Captains, Coaches, Players
Put craft leaders on the field and make managers serve their development.
- Difficulty
- Expert
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 100%
Organize work around three roles. Players perform and develop the craft. Captains are senior individual contributors who remain on the field, lead solution development, and call plays close to changing conditions. Coaches recruit and develop captains, position people according to strengths, and provide feedback in service of those doing the work. Reforge targets roughly 70–80% coaching responsibilities for coaches, with the remainder available for key strategic gaps; captains invert that allocation and remain mostly hands-on. Parallel titles and compensation prevent talented creators from entering management solely to advance. The model resembles soccer, where play is fluid, rather than American football, where coaches centrally call discrete plays.
Origin
Brian Balfour said Reforge published and organized itself around this framework, using soccer as the governing analogy.
Core principles
- 01Captains lead through expert participation in the work.
- 02Coaches recruit, develop, and position captains and players.
- 03Players build craft while contributing under field-level leadership.
- 04Coaches serve the people doing the work rather than controlling every play.
- 05Management and individual-contributor paths deserve equal status and compensation.
How to run it
- 1
Define the three roles
Clarify which responsibilities belong to players, field-leading captains, and people-developing coaches.
Pro tip Define roles through outputs and time allocation, not title alone.
Watch out Do not disguise a conventional manager as a captain while consuming all their time with administration.
- 2
Elevate captains
Identify senior practitioners who can lead solutions while remaining deeply involved in execution.
Pro tip Give captains authority to call plays as conditions change.
Watch out The organization’s capacity will be constrained by the number of credible captains.
- 3
Focus coaches on development
Make coaches responsible for recruiting, developing, and positioning captains and players.
Pro tip Evaluate coaches by the strength and growth of the people they support.
Watch out A great practitioner is not automatically a great coach.
- 4
Allocate time explicitly
Keep coaches roughly 70–80% focused on coaching and captains roughly 70–80% focused on IC work.
Pro tip Allow limited exceptions for strategic gaps or small reporting lines.
Watch out Too many direct reports will pull captains away from the field.
- 5
Equalize career paths
Offer equivalent levels, titles, status, and compensation for IC and management tracks.
Pro tip Consider paying scarce senior ICs more when they generate disproportionate leverage.
Watch out If management remains the only rewarded path, creators will continue selecting it for the wrong reasons.
In the wild
A senior lifecycle marketer leads the solution to a retention problem, mentors two practitioners, and calls tactical plays as customer evidence changes. A coach handles recruiting, development planning, and team positioning without taking over the campaign.
→ Craft leadership remains close to execution while people development receives dedicated attention.
A level-five individual contributor and a level-five manager receive equivalent titles and compensation. Each chooses the work they enjoy and perform best rather than treating management as the only promotion.
→ The company retains expert creators and reduces reluctant, average managers.
Common mistakes
Promoting the best maker by default
The organization loses a strong practitioner and may gain an uninterested or ineffective manager.
Letting coaches call every play
Centralized decisions distance authority from fluid customer and execution conditions.
Undervaluing the IC path
Inferior titles or compensation continue to push people toward management regardless of fit.
Is it for you?
Best for
Knowledge-work organizations that depend on senior practitioners to solve fluid, ambiguous problems.
Not ideal for
Highly standardized environments where work genuinely follows fixed plays and centralized commands.
From the transcript
“we've published a little bit of a framework that we call Captain's Coaches Players.”
“the coaches are there in service of the captains and the players, right?”
“we are playing the sport of soccer. We are not playing the sport of American football.”
From the episode
Brian Balfour Reveals How To Build An A+ Marketing Team From Scratch (#183)
Brian Balfour