Large companies should empower small, autonomous teams (5-10 people) to experiment rapidly like startups. This "jet ski" model prioritizes speed and validated learning over large budgets and long timelines, de-risking innovation before committing to scale.

Research organization Ink & Switch uses a "Hollywood studio model." It assembles high-caliber talent for specific, time-bound projects and then disbands the teams. This agile approach allows access to top people who are not available for long-term roles.

To increase agility, Shopify is dismantling permanent teams tied to specific product surfaces. It's creating a centralized pool of high-impact individual contributors ('strategic ICs') who are deployed dynamically to own entire user journeys, a model exemplified by its acquisition of the MOLLY studio.

Instead of traditional IT departments, companies are forming small, cross-functional teams with a senior engineer, a subject matter expert, and a marketer. Empowered by AI, these agile groups can build new products in a week that previously took teams of 20 people six months, radically changing organizational structure.

The modern talent landscape is defined by an abundance of accessible experts, not scarcity. This allows leaders to design bold, ambitious projects first and then assemble the perfect on-demand team in minutes, rather than limiting scope to the talent currently on payroll.

AI tools are enabling smaller, more agile team structures. Wealthsimple is moving away from traditional 'two-pizza teams' and experimenting with three-person pods—such as one designer and two engineers—that can operate with more speed, sometimes without a dedicated product manager.

A new organizational model is emerging where companies create small, agile teams comprising a senior expert, an engineer, and a marketer. Empowered by AI tools, these pods can develop and launch new products in a week, a task that once required large teams and over six months.

Apply the logic of agile "flash teams" to your stable team by treating its boundaries as porous. Adopting an "experts everywhere, all the time" mindset encourages you to constantly look for and pull in expertise from anywhere—inside or outside the organization—to break down team silos and accelerate problem-solving.

Uber created two-week 'Agentic Pods' by embedding an AI-proficient engineer with a business domain expert. This hands-on collaboration allows them to shadow workflows, identify high-impact opportunities, and co-build solutions, proving that building *with* users is superior to building *for* them.