I just banned committees (or even worse “steering committees”) at Amplitude. Distributed ownership = no ownership. What happens when there’s something unexpected? Who is supposed to solve it? You also get the average of lots of opinions vs a point of view focused on winning. Single ownership with a clear leader is 10x more effective.
Emilie Choi 🛡️
 @emiliemc
Nov 6
At Coinbase, it's a fireable offense to create a new committee that has not been explicitly approved by Brian or myself. In the vast majority of cases, spreading authority across multiple people is inefficient. And once you’ve added an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy to something, it's harder to remove. Each new committee compounds, further slowing the business down - best to avoid this wherever possible.

Nov 7, 2025 · 5:54 PM UTC

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Replying to @spenserskates
Do you take ownership of this?
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Replying to @spenserskates
At some point in my carrier I learned that every task, every project needs to have a name behind it. A team can be working on the delivery, but there needs to be a single person who is leading it and who is responsible for the delivery. Otherwise things don't get done.
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Replying to @spenserskates
Decisions and outcomes need to be owned by ONE person. If you can’t hold an individual person accountable for something, diffusion of responsibility quickly takes hold, and accountability is out the window. But that person also needs to have authority.
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Replying to @spenserskates
True
Replying to @spenserskates
Yep! 👍🏻
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Replying to @spenserskates
committees sound collaborative in theory, but in practice they often slow everything down, dilute accountability, and turn decision-making into a negotiation instead of a direction. when everyone owns a problem, no one really owns it
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Replying to @spenserskates
When everyone is accountable, no one actually is. The more number of committees the more the bureaucracy. The more distance between talk and ship. Organisations should start measuring “Talk-to-Ship” ratio to see how committed and layer of management slows them down.
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Replying to @spenserskates
@emiliemc ‘s post was actually well received on LN - which was encouraging This is the way; flat, fit, agile, etc.
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Replying to @spenserskates
AI wartime CEO
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Replying to @spenserskates
How do you know there’s new committee, or equivalent?
Replying to @spenserskates
Amazon was always big into STL - "single threaded leaders" - for exactly this reason. the buck needs to stop with someone. i'm a fan.
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Replying to @spenserskates
Committees are unnecessary bureaucracy to mask responsibility.
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Replying to @spenserskates
Ownership drives real solutions.
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Replying to @spenserskates
I'm also not a fan of committees. Or unclear accountability. But a clear accountability framework (such as RACI) run with discipline and a select few (exec sanctioned) committees can be effective.
Replying to @spenserskates
Let’s work like a team and do it my way…
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Replying to @spenserskates
Lol so now you need a form to start a committee....
Replying to @spenserskates
Normalize engineer autonomy. We're problem solvers. Some things are genuinely out of scope for a single dev working hard, but I'd wager there are way less than what people think. it causes you to make sure that thing is maintainable, and you cut out stupid things you don't need.
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GIF
Replying to @spenserskates
Not working for your stock price or ability to innovate. Just speaking facts.
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Replying to @spenserskates
Unless the leader is an asshole, which you come across ad
Replying to @spenserskates
It's interesting to see more CEO's in agreement about this. Steering committees are a byproduct of Western democratic values, when in fact many Western CEO's do demonstrate more authoritative leadership models you might see in China or Brazil.
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Replying to @spenserskates
Committees slow everything down. A single leader with ownership makes faster, bolder decisions-just like in paddle tennis where one captain wins matches.
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Replying to @spenserskates
@spenserskates how’s that Amplitude stock price treating u?
Replying to @spenserskates @garrytan
Most companies would stand up a committee to decide whether or not they should ban committees
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