Why Small Teams Win

I’ve worked in small teams all of my working life. The biggest dev team I’ve worked in had 10 devs at its largest. I prefer working like this.

Why?

Teams that are made up of a small number of high-agency, motivated members can produce a better product than the team filled with multiple stakeholders, multiple signoff points, and a 15 step approval and deployment process.

The smaller team will produce a higher quality product. Faster, too.

How do I know this?

Because I’ve done it. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the world where feature production takes months, and I’ve seen the world where it takes 2 weeks of focused energy from the whole team.

There are multiple reasons why this works:

• Fewer communication channels
• More alignment
• Less noise obscuring the direction

It takes discipline, too. It takes an engaged team, a strong direction, and a clear path forward (and it’s difficult to have all of these things at once!).

Being the clarity is what can make the difference. I will always believe that you need to set a direction, make a decision, and execute on it to be effective.

If it doesn’t work, you follow the same steps. Work out why it didn’t work, make a decision, and execute on it.

The key is (and will always be) execution. Small teams win because they can execute better.