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How Square structures its Product Org
Square’s CPO Willem Avé spoke to The Verge about topics including AI automation, investing and more. In the interview, he shares how Square’s product teams are set up.
Square operates under Block’s single, functional structure with centralized engineering, product, and design and a shared roadmap.
Within Square, work is split two ways:
customer-focused vertical teams for food & bev, retail, local services, and
foundational capability teams that span all verticals, like Banking/financial suite, Growth (onboarding and conversion), Identities Trust (payments safety), Foundations (design systems, navigation, cohesion) and others.
Vertical teams define seller needs and priorities; foundational teams build cross‑cutting systems to support them.
Decision-making emphasizes speed and alignment.
Teams run frequent “pit stops” to unblock work; cross‑functional leaders hold “unblock” meetings targeting decisions within 48 hours, with clear DRIs owning outcomes.
He says that the functional model keeps squads stable while enabling cross‑brand leverage with Cash App and Afterpay, without constantly swapping people across brands.
I really like this mix of foundational generalists vs vertical specialists. It won’t work in companies of all sizes but could be helpful if you’re currently considering your own product’s org structure.
