Autonomy without structure consistently produces informal hierarchy

A team without a hierarchy will inevitably give more space to the loudest people, or the ones with the strongest personality, or the ones with higher seniority. People on the other side of the spectrum will not participate in discussions and isolate themselves. Having someone to lead the team can bring some balance.

"There is no such thing as a structureless group. Any group of people of whatever nature that comes together for any length of time for any purpose will inevitably structure itself in some fashion." Structurelessness "becomes a smokescreen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned hegemony over others." - Jo Freeman, The Tyranny of Structurelessness, 1972

• That's why The PM role is necessary at scale as a coordination role, otherwise the context will become too big to be managed by multiple teams in isolation