Hunter-Farmer-Teamer Role Design
Scale teams by matching opportunity, structure, and connection to natural strengths.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 95%
Hunter-Farmer-Teamer Role Design treats organizational growth as a balance among three working instincts. Hunters spot opportunities, accept risk, and launch initiatives. Farmers install systems, refine details, mitigate risk, and stabilize execution. Teamers understand group dynamics, connect people to resources, and preserve the broader organizational picture required for scale. Leaders first map each person's strongest instinct, then compare those strengths with the actual demands of each role. Gaps are addressed through hiring, delegation, or a compensating process rather than expecting every person to become equally strong everywhere. The suggested allocation is roughly 80% of time in one's strongest mode and no more than 20% in the weakest. Used carefully, the model creates complementary teams without treating personality categories as destiny.
Origin
Extracted from The Jasmine Star Show, where leadership consultant Jim Zartman used the model to explain why Jasmine's opportunity-oriented style was complemented by structurally strong team members.
Core principles
- 01Hunters pursue risk and opportunity.
- 02Farmers create systems, structure, and stability.
- 03Teamers connect people and see group-wide dynamics.
- 04Teams scale through complementary strengths rather than duplicated leaders.
- 05Weak areas need baseline competence or a deliberate compensation strategy.
- 06People should spend most of their time in their strongest mode.
How to run it
- 1
Map the three instincts
Assess who naturally pursues opportunities, who creates structure, and who monitors how the whole group works together.
Pro tip Use observed behavior alongside any formal assessment.
Watch out Do not assume a personality label proves capability.
- 2
Map the work
Classify each role's core demands as primarily hunting, farming, teaming, or a deliberate combination.
Pro tip Classify the recurring work rather than relying on the job title.
Watch out A role may have been designed around its current employee rather than the company's real needs.
- 3
Find mismatches and gaps
Compare the team's dominant instincts with the work that must be done. Identify people spending excessive time in weak modes and functions with no natural owner.
Pro tip Pay special attention to group-management roles that lack a strong teamer.
Watch out A missing instinct can remain invisible until the company reaches a new growth stage.
- 4
Compensate deliberately
Hire, delegate, or install a process to cover essential weak areas. Seek people who complement the leader instead of reproducing the leader's profile.
Pro tip Outsource a weakness when another person can perform it naturally and consistently.
Watch out Hiring more versions of yourself can amplify organizational blind spots.
- 5
Apply the 80/20 allocation
Design responsibilities so people spend about 80% of their time in their strongest instinct and no more than 20% in their weakest.
Pro tip Use the weaker mode for necessary oversight, not as the center of the role.
Watch out Trying to perfect every weakness takes time away from the person's highest-value contribution.
- 6
Review as the company evolves
Reassess the mix when the organization shifts from launching to stabilizing or scaling.
Pro tip Treat the required instinct mix as stage-dependent.
Watch out A team structure that launched the company may not be able to scale it.
In the wild
Jim observed that Jasmine's team members were strongest in the structural instinct that was weakest for her. Their systems orientation and desire to complete work correctly allowed Jasmine to focus on opportunity, speaking, and ideas while still checking that the team had what it needed.
→ Complementary hiring reduced the need for Jasmine to make detail-heavy operational work her primary responsibility.
A software founder and operations director can launch products and stabilize processes, but departments remain disconnected. The company appoints a people-oriented program lead who sees cross-team dependencies, connects owners to resources, and resolves coordination failures.
→ The business gains the connective capacity needed to scale beyond isolated functional teams.
Common mistakes
Hiring your own clone
Duplicating the leader's strongest instincts also duplicates the leader's blind spots and leaves essential work uncovered.
Trying to perfect every weakness
Weak areas may need baseline competence, but excessive remediation steals time from the person's highest-value contribution.
Using labels as verdicts
The model should guide observation and role design, not limit people or excuse poor performance.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for growing companies that need to balance innovation, operational stability, and cross-team coordination.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as a rigid personality label or as a substitute for evidence about competence and performance.
From the transcript
“The farmer system structure the hunter. You risk opportunity there. The the teamer is the how do we make all these people work together?”
“So almost all companies are launched by hunters and then they are stabilized by farmers. But then they scale because of teamers.”
“you can never really do better than a baseline competency at your weaknesses. And the more time you spend on them, the less time you…”
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