Small Teams Win
Because They’re Built for Compression | SIGNALS Ep 02
Speed is not the edge anymore — it is the baseline.
Most productions do not die on set. They die in the inbox. Too many approvers. Too many reply-alls. Not enough ownership.
Episode 02 of SIGNALS asks a blunt question:
Why do six people with laptops outrun sixty with budgets and ten cc’s?
It is not hustle. It is compression.
Episode 02: Small Teams Win
(Watch the full video below)
The Signal
Compression means fewer steps between idea and delivery. Less loss in translation.
The math is not subtle: six people = 15 connections. Twelve people = 66. Double the headcount, multiply the drag.
A small, compressed team gets a doc cut festival-ready in weeks. A larger one spends the same time waiting for a vice president to approve a lower third.
Big teams often mistake consensus for quality — and email volume for impact.
Why It Matters
Small teams do carry risks: burnout, blind spots, single-point failures. The guardrail is discipline, not software. Define who owns creative, logistics, and post. Cap the approval chain. Track key decisions in simple status reports.
Delivery windows are collapsing. A highlight reel loses value in days, not weeks. The cost of waiting on approvals is higher than the cost of releasing a strong version while the moment is still fresh.
What To Do Now
Executives: Cap approval chains at three people and name one final owner early.
Producers and creators: Map where decisions stall, push for calls inside two weeks—ideally in the room.
Compression isn’t about rushing. It’s about losing less to process. The teams that protect compression will deliver at the pace audiences now expect.
That’s the signal. The rest is noise.
NEXT WEEK: Episode 03 looks at how approval culture creates drag across every format, from docs to live events, and what leaders can do to cut it down without cutting corners.