Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong replacing ‘pure managers’ with ‘player-coaches’ is another sign the org chart is changing in a big way

On Tuesday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced he was laying off 14% of the company’s workforce—just under 700 people — and turning the company’s org chart upside down.

Out went what Armstrong calls “pure managers.” In came “player-coaches,” flat hierarchies capped at five layers, and “AI-native pods” that could include one-person teams directing agents that do the work of engineers, designers, and product managers.

“We are not just reducing headcount and cutting costs,” Armstrong wrote on X.