Doubling a team does not double its output — it multiplies the number of conversations required to agree on anything. The fastest teams we have seen are small, senior, and own a problem end to end.
Fewer handoffs, fewer misses
When the person who talked to the customer also writes the code, intent survives the trip. Every handoff between roles is a place for context to leak out and rework to creep in.
Ownership beats process
Heavy process is what teams reach for when they do not trust the people. Give capable people the whole problem and the authority to solve it, and most of the ceremony becomes unnecessary.
This is not anti-scale — it is how you stay fast while you scale: many small teams that each ship, not one big team that coordinates.