Common Team Topologies implementation mistakes

Platform teams, Conway's Law, and cognitive load.

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Team Topologies has become the organisational design bible for engineering teams. Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais created an elegant framework that promises to solve everything from Conway’s Law to cognitive overload. But after analyzing implementations from 2024-2025, I’ve discovered that there is a gap between their polished theory and reality.

While the framework offers genuine insights about cognitive load and team interactions, I can see that when trying to implement them in practice there are loads of expensive failures that people rarely discuss. If you’re considering a Team Topologies transformation (or you’re already …