System Before People Diagnosis
Fix the incentives and support that turn good colleagues into opposing teams.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 91%
Deb Liu's mental model is to inspect the water people swim in before blaming the swimmers. During the PayPal and eBay integration, she watched talented colleagues move between companies and quickly adopt the local processes, incentives, and priorities. Conflict that looked personal was often produced by approval systems and inadequate support on both sides. The diagnosis starts by mapping what each team must optimize for, what information it lacks, and which resources are scarce. Leaders then test whether the system pits teams against each other while asking them to collaborate. For a critical shared project, Liu's decision rule is stark: support it fully enough to finish quickly, or reduce the commitment. Stretching an underfunded integration over years breeds misunderstanding and hostility.
Origin
Liu developed the model while working on both the PayPal and eBay sides of their integration. The same colleagues behaved differently as their incentives changed, and a checkout project took two years despite committed teams on both sides.
Core principles
- 01People adapt to the processes and incentives around them.
- 02Cross-team hostility can be a symptom of insufficient shared support.
- 03Changing personnel does not repair a system that rewards conflict.
- 04Critical integrations should be funded to finish, not starved into a long feud.
How to run it
- 1
Describe the recurring conflict
State the behavior creating friction without assigning motive. Look for a pattern across multiple decisions rather than treating one disagreement as proof of a people problem.
Pro tip Write each side's complaint in neutral language before investigating causes.
Watch out Do not excuse harmful individual behavior merely because system pressures also exist.
- 2
Map incentives and process
Document what each team is rewarded for, which approvals it needs, and how it secures engineering capacity or executive support. Notice where success for one side consumes what the other side needs.
Pro tip Ask someone who has worked on both sides to review the map.
- 3
Audit information and support
Check whether both teams have enough context, staffing, and decision authority to deliver the shared outcome. Liu found that each side of the checkout project lacked support, even though each interpreted the other side as unwilling.
Watch out Effort is not the same as sufficient support.
- 4
Change the system
Remove conflicting incentives, simplify approvals, clarify ownership, or create shared capacity. Judge the intervention by whether collaboration becomes the easiest way for both teams to succeed.
Pro tip Prefer a shared outcome and shared resource decision over another relationship workshop.
- 5
Fund or narrow decisively
If the project is critical, give it enough support to complete quickly. If that support is unavailable, reduce the scope instead of extending an underfunded commitment that deepens hostility.
Watch out A long timeline can conceal starvation rather than prudent planning.
In the wild
Liu helped launch an early PayPal-eBay integration in a short window, then later inherited NextGen Checkout from the eBay side. That successor project took two years. Both teams cared and worked hard, but neither had enough information or support, so prioritization fights were interpreted as a lack of cooperation.
→ The experience led Liu to recommend fully funding important integrations so they finish quickly instead of starving both sides over an extended roadmap.
Common mistakes
Blaming commitment
Assuming one team does not care hides the possibility that both teams lack the capacity or information to help each other.
Hiring around a broken system
Replacing capable people without changing incentives simply exposes the next person to the same pressures.
Elongating an underfunded priority
Keeping a critical project alive without adequate support turns scarcity into lasting cross-team resentment.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders managing integrations, shared roadmaps, or teams competing for scarce resources.
Not ideal for
Situations where evidence points to an isolated conduct or performance problem rather than a repeated system effect.
From the episode
How to own your career growth and become a powerful product leader
Deb Liu, Ancestry (ex-Facebook, PayPal)