Smart at Scale Thoughts
Saturday, April 5, 2025
Working smart at small-scale becomes working hard at large-scale if mindset is not switched. The way we figured everything out everything when at Aeropost – which can me nicely be called “startup mode” – was more accurately an aligned mess. But we were small enough that error correction happened constantly, and quickly we got back to pulling in the same direction.
However, that same methodology becomes unworkable as you grow. The error correction doesn’t happen enough and it only works when someone has enough brute force to set the direction. So as you scale, you need to figure out how to work smart-at-scale in enterprise setting.
You still need to have smart, loosely organized teams. The problem is that if they’re all too different, they cannot build a more complex system because there’s not enough connections. You allow them independence, but you standardize the working model – the nomenclature between them. Call it agile, 37signals Shape Up, Design Thinking, whatever. The need is to figure out a way that all independent teams know where other independent teams can meet them, and be able to request or delivery.