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We are pleased to welcome Cat Morris and Diana Montalion for The Friction Fix: Building Collaborative Relationships Between Teams
A big thanks to Policy Expert for hosting the event. Also thank you to The Ministry of Software Design for organising. We will share the list of attendees with Policy Expert for assisting for security and safety purposes.
Abstract
In today's fast-paced and interconnected world, the friction between product and technology teams often feels inevitable. Misaligned mindsets, priorities, and contextual biases create obstacles that slow progress, stifle innovation, breed frustration and encourage blame.
Instead of fostering collaboration, we resort to tighter controls and increased separation, widening the gap even further. However, effective collaboration is crucial for delivering impactful results and driving success.
Diana Montalion (systems architect) and Cat Morris (product manager) will examine the distinct yet interconnected concerns of product and architecture, unraveling why friction arises and how it can be mitigated. Drawing from 30+ years of combined real-world experience, they will show how the flow of data and information—when presented in the right way and context—can bridge gaps and generate shared knowledge.
Attendees will gain practical strategies for designing systems and processes that enable knowledge flow. Empowering teams to make informed decisions and deliver impactful outcomes. Together.
About Cat Morris (Staff Product Manager at Syntasso)
Cat is the Product Manager at Syntasso delivering Kratix, an open-source cloud-native framework for building internal platforms. She has worked in tech for over 10 years, the last 6 have been in Platform Engineering across all kinds of domains. She specialises in bringing Product Mindset to technical teams that serve developers and other internal users - their user experience matters too!
Away from her work endeavours, Cat is an avid plant enthusiast with dozens of houseplants. She also shares her home with Opal, her equally adored and occasionally demanding feline companion.
About Diana Montalion (Mentrix: Architecting Systems)
Diana and her teammates build modern software systems for diverse clients. She has 20+ years experience engineering and architecting software systems for organizations including Stanford, The Gates Foundation, Memorial Sloan Kettering and Teach For All. She has also served as Principal Systems Architect for The Economist and The Wikimedia Foundation.
She wrote the O’Reilly book, Learning Systems Thinking: Essential Nonlinear Skills & Practices for Software Professionals. Her company, Mentrix, publishes courses and learning materials for aspiring nonlinear thinkers.
Diana lives in the Hudson Valley (New York, USA) with three dogs, one cat and nine chickens.
