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Pirates and architects
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Last discussed Sep 24, 2026
Dan Shipper's team composition model for labs teams: a 'pirate' who rapidly explores and generates messy ideas, paired with an 'architect' who shapes those ideas into valuable, extensible systems.
Recently discussed in
How to run your product team like a research lab | Dan Shipper (Every)
Dan Shipper · Sep 24, 2026
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Used for: Composing a two-person labs team to balance rapid experimentation with architectural rigor
Praised: Combines rapid value-finding exploration with the discipline to shape messy e...
"The composition that works for us — I call them pirates and architects. One person on the team is the pirate. They are slop cannons who are absolutely obsessed with finding value. And then architects are people who are looking at a messy system, m..."
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