The messy truth about big teams
Why I decided to stop scaling teams and start scaling my own leverage instead.
I spent a long time working in big companies. I used to think that to build something big, you needed a big team. But I noticed something strange: the more people we added, the slower we went.
It wasn't because the people weren't good. It was because we spent all our time talking about the work instead of doing it. We had three-hour meetings to decide on a color. We had long email chains to talk about a single button.
The communication tax
When you have a team of 10 people, you don't just have 10 lines of communication. You have dozens. Everyone needs to stay in sync. Everyone needs to agree. Before you know it, you're paying a "tax" on every hour you work. Some people call this "overhead." I call it "friction."
I realized that if I wanted to move fast—and keep the quality high—I needed a different way.
Moving from "We" to "I"
IntentLabs is my experiment to see if one person can bypass that friction. Instead of a team of designers, I use a strict design system. Instead of a team of project managers, I use a second brain (my digital notes). Instead of a team of developers, I use standard AI tools to help me write code and fix bugs.
I’m not trying to be a "10x engineer." I’m just trying to cut out the meetings.
What I’m learning
It’s not perfect. Being a indie studio is lonely sometimes. There is no one else to blame when things break. But there is also no one else I need to wait for.
In this series of notes, I want to show you exactly how I'm doing this. No "pro tips" or "best practices"—just my honest log of what’s happening in the lab.
If you’ve ever felt like you were drowning in meetings while your projects stood still, this is for you.
Stay tuned for the next note: "What is Indie Studio?"