What’s the optimal developers-to-designers ratio? When do you need an additional tech lead? How about a tech architect?

Many tech leaders answer these questions with something like “when the need arises” but this may be a bad approach.

As someone who manages many developer teams for other companies, I had to deal with this question more than others. Here's a guide with some thumb rules to help you gather an optimal team for your project needs, no matter the size or complexity.

The Basics: Who Do You Need?

For smaller projects like MVPs, you need a streamlined team that maximizes efficiency without overstretching resources. Data from the “Accelerate State of DevOps Report” shows that small, highly aligned teams are 20% more likely to meet their deadlines.

Here’s my recommendation for such a minimal team:

Project Manager: The glue that keeps everything on track. A good PM aligns technical tasks with business goals, prioritizes work, and mitigates risks.
2-3 Developers: Front-end, back-end, or full-stack, depending on your product.
Quality Assurance Specialist: Skipping QA can lead to costly fixes later. A single bug can ruin the user experience—or even a project’s reputation. A dedicated QA ensures everything works as intended before it reaches the user.
UX/UI Designer: First impressions matter—get the user experience right. Design improves user adoption rates by 30%.

This setup is perfect for building an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and startups or businesses testing a new product concept.

Scaling Smart: The Optimal Dev Team for Medium-Sized Projects

Medium-scale projects require more specialization to handle complexity. According to DORA Metrics, teams with clearly defined roles and responsibilities are 50% more productive.

Here’s a balanced setup I would recommend using as a starting point for your consideration:

Tech Lead: Guides technical decisions, like architectural challenges, and ensures code quality.
4-6 Developers: Separate roles for front-end and back-end, possibly API development and mobile developers to tackle different project areas.
2 QA Engineers: Incorporate automated testing experts beyond manual testing to speed up regression testing and maintain quality as the project scales. Automation testing reduces bug-fixing time by up to 30%.
1-2 Designers: One can focus on core interfaces, while the other works on user research to validate designs with real user feedback, or branding.
DevOps Engineer: Automates deployments and ensures smooth operations.

This team structure balances agility with depth, making it ideal for scaling FinTech platforms or launching feature-rich mobile apps.

Dream Team: What a High-Performing Team Looks Like

For enterprise-level systems or complex multi-platform products, you need a diverse, highly skilled team. According to McKinsey, high-performing teams outperform average ones by 50% in large-scale projects.

Here’s how you assemble one:

Product Manager & Scrum Master: the PM focuses on high-level strategy, while the Scrum Master ensures the Agile processes are followed, keeping the team on track.
Tech Architect: A technical architect designs the system's structure, while a solutions architect ensures the system aligns with business goals.
8-10 Developers: Split across core functions like mobile, AI/ML, and API integration. For mobile-first projects, dedicate resources to both iOS and Android.
3-4 QA Engineers: Incorporate roles like performance testers and cybersecurity specialists to safeguard against vulnerabilities.
2-3 Designers: Add motion designers or accessibility experts to fine-tune the user experience.
DevOps Team: A dedicated team ensures zero downtime during deployment—a necessity for customer-facing platforms.
Data Scientist: Critical for leveraging analytics in AI-driven products or optimizing large datasets.

This team setup enables seamless delivery of large, complex projects, balancing innovation with operational stability.

Do You Need to Hire All Those People?

Hiring people directly is risky - the wrong people can ruin your teamwork and the whole project. I always recommend starting with minimal teams, getting the culture right, and then expanding.

But there’s another version: you can start by augmenting your team with external developers or outstaffing with a full external team that works well together and has a healthy internal culture .

If you’d like to consider one of these models (team augmentation or outstaffing), give us a ping. We might have the optimal organic team ready to start working for you.

Like this article? Follow me and Smartexe for more insights on leadership, tech recruitment, and building high-performance teams.