We’re a few months into our journey here at CV Wallet and we’ve achieved a lot, with a compact, agile team. I thought it would be fun/interesting/useful to share some insights on how we’re doing more with less.

Bigger is not always better

The notion that productivity grows proportionately with team size, is not a given. Ten developers don’t necessarily deliver product ten times faster than one. One hundred developers are not guaranteed to deliver 10x the work of ten developers. Of course, they might do, but to make it work you need to add in a smattering of product managers, project managers, more advanced tools, lead engineers, team leaders… there’s a very real overhead involved in herding the flock.

Put differently, as much as the concept of economies of scale is valid, so too is the law of diminishing marginal utility. Beer number seven does not deliver anywhere near the same level of satisfaction as beer number one (it may, in fact, be detrimental 🙂).

So having a small, focused team is, in our case, a Very Good Thing.

Use cool tools…

Productivity is always important, but especially so in a compact team. Staying sharp and productive doesn’t just happen. It’s partly the result of using the right tools for the job. You can’t (or shouldn’t) be managing projects using email and spreadsheets alone; unless it’s 1997, and even then… 🤷

Instead, use platforms designed for product management, agile development and collaboration, to get the job done. This is not a review of such tools (though I’m tempted to write one), but you could do worse than trialling the usual suspects - Jira, Craft, Asana, Monday + special mention to Podio.

…Join them up

Having a bunch of great platforms to help the team deliver work is one thing. Actually connecting these disparate tools so that they work together in concert is next-level shizzle. Siloed tools can create or compound problems. Connected tools solve problems. Joined-up systems allow people to work with the platforms that work for them, yet deliver tasks and feedback to the right people, and in the right format. So a member of the marketing team can create a Jira ticket from within Slack. A PM can create a Jira item from within Miro. A department head can post a Confluence report, which notifies a Slack channel. The possibilities are endless (but the appetite for notifications is not ;).

Have a process

Having formal processes in place is critical. It’s easy to think that you can get by without much structure, especially in a small team. But adhering to process brings discipline and a checklist mentality to the team, reducing the likelihood of major screw-ups. That said, processes should not become your life. Rather, they should serve as frameworks or guard rails, within which you enjoy a degree of flexibility. 

A good test is to ask why processes exist. If you’re going ‘full DevOps’ for bragging rights, the you’ve arguably lost focus. DevOps, or Continuous Integration is not the goal. Delivering the product is the goal; the process is just a way of working to help you get there smoothly and without incident.

Embrace innovation

Have I got this far without mentioning #AI? Once we look beyond the clamour, fear-mongering and hype, we’re left access to some powerful tools that augment, rather than replace, some of our core functions. It’s okay to use Bard or ChatGPT to produce some code, but in reality, we rarely want to or need to. I could have used something like Jasper to write this post, but I wanted to write it myself. You can’t delegate joy, satisfaction or pride. So add in enough AI to save some time, eliminate errors or to validate your approach, but no more. 

Get regular, diverse feedback

The more you can stay on track, the less time you waste building the wrong features. Put it out there often. Have a process. Create a feedback loop. Also, be sure to ask the right people. If you’re building an app specifically targeting new graduates, there’s no point in exclusively polling Gen Xers. Whoever you ask though, don’t forget that you’re the startup and the custodians of the vision. We all know the (somewhat spurious?) ‘Henry Ford’ quote regarding customers asking for a ‘faster horse’, rather than the truly innovative motorcar. Have a clear destination in mind, but be flexible as to how you prioritise features.

Get together often

We get it; it’s 2023. Many of us don't want to go back to a five-days-in-the-office existence. However, face-to-face IRL communication holds a certain potency that cannot be ignored. Plus, you can’t overhear a conversation and spontaneously offer up help, when working remotely. Entire concepts are unwittingly designed out of existence: serendipity, human connection, light-hearted banter, body language.

Celebrate small wins

A big part of getting stuff done, comes down to motivation. Acknowledging progress and celebrating small wins, spawns greater motivation, which leads to more progress, more incremental wins, and so forth.

Finally, the most important ingredient

Great people. 'Nuff said.