phData reorg — career fork (Applied AI / FDE landing + Tiger call-option)

phData-internal. Captured from a founder iMessage thread the evening of 2026-06-18. The reorg that had been "in motion" settled the same day.

How it was framed (4 options on the table earlier 2026-06-18)

1. Applied AI team under Elizabeth — building apps for clients. The FDE route.
2. AI workforce absorbed into Gavin's team — stays in Analytics, same work, report to Gavin instead of Andrew.
3. Taylon promoted to director — AI workforce keeps its own practice, status-quo work.
4. Anthropic Tiger Team with Andrew — helping clients adopt Anthropic products; mix of internal tool-building + remote training/enablement. Goal $10M from $0. Risk: Andrew unsure it was even on the table (revenue-dependent); if it trickles → "tour of duty," team redistributed, Andrew can't reclaim his seat.

Numbers: AI workforce goal $3M (stretch $5M), at $2.8M today, on track to hit. Tiger goal $10M from 0. Travel (all roles): 1-2 days typical, conferences 4-5; quarterly at most for key clients, conferences ≤2x/yr; west-coast team being built so mostly regional; 3 key clients in Miami (founder is Tampa-based).

Decision logic (the advice given)

Framed as a convex bet, not a binary 4-vs-1:

• Founder's preference order: #4 (Tiger/Andrew) > #1 (FDE) > #2/#3 (inertia).
• Critical de-risker the founder surfaced: if #4 fails he falls back to the FDE team — which is his genuine #2 anyway. So #4's downside = "land on my second choice." Floor protected, upside uncapped.
• #4's real risk is Andrew's (loses his seat), less the founder's (low client overhead → mobile, skills in demand). Even the downside case is a skill win: most portable, most RDCO-transferable experience of any option + the Anthropic cert + "early on the highest-growth bet."
• #2/#3 deepen existing muscle (Snowflake/copilot delivery); #1 and #4 build the new muscle (AI adoption / deployed-app building) that is both where the market is heading and most transferable to RDCO (L5 north star). Choose which muscle compounds.

What actually happened (resolution, 2026-06-18 eve)

• Whole team moved to the Applied AI team; everyone gets FDE titles. → Option 1 became the org outcome. This is the protected-floor leg of the convex bet landing.
• Andrew is on the Applied AI team too, and looks likely to move (to Tiger) in ~a month (≈ mid/late July 2026). So the Tiger upside leg is still live as a future pull, exactly the dotted-line structure the founder predicted.

Open action (founder's, this ~1-month runway before Andrew moves)

1. Lock the explicit first-pull commitment with Andrew — not a vague org-chart dotted line, but Andrew saying plainly "you're my first pull when I move to Tiger." Vague dotted lines drift; a named first-pull doesn't. Get it verbal/explicit while Andrew is actively reaching for him.
2. Stay pull-ready: stay handoff-able on Lionsgate (low client overhead is why Andrew can pull him), stay visible on adoption work.
3. Bank the CCA signal early — on the Anthropic-adoption path the Claude Certified Architect cert stops being just the +$5k escalator and becomes role-relevant table stakes / Tiger-readiness signal. Reinforces the "sit cert 2 before Nov 22" lean already open (see [[project_phdata_cert_escalator_path]]).

Cross-refs

• Cert escalators: [[~/rdco-vault/01-projects/phdata/cert-progress.md]] · CCA target 2026-11-22 (sit early).
• L5 north star (phData = main bet in service of RDCO): [[project_l5_north_star_strategic_direction]].
• Owner-vs-W2 "which muscle compounds" reflection: [[~/rdco-vault/06-reference/2026-06-15-owner-mindset-vs-w2-compounding-reflection.md]].