On the interwebs, simpler and smaller equals better
It’s counterintuitive. Fewer people can accomplish more than more people. Simple ideas are more powerful than complex ones.
This is the basic argument of a great little piece called The power of small teams, by Avi Muchnick, and in terms of the web worlds, I very much agree.
Muchnick relates Jeff Bezos’ concept of the “two-pizza” team, which means that the most efficient and productive team is one that can be fed by a couple of large pizzas. Smaller teams are more effective because communication is more efficient. Of course, the trick is to have the right team, the right group of highly motivated, smart, and cooperative folk willing to buy into the vision of the project at hand.
Muchnick goes on to argue that the most efficient team is a one-person unit, where there’s no communication needed at all. That goes a little too far in my book. I’m reminded for some reason of the J.P. character in the hilariously goofy Grandma’s Boy, which features a genius game designer who has no capacity to deal with real life or the real world. In essence, the vast majority of us don’t have the ability to do it all on our own. While the barriers to entry to get a web product to market have never been lower, perhaps the two-pizza theory also works the other way: the most efficient team is one that would probably get through a couple of pies in one sitting.
The other side of the equation – keep it simple (stupid) – is more meaningful for people who don’t work in the Internet industry. The truth is that no one cares about feature rich websites (which can always run the risk of turning into overblown web monstrosities) if they don’t serve some vital or unmet purpose.
The end of the piece includes examples of simple-yet-powerful social media sites built by small teams. They include some of the hottest web 2.0 properties, such as Reddit, Delicious, and Flickr.
Take those three examples and it’s easy to see why simple is powerful:
• Reddit – Comment and vote on stories
• Delicious – Find and bookmark stories
• Flickr – Find, upload, and share images
All three are super easy to comprehend, and all three are super easy to use. They all also have a tremendous number of other features, nuances, and subtleties that make them unique, but in reality these things are peripheral and were developed on top of the core platforms over time.
The ability for small teams to pump out useful applications and services quickly fueled the web 2.0 boom. The next wave of innovation – in whatever form it takes – will be powered by the same foundation: good/simple ideas powered by good/small teams
