Doing Big Things with Small Teams
Doing Big Things with Small Teams
Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and our founder Yossi Mlynsky have something in common. Other than being connected to successful tech companies and having cool-sounding names, they share a vision of doing big things with small teams.
Here at Upsatck, we know that going lean and managing small teams leads to improved work output, better communication, increased morale, and more satisfied customers. Here are three reasons that companies should apply this model and even considering outsourcing, especially as it relates to system engineering and management.
“A small team of a-plus players can run circles around a giant team of b and c players .”
— Steve Jobs
- Simplicity: The larger a team gets, the more complicated the communication becomes, if you want an example of this try playing the telephone game, a childhood classic, and it will become apparent why larger groups are less productive. Smaller groups become cohesive units much faster than larger ones, doing away with conflicts, complicated communication channels while creating valuable camaraderie, trust, and familiarity with strengths and weaknesses. Simplicity ultimately results in an agile group that works in sync that will continually improve as time goes on.“You’ve got to give great tools to small teams. Pick good people, use small teams and give them great tools so that they are productive in terms of what they are doing.”
— Bill Gates
2. Increased productivity: Bigger isn’t always better especially with regards to development teams. A smaller, but the lean team has proven time and time again to produce better results at lower costs relative to larger groups. The cost savings and quality standards of the final product are the driving force behind the utilization of smaller teams in not only tech industries but across all fields. If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.
— Jeff Bezos
3. Commitment and accountability: The studies have shown time and time again that there is a strong correlation between the increase in the size of a team and decreased individual team member efforts, this phenomenon is known as the Ringlemann Effect. Smaller groups, therefore, result in each member performing at the optimal level as members comprehend the connection between their effort and the results. In smaller groups, the commitment to execute tasks well and personal accountability are higher and no member sits back with the assumption that someone else will take up their slack or correct their errors. Needless to say, we practice what we preach. We’ve built our reputation on doing high-quality work with small teams of talented individuals. Want more info? Check our rap sheet and see how we helped awesome startups like Meal Pal exceed goals and gain success.
