I still think about the teams I was part of at Yahoo and Acorns and ask the same question: how big should product development teams be now, and what is the right mix of product, design, and engineering?
At Yahoo!, my Messenger team was 5 people and we supported a product that had hundreds of millions of downloads. At Acorns, we had 10x that number, but we were supporting multiple businesses within the same app. Even then, we still tried to keep it small with a single, focused PM, a shared designer, and a dedicated team of 5 devs.
This thought exercise is not only nostalgic, but it's also practical and timely. As AI-assisted development makes it faster than ever to execute on an idea, we know the number of people on a dedicated team is going to change. The question is... to what extent is the change? And what is the new structure?
At Uptech Studio, we like to focus on outcomes, not code. How many outcomes can any one person really own before they start to lose the thread of what they're trying to accomplish? The truth is that we talk about context windows for models, but humans have tokens too. There are only so many things that our brains can focus on at a time.
I've said many times that the strategic thought work that matters rarely happens at the keyboard. It often happens in quiet moments when someone is away from the keyboard: at the gym, mowing the yard, cleaning the house. Often that is when the best ideas happen, but overloading someone gets in the way.
Dynamic teams are the future
That is part of why I am enamored with this idea of organizing around Outcome Owners and On-demand Development: a team that can rotate in once the outcome owner knows what they want to build.
In this model, Outcome Owners stay focused on goals and understanding tradeoffs, but the execution team only comes in when there is a real plan to build. The goal is not permanent seats. It is preserving context for the people who have to wrestle with the outcome.
In-house vs. trusted partners
Now you have to decide if you want your On-Demand Development team to be in-house or through a technology partner like Uptech Studio. For me it depends on the number of concrete problems you've decided to own.
If you have enough problems to rotate through on your roadmap, I'd hire internally. But if you don't, having a full-time team adds a different problem: keeping them busy. When the roadmap is thin, the temptation is to invent work to fill the week instead of focusing on what's important.
That's why the bet that might make the most sense for your organization is to outsource your On-demand Development team to a trusted Technology Partner that's been there before. Someone who works in your timezone and will be ready when you're ready to work.
If you are wrestling with team size or how much any one person should carry, let's compare notes.
Matt New
Partner, Uptech Studio
