Managing For Speed—Why Small, Crowded, Messy Teams Build Better Products

Big, neat, isolated teams tend to move slowly and play it safe—often because the barriers to open debate, fast feedback, and creative collision are just too high. One of Google's signatures was the use of 'two-pizza teams' (borrowing from Jeff Bezos): small groups, rarely more than 8 people, jammed together not just in reporting lines, but in physical space. Their offices were crowded, sometimes messy, and intentionally disruptive: engineers from search worked side by side with product managers and marketers, and spontaneous debates were the norm, not the exception.

When a team shares a small, bustling space, serendipitous exchanges replace stilted memos, and the pace of iteration accelerates. Messiness—whiteboards scrawled with formulas, walls covered in wild ideas—became a badge of honor. It was in these chaotic settings that teams solved major product flaws over a single weekend and hatched billion-dollar ideas while playing pool. Science backs this up: studies on 'propinquity' (physical proximity) find that workplace innovation skyrockets when people bump into each other and when information flows freely.

Managers who try to optimize for peace, privacy, or hierarchy accidentally suffocate this energy. The risk is some noise and the occasional argument, but the payoff is a culture of speed, resilience, and breakthrough creativity.

Try reshaping your next group project or meeting around a 'two-pizza team'—keep it tight, even if you have to say no to others for now. Rearrange seats or desks to put everyone closer together, focusing less on comfort and more on full-on interaction. If the room gets messy with diagrams, sticky notes, and half-built mockups, consider it a badge of productive effort rather than something to hide. As you do this, notice how fast ideas spread and how quickly roadblocks get solved. Let a little chaos in—and let the debate begin.