It varies from company to company. For some, usually the executive team comes up with a percentage of costs that need to be removed and then the message for tea

It varies from company to company. For some, usually the executive team comes up with a percentage of costs that need to be removed and then the message for team managers is to identify the individuals. For others, it's silent and it's more crude - based on numbers/tenure/etc. and automatically filtered by HR and accounting teams and doesn't take into account product/operations. Sometimes, consulting firms would come in and recommend team structures and sizes that drive layoffs as well.