Why Small Teams Are More Productive

4 min readOct 2, 2020

“If a team can’t be fed by two pizzas it’s too big.” — Jeff Bezos

Let us start by introducing ourselves, we’re Studio Malvah a boutique studio made up of three passionate creatives and one powerhouse project manager. We specialise in branding, motion and digital design — which basically encompasses crafting brands, mobile apps, websites and everything in between.

“Born through passion, fixated on progress.” — Studio Malvah

The two pizza theory

We’ve tested the pizza theory and provided Tim has had his oats and isn’t ravenous by lunch-time, our team is happily fed by two pizzas.

Of course this isn’t really about pizzas, it’s about the agility, productivity and cohesion that exists in a small team. It’s understandable that popular belief dictates that a larger team means more ideas, more hands on deck, achieving goals more swiftly. But more of the good (ideas, brainpower, workforce) also brings more of the bad (mistakes, communication lapses, laziness).

I don’t expect you to take our word for it, Jacob Morgan — author of The Future of Work — writes “ individual effort decreases as the team size increases.” Why? Because each person’s contribution isn’t personally attributed to them and we as humans are naturally lazy so we become workplace loafers and rely on other people to put in the hard yards while we coast along watching the clock.

Introducing the team

Meet Tim

Tim is a Co-Founder and Head of Branding

Branding entails everything from brand personality to brand assets such as logos, email signatures, business cards and other branding collateral.

Meet Ty

Ty is a Co-Founder and Head of Digital and Motion

Digital is a broad term but in relation to what we offer it ranges from websites to apps and everything in between. Ty is a wizard when it comes to motion, if you don’t believe us check out our showreel on YouTube.

Meet Carli

Carli is a budding UX and UI designer with a strong background in branding.

She has grown as the studio has grown and she is a ninja at meeting tight deadlines which happen more often than we’d like!

Meet Kallia

Girl Boss

We’re not really sure what she does, she was hired as a project manager but she’s adopted various hats in the studio.

Meet Mandi

Our chief of hygiene and safety

Mandi makes sure our studio stays safe, clean and more recently adheres to COVID regulations.

Our small team

What we love about our team is that each individual is equally as passionate and on the days when the creative juices just aren’t flowing, we recognise and motivate our team members rather than overlooking them in a crowd of employees. Keeping the studio small gives us more control over the quality of work, retaining consistency and individual growth which ultimately leads to progression. Each member of our team plays a role in our unique creative output by contributing their views, opinions, strengths and perspectives. And each person is individually recognised for their contribution.

We’re tight-knit team with a variety of disciplines that share the same vision to build meaningful brands and digital experiences. Our mission is to stay hungry and humble and we remind each other of our values and beliefs every time we take on a new project.

It’s this sense of camaraderie that motivates us to keep our team small.

How does this affect the way we work?

There are limitations that come with a small team and we aim for excellence in one field rather than capability in many. This is why we adopt a plug and play approach. We have formed relationships with developers, copy writers, digital marketers and cinematographers worldwide who plug into our team when a project requires their expertise.

We’re a small team who enjoys working with like-minded small teams, all passionate about their work and driven to give their best on every project.