After two decades in software engineering, with the last ten years at Workday, I've witnessed a pattern that's both fascinating and, frankly, concerning.

I've watched as organizations scaled development teams to staggering sizes—sometimes 300+ engineers—just to make measurable product progress. The overhead is immense: coordination meetings, alignment sessions, documentation reviews, and countless hours spent maintaining communication channels rather than building.

Yet my most profound professional experiences contradict this scaling approach. The moments of true breakthrough, of genuine innovation, have almost always come from small teams. Specifically, groups of fewer than 7 people—individuals who are exceptional at their craft and deeply aligned on vision. 

There's something magical about that configuration. Communication is instant. Decision-making happens over lunch. Ideas evolve in real-time conversations rather than being filtered through layers of approval. When everyone is outstanding at what they do, progress happens at a pace that feels almost supernatural compared to enterprise development cycles.

Now, imagine taking that small, high-functioning team and amplifying each person's capabilities tenfold through AI tools. This isn't hypothetical—it's happening right now.

I call this emerging reality "The Era of the Small Giant." Small in headcount but giant in impact.

The most exciting part? This transformation extends beyond engineering. Legal departments that once required dozens can now operate with a focused few leveraging AI for contract analysis and compliance. Marketing teams can produce campaigns at scale without scaling the team itself. Sales operations that once demanded large support structures can function with remarkable efficiency through a host of new AI tools. 

This isn't about eliminating jobs—it's about reimagining what exceptional people can accomplish when unburdened by the friction of organizational mass.

Having lived through the perpetual scaling of teams to solve problems, I'm convinced we're at the cusp of a fundamental shift. The future belongs not to the companies with the most employees, but to those that empower their best people with the most powerful tools.

Small isn’t just beautiful—it's now extraordinarily powerful.

At Layercode, this philosophy isn't just theoretical: it's our blueprint. We're intentionally building a small but mighty team who share our vision of AI-amplified impact. If reading this made you think 'finally, someone gets it,' then we should probably talk. View our current openings or drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you.