A living guide to better organizations

See how great companies solve the problems you’re facing.

Ask in your own words. We compare how leading teams work—and take you all the way to the evidence.

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EXPERIMENTAL GUIDE

Finding it hard to read? Tell Marcus what you’re curious about. Let it answer you.

Explore how companies handle similar situations, grounded in published HTDI research and links to primary sources. See how it works

Built from primary sources

Explore the source map for 38 companies →

Recently added companies

The latest 5 operating systems, drawn directly from their own sources.

Answered questions

The questions people ask most about how companies work, with the evidence.

All questions →
Interactive essayWhy does work get slower as companies grow?An interactive essay on why coordination grows faster than headcount, and how GitLab, Basecamp, Linear, Amazon and Shopify design around it.Read the essay

Search topics

Choose a search topic

These 24 topics define the scope of the evidence search. Selecting one shows matching problems, questions, and practices in the search box; published editorial answers live in the Problem Library.

Our method

We build every answer from a traceable chain of evidence, not opinion.

01

Find the source

We scan handbooks, playbooks and documents published by the company.

02

Isolate the evidence

We record the concrete claim, its context and a direct link to the original source.

03

Explain the practice

We show not only what it does, but how it works, why it exists and its trade-offs.

04

Connect it to a problem

We map the practice to a real need such as meetings, pay, performance or decisions.

05

Compare companies

We reveal where different models addressing the same problem align and diverge.

06

Synthesize the answer

Instead of one universal truth, we present evidence-backed options and their conditions.

Stay close to new research

We regularly add new companies and problems.

Get occasional notes when fresh evidence is published.