Scientific Definition
Teams small enough to be fed by two pizzas.
Plain-English Definition
Teams small enough to be fed by two pizzas.
Feynman Explanation
If you can't feed it, you can't run it.
Core Principle
Teams small enough to be fed by two pizzas.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
Teams small enough to be fed by two pizzas.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Operating cadence and team design.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
If you can't feed it, you can't run it.
Examples
- Amazon's org design principle.
- Operating cadence and team design.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Audit team sizes quarterly. Split when they balloon.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Audit team sizes quarterly. Split when they balloon.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Combining substances to create a new material stronger than its parts.
A single constraint limits the throughput of an entire system.
A system's throughput is constrained by its single slowest step.
Small visible disorders signal that bigger ones will be tolerated.
Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
A substance that speeds up a reaction without being consumed.
Nonlinear systems are highly sensitive to initial conditions.
Inputs combine under conditions to produce new outputs — sometimes irreversibly.
Software architecture mirrors org structure.
Working together has a cost that scales with the number of people.
The threshold at which a system becomes self-sustaining.