The Gunners are seeking a former Arsenal player to succeed their former technical director, with Tomas Rosicky and Per Mertesacker candidates.
Potter told BBC Sport: "It's that alignment with recruitment because if you continually make good decisions in recruitment you've got a chance with your environment and a chance with your team. If you make the wrong decisions you've got the opposite and there's problems.
"It always works in tandem. You need good recruitment, you also need good coaching. Mikel has done that really well, he's created an environment at Arsenal where there is a standard and a clear way they want to play. That makes it easier for the recruitment team to make decisions.
"Ultimately, whoever comes in has to be aligned with Mikel and has to be on the same wavelength, take the pressure of Mikel and take the workload off him but still be aligned and make the right decisions."