There are advantages to scale in design teams. NASA estimates that 400,000 people were involved in the Apollo space programme. This scale of operation allows a degree of super-specialisation, which enabled the development of brand new technologies — like the creation of software, a new technology at the time. Scale can be a great advantage when it is focused on one single task – in this case putting a human on the moon.
When you have scale, you can have small teams hyper-focused on single tasks without having to spend time doing any of the other tasks that support the work. This kind of focus unlocks potential for innovation and efficiency.
In my previous post, I described a new game I have invented, called ForEdge. It explores how the size of a design team impacts the way they interact with their environment. In ForEdge, teams of different sizes compete to build wooden shelters in a forest. One of the dynamics I expect to see emerge is the role of scale in allowing specialisation.
One of the effects I expect to play out is of scale on the degree of specialisation the teams are able to deploy. In ForEdge, each team organises itself into a tightly arranged cluster. But only the players on the outside edge can forage for materials. For a small team, that means everyone can search for construction materials in their environment, but larger teams, the inner team members must stay behind.
The opportunity for specialisation thus opens up the larger teams. They can have specialist foragers and specialist designers. Both can spend longer on their jobs and so both can learn to do them better. The foragers will learn where to get better timber. The designers will learn how to design better with the materials at hand, learning for instance the best way to design a connection with roundwood timber.
I envisaged the game working with competing groups of between 3 and 18 people. Just imagine what kind of structure a team of 50 could do with their potential for specialisation – maybe not just a shelter but an auditorium. Maybe with 100 people in their team, they could have enough specialisation to also make instruments to perform in their auditorium. Maybe a team of 10,000 could build a wooden space rocket and fly it to the moon. But what would be the impact of this specialisation on the woodland that surrounds them? Material for tomorrow’s post.