Project Management | Agile How Sports Busts Common Myths About Software Engineering Teams May 21, 2025

Neil Chaudhuri

LinkedIn

With tech layoffs continuing to sap morale and self-proclaimed experts on engineering productivity offering unlimited takes, one take in particular struck me:

Mediocre teams build mediocre products. Period. Every hire should raise the bar—if they don’t, don’t hire them. The harsh truth: A small team of A-players will crush a bloated team of B and C players every time. Talent density beats headcount. Mediocrity drags everyone down.

I am all for hiring great people and showing them how much you value them by providing excellent pay, training for growth, paid leave, and other truly beneficial means of compensation rather than pizza, which says a lot since I really love pizza. It’s hard to argue against the proposition that your engineering success is a function of how many “A-players” are on your team. But the history of sports, past and recent, shows it isn’t that simple. Even worse, that sentiment is harmful.

So who are “the best”? Starting with the 1992 Dream Team, the United States assembled the best NBA players, the best of the best, to represent America at the Olympics and other world basketball competitions. The Dream Team won handily, but in the decades that followed, it didn’t take long for other national teams who were far less talented on paper to beat Team USA. Meanwhile, sports fans around the world over decades have also watched many other teams attempt to “buy a championship”—i.e. to spend a lot of money on high-priced free agent “A-players”—only to fail so miserably so often that it’s a cliché. If team building is as simple as hiring the best individuals, then why do so many sports teams who try fail?

It’s the implicit notion that “the best” are the best in a vacuum. It is even worse than “harsh” to sort your people into “A-players” and “B and C players.” It’s self-serving. It is far too easy for management to absolve themselves of responsibility for poor performers. We see it all the time because good leadership is hard, and it’s easier to blame other people when things go sideways. In the NFL last season, two quarterbacks cast off by the teams who drafted them, Jared Goff and Sam Darnold, competed for the best record in the NFC with their new teams while the teams that cast them off (especially Darnold’s) are faring not so great.

I know you’ve had it with my sports metaphors by now, so I want to make clear that management should lead by investing in systems and structures that create a culture that allows people to enjoy flow state to deliver their best as a cohesive unit, a real team, rather than an assemblage of individuals. And when they do, compensate them.

Let’s refrain from stigmatizing individuals. Instead let’s figure out how managers can become leaders who will meet the moment.