Success Quote by Jesse James Garrett

What looks like a calm observation is really a quiet rebuke of the cult of the “A-player” and the myth of chemistry-as-magic. Jesse James Garrett is pointing at something unsexy but decisive: real performance is engineered. “Best teams” isn’t just praise; it’s a dataset. He’s invoking lived exposure to high-functioning groups and, by implication, demoting the teams that rely on improvisation, heroic individuals, or vibes.

The phrasing does careful work. “Structure and processes” signals repeatability, not charisma. He’s arguing that success isn’t a one-off sprint but a system that survives turnover, stress, and scale. The key phrase is “full range of distinct competencies.” Distinct means non-interchangeable: strategy isn’t design, design isn’t execution, execution isn’t QA, facilitation isn’t leadership. Garrett’s subtext is that modern work fails less from lack of talent than from missing roles, blurred ownership, and workflows that don’t force the right conversations at the right time.

Contextually, this lands in a business culture that loves flat org fantasies and cross-functional buzzwords while underinvesting in what cross-functional actually requires: clear handoffs, decision rights, feedback loops, and coverage for the boring-but-fatal gaps (research, documentation, operations, risk). It’s a managerial north star disguised as modest pattern recognition: if you want outcomes, stop hiring clones and start designing a team like a product - with all the necessary parts, and a process that makes them work together.