feedback loops)

• Ops Circle

  • Focus: Finance, HR, compliance—everything that keeps the machine running smoothly behind the scenes.

  • Roles:

    • Finance & Budgeting

    • People & Culture

    • Legal & Compliance

    • Office/Remote Operations

As Holacracy suggests, each Circle can modify or create new roles through governance-like meetings.

We might spin off a Spam Response Sub-Circle if we see a new deliverability challenge. If someone in Growth is also great at data engineering, they can propose a partial role in Product Circle—no waiting for a top-down “reassignment.”

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How Career Growth Looks in a Circle-Based Model

1. Skill Matrices & Role Evolution
   In Holacracy, job descriptions shift with reality. Likewise, each Circle in our ecosystem has a skill matrix (like “Advanced Email Deliverability understanding” or “Expert domain routing”), letting you level up by proving actual proficiency.

   1. Tactical & Governance Meetings
      Holacracy uses two primary meeting types: tactical for day-to-day operations and governance for role definition and policy changes. We’re borrowing that idea. Circles hold “tactical” sessions to tackle immediate tasks and “governance” sessions to refine roles, ensuring everything stays current.

2. Outcome-Focused Compensation
   Because we’re measuring success by Circle objectives (e.g., shipping a feature on time, improving spam fix rates, growing in revenue), compensation ties back to impact, not a job title. Holacracy underscores that absolute authority comes from meeting clear goals.

3. Mentorship Over Management
   Inspired by the distributed authority concept, each Circle fosters mentorship rather than top-down supervision. If you’re at a higher skill level, you mentor others, but you don’t manage them.

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Next steps

Folderly is just one case. The precise structure will differ because I oversee multiple businesses—some focusing on B2B lead gen, others on creative marketing or tech solutions. But the Holacracy-inspired approach remains:

• Define Circles around core missions in each company.

• Document Roles in a shared resource (like Notion), clarifying and updating responsibilities regularly.

• Encourage Self-Governance, where teams can modify roles and processes without top-down edicts.

The goal? A network of adaptive, role-based teams that share knowledge quickly, pivot quickly, and energize everyone.

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Why It Matters—Long Term

1. Unleashing True Potential
   Titles often cage brilliance. By zeroing in on roles and letting them evolve, we unlock hidden talents, channel them effectively, and see growth where we least expect it.

2. Future-Proofing Against Market Volatility
   The business landscape changes in a blink (and nowhere is that truer than in email deliverability, marketing analytics, or AI-driven solutions). A Holacracy-esque Circle model allows us to adapt as soon as we sense a shift.

3. Shared Ownership & Motivation
   When people help define their roles, set Circle goals, and propose new initiatives, they’re co-creators of the company’s success. That sense of ownership fuels morale, productivity, and loyalty.

4. A Living, Breathing Organization
   In Holacracy, the company is seen as an organism—able to respond to changes dynamically. That’s what Circles do: they’re living structures that can morph, split, merge, or spawn entirely new circles to chase opportunities or solve urgent problems.

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Closing Thought

“We’re used to thinking that leadership is about telling people what to do; in Holacracy, it’s about creating a system where the organization naturally knows what to do.”
— Brian J. Robertson, Holacracy

By embracing Circles—shaped by these Holacracy principles—I’m convinced our businesses will become more agile, inventive, and empowering to the people who make everything happen. Instead of fighting for titles, we’ll work together to solve real problems, seize market opportunities, and build tools that resonate deeply with our clients.

I won’t pretend it’ll be a smooth, glitch-free ride. Innovation rarely is. I’d rather take a bumpy path to building something resilient and forward-thinking than stick with a comfortable system that stifles our full potential.

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Post-Credit Scene

Here’s to trusting in the power of adaptive structures, leveraging Holacracy’s insights, and building businesses that thrive in today’s fast-forward world.

I’m all in—hope you’ll join me for the ride.

• Read:

  • Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World by Brian J. Robertson – for a deep dive into distributed authority and role-based organization.

  • Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux – another perspective on self-managing teams.

• Try This:

  • Write down the roles you currently juggle—officially or unofficially. How might Circles let you operate more fluidly, combining your strengths in multiple areas?

Stay Tuned:

I’ll share updates on how Circles evolve at Folderly and across my other companies—what we learn, refine, and celebrate.

Because if the old pyramid can’t keep pace with modern challenges, it’s time for something better.

Thank you for reading.