Scaling from 5 to 50 developers isn't just about hiring. It's about rebuilding everything. 📈
The 5-Person Team Reality: • Everyone knows the entire codebase • Decisions happen in Slack DMs • Deploy whenever you want • One person can break everything • Knowledge sharing = "Hey, how does X work?"
The 50-Person Team Reality: • Nobody knows the entire system • Decisions require RFC processes • Deploy windows and approval chains • Blast radius management is critical • Knowledge sharing = documentation or it doesn't exist
What Changes at Each Stage:
🏃 5-15 People: The Chaos Phase • Add team leads • Implement code review process • Create basic documentation • Start sprint planning • Define coding standards
🏗️ 15-30 People: The Structure Phase • Multiple teams with clear ownership • Service boundaries become important • On-call rotations • Performance review processes • Cross-team communication protocols
🏢 30-50 People: The Enterprise Phase • Technical Program Managers • Architecture review boards • Formal oncall and incident response • Tool standardization • Career progression frameworks
The Hardest Transitions:
🔥 Conway's Law Kicks In Your org chart becomes your architecture. Plan accordingly.
⚡ Knowledge Silos Form "Only Sarah knows how payments work" becomes a business risk.
🐌 Decision Speed Slows What took 1 hour now takes 1 week.
📊 Metrics Become Essential You can't feel the pulse of the team anymore. You need dashboards.
Pro Tips for Scaling: • Hire your first Technical Program Manager at 20 people • Document tribal knowledge before key people leave • Create "scaling moments" - planned times to restructure • Maintain startup culture through intentional rituals • Don't scale process faster than people can adapt
The Hardest Truth: What got you from 0 to 10 developers will kill you from 30 to 50.
Some processes need to die. Some people won't make the transition. And that's okay.
What's your biggest scaling challenge? 🤔