What is the right sized team? Two Pizzas?

CEO Insight from Jeff Bezos, Amazon

 

Over the years, I have been continually asked, “What is the ideal size for a team?” When asked it seems, the inquisitors believe there is an exact number of participants that will make the team work perfectly – almost like team size is the secret ingredient of the high-performing team formula. 

 

Maybe there is a perfect size.

 

CEO Jeff Bezos at Amazon created “two-pizza teams”. For him the ideal team size is that you can get people in a team small enough that they can be fed on two pizzas – about six people is a good size. But it depends on how hungry the people are.

 

The reason he promotes “two-pizza teams” is that when teams get bigger, more time is spent coordinating the team than working as a team. Have you ever thrown a pizza party? If so, you will remember all of the time that was spent just getting the pizza. You had to determine - How many pizzas were needed? What types of pizzas? Where should you order the pizza from? Where should you have the pizza party? When should you order it? etc.? Needless to say, you spent more time planning the party than having it. If you want a good work environment where people can really be productive, they should not be spending lots of time coordinating.

 

I agree with Jeff’s two-pizza theory. If you want high-performing teams, then the ideal size is 5 – 7 members.

 

What do you think is the right sized team?