Two-Pizza Teams 🍕

The two-pizza team is a popular team structuring technique advocated by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos . The basic idea is that a team should be small enough to be fed by two pizzas. This keeps teams lean, focused, and nimble.

What is a Two-Pizza Team?

A two-pizza team is a team of around 5-8 people. Bezos arrived at this number based on the idea that a standard pizza can feed 3-4 people. So two pizzas could feed a team of 6-8.

The small team size promotes greater ownership, accountability, and agility. Members feel deeply invested in the team’s outcomes and can quickly respond to challenges and opportunities.

Benefits of Two-Pizza Teams

• Increased speed - Smaller teams can move faster. Communication is easier with fewer people and decisions can happen quickly.

• Greater focus - With a narrow scope, two-pizza teams stay laser focused on their goals. There is less room for distraction.

• Greater autonomy - Teams have more freedom to determine how best to accomplish their objectives without bureaucracy.

• Greater ownership - Team members feel personal accountability for results. Small team size increases individual impact.

• More innovative - Tight teams better support free flowing creativity and risk taking. Innovation thrives in small, nimble teams.

How to Structure Two-Pizza Teams

While two-pizza teams work for many environments, here are some tips for implementing them successfully:

• Keep teams stable - Allow teams time to gel. Don’t constantly shuffle people around.

• Focus on goals not tasks - Empower teams to determine how to accomplish goals. Don’t micro-manage.

• Keep teams decentralized - Avoid unnecessary bureaucracy. Let teams operate independently.

• Foster collaboration - Encourage cross-team communication to share learning and avoid silos.

• Keep teams small - Resist adding too many members. Split into two teams once a team gets too large.

Conclusion

Two-pizza teams are a proven strategy for enhancing speed, innovation, and productivity. By embracing small teams, companies can operate with greater agility even at large scale.