New talkFluency is an org propertyOrg Design Summit 2026

Faster organisations, by design.

I design and fine-tune the operating model of product organisations: how teams are structured, who owns what, who decides and how work flows. Then I work hands-on with the teams inside it, so that scaling and AI adoption make them faster rather than slower.

Denis Salnikov · organisational design and agentic AI advisor
ex-N26, PandaDoc · Kraków, Poland

Book a call Read the AI case

Not ready for a call? Write to denis@agileexpat.com

Denis Salnikov 34 → 16 daysmedian epic cycle time, AI case
  • PandaDoc
  • N26
  • Exness
  • TaxDome
  • Backbase
  • OTP Bank
  • PASHA Holding
  • smava
  • Yassir
  • Qwist
  • Reiz Tech

The problem

Faster teams don't add up to a faster organisation.

AI makes each person and each team faster. The work still waits in the same places: at hand-offs between teams, at approval gates nobody has revisited, and in the foundation work no team owns.

Those waits are set by the operating model: who owns what, how big a unit is, which roles exist and who decides. No tool removes them. Changing the model does, together with the teams who work inside it.

I do this work with CTOs, VPs of Engineering and Heads of Product at product organisations of 20 to 1,000+ people that are scaling, restructuring or moving to agentic development, and with founders before they scale.

Cases

What changed, and what moved.

AI transformation · B2B SaaS · 2025–2026

Changing the organisation so the agents pay off.

In spring 2026 a B2B SaaS company with ~100 engineers set out to deliver much more, much faster with AI agents. The bet: the organisation has to change first, or the agents won't pay off. These structural changes followed.

  • Teams of 6–8 → pods of 1–3 with agents
  • Frontend + backend + QA → one engineering role
  • Developers → product engineers
  • Company bets staffed first

Product epic cycle time, days

015304560 30-day target Typical epicmedian 3416 Slowest sixth85th percentile 5537 beforeafter
43% → 78%
of product epics inside the 30-day target
28% → 22%
bug fixes in merged changes, while changes doubled
2 → ≈52
AI-native engineers of ~100, Apr → Jul 2026
Read the full case →

Scaling · PandaDoc · 2021–2024

Three org designs through hypergrowth.

PandaDoc became a unicorn in 2021 and almost tripled its engineering teams in under two years. The structure had to change three times to keep up, and once more to undo what growth had built.

  • Areas around customer profiles
  • Product Owner at investment level
  • Remote team self-design
  • 8 areas merged into 3

Teams in R&D, 2019–2023

010203040502020202120222023812~60 people~1737~185 people45~225 people48LeSS flip
12 → 48
teams in three years, all organic hiring
8 → 3
requirement areas after the maturation redesign
14.75
working days to make the first deploy on a new feature after switching
Read the full case →

Business agility · Finleap Connect · 2018–2019

Culture and LeSS at an open-banking scale-up.

A new C-level team needed a company culture, more mature teams, room to build a new core product and a reliable existing one, all while the company grew through acquisitions.

  • Company values, created bottom-up
  • Leadership coaching
  • LeSS on one backlog

Client SLAs on the existing product held at 90% or better; the new product reached product-market fit after a pivot.

Employee NPS

−100−500+50+100Before−60Half a year later+40
−60 → +40
eNPS in half a year, with lower churn
4
offices: Berlin, Hamburg, Milan and an outsourcing partner in Kraków
3
startups acquired in 14 months
Read the full case →

What I do

  • Operating model design

    Team boundaries, ownership, roles and decision rights, designed around how your product is actually built, with or without agents.

    For leaders scaling or restructuring

  • Operating model audit

    Where work waits in your organisation, and why. Flow data, delivery metrics and leadership interviews read together, so "it feels slow" becomes a named cause and a fix.

    For leaders who want a diagnosis first

  • Leadership advisory

    One-to-one work with the CTOs, VPs and Heads of Product driving a change.

    For CTOs, VPs and heads of function

Also: Training → Facilitation → Founder advisory, for early-stage founders setting up their first product organisation. Let's talk

Testimonials

What clients and colleagues say

"Denis Salnikov demonstrates a highly analytical approach, which aids decision-making and analysis of the process. Denis introduced and supported various improvements across the teams of my department, helped them to identify opportunities for improvements and actively participated in the recruitment effort."
Gerben de Graaf, Engineering Director, Backbase · 2021
Denis, is one of the best professional I've met on my career path. He displays exceptional maturity, structure, ability to act on both strategic and tactical levels, calmness, expertise and professionalism. During our work in PandaDoc, we've participated in numerous Org wide change initiatives, where Denis was the true Change Agent.
Andrii GlushchenkoOrg Design Expert, PandaDoc · 2021–2024
We have worked closely with Denis Salnikov through a very intense period for our company. […] Denis has not only introduced the change but helped us to make it sustainable.
Vladimir TatarinovCTO, Exness · 2016–2018
When Denis joined our team, we were for sure lacking some guidance. Denis embraced the challenge and helped us perform at our best, making everybody in the team proud to be part of it.
Claudio CicaliTech Lead, N26 · 2018
As an Agile Coach, Denis managed to improve our Scrum events and the team's velocity and effectiveness in a very short time span. He inspired me and ignited my passion for Agile all over again. I can honestly say that this has been the best Product Owner - Agile Coach experience in my professional career.
Mona LauProduct Owner, smava GmbH · 2020
Denis […] has implemented many practical strategies that have significantly improved our way of working.
Luiz Fernando CorandinAgile & OKR Coach, Yassir · 2024

Speaking

Featured talks

Also at Agile Prague, ALE, Scrum Day Europe, Agile Tour Vilnius, Italian Agile Days, Agile Swarming, LeSS Conference and LeSS Day Europe. All recordings on YouTube

How we work

How an engagement works

  1. 01

    Intro call

    A short call about what you're seeing and what success would look like for you.

  2. 02

    Agreeing the scope

    Focus, timeline and expected outcomes, agreed before we start.

  3. 03

    Operating model audit

    Usually 3–4 weeks: interviews with leaders and teams, flow data and a map of where work waits. You get a written diagnosis and 2–3 options for the structure, with my recommendation. You can stop here.

  4. 04

    Redesign and embed

    Part-time, over a few months: self-design workshops, new ownership and roles, metrics that show whether it works, and hands-on work with the teams until it holds.

About

Denis Salnikov

Credentials

  • ICAgile Authorized InstructorICAgile
  • Certified LeSS PractitionerThe LeSS Company
  • Kanban Coaching Professional (KCP)Kanban University
  • Certified OKR PractitionerOKR Institute

For more than ten years I've worked inside product organisations, at N26, PandaDoc and Exness and with clients across fintech and SaaS, changing how teams are structured, who decides and how work flows between them.

Most recently I've been redesigning an engineering organisation around AI agents: pods of 1–3 instead of teams of 6–8, product engineers instead of developers, one engineering role instead of three. The cycle time of a typical product epic more than halved.

10+
years of experience, since 2014
12 → 48
teams at PandaDoc, one product backlog
34 → 16
days, median product epic cycle time in the AI transformation

Where does work wait in your organisation?

Book a short call, or start by email if you'd rather write first. Tell me what you're seeing, and I'll tell you whether I'm the right person to help. I'm currently taking on advisory engagements.

Book a call denis@agileexpat.com LinkedIn