How to survive and stay the course: hints for (very) small teams

Running a tech product with a small team can feel like juggling on a unicycle during an earthquake. At imgproxy, we know this feeling since we're a compact team building an image processing engine used by some of the biggest platforms out there. We managed to elaborate some hacks that help us punch far above our weight and stay balanced.

1. Ruthless prioritization

When you can’t do everything, you need to be deadly serious about what actually matters. We evaluate everything based on impact vs. effort. Features that aren't urgent or differentiating? They wait. Maintenance work that prevents future fires? That goes to the top.

Tip: Use a lightweight system like the ICE framework (Impact, Confidence, Effort) to align your team without drowning in spreadsheets.

2. Invest in “boring” infrastructure

A wise man said, "Keep it simple, stupid." We follow this principle in both imgproxy itself and the infrastructure serving it. Your website can be fully static without a backend? Make it fully static. You need to launch a couple of Docker containers? Just launch a couple of Docker containers, don't involve Kubernetes in this. Make your infrastructure complex when you need it complex; don't overengineer at the very start. Your infrastructure should serve you, not the other way around.

3. Say no. A lot.

This applies to planning features, meetings, integrations, and possible partnerships. Default to "no" unless there's a clear reason to say "yes." Focus is your best friend when your calendar and bandwidth are already maxed out.

In many cases, unfortunately, it will be a “no” for your potential clients. A good example here is our tough decision not to accept signups for our trials from email addresses with “gmail” domains. The signup form automatically rejects them; only corporate addresses are valid for submitting.

Sounds harsh, but we realized we spent hours and hours sorting out applications from free domains, and guess what? We got zero leads from them at the end.

4. Let your product do the talking

We don't have a sales team. Our product and docs are our front line. Invest in good documentation, clear onboarding, and responsive support. If people can get to "wow" without emailing you – that's the dream.

5. Build internal tools like you build your product

Don’t skimp on internal UX. Spending a couple of days on a tool that saves you 10 minutes daily will save you weeks in the long run. Clean dashboards, good visibility, and automation — these are force multipliers for small teams.

A good example in our case is a pretty simple interface to the license server where a user can create a password to access the Pro version, or add another collaborator, or see what their usage is, how it's changing, how many workers (our unit of measurement for pricing) they're using. Without sending us dozens of emails with the same questions.

6. Document everything

When you're small, your strength is the ability to move fast. But you also forget things fast. Write things down — decisions, configs, deployment instructions. You’ll thank yourself the next time someone is on vacation or is busy onboarding new clients.

Do you think we are perfect at that? I have to admit, we often forget to do it…

7. Build with your community

If you’re building in the open, your community can be an incredible source of insights, ideas, and feedback. Your users often notice edge cases, suggest improvements, and share your tool with others. Create space for those conversations — and stay engaged.

8. Don’t hesitate to ask for help

If you have friends with expertise you lack and they’re willing to help — don’t be shy about it. Do they want to contribute to your product? Let them! Do they know people you’d love to meet? Ask for an introduction. Do they have invaluable advice? Listen closely. (For example, we got some great input from our friends at Evil Martians.)
Asking for help can be a powerful lever — but it’s not a free win. You may get extra hands or ideas, but you’ll still need to invest time in onboarding and coordination. And even the most well-meaning contributors won’t have the same deep context as you do.

9. Stop the meeting madness

There is a popular approach to cutting down on meetings. And although I cannot claim to have nailed it perfectly, we do our best to reduce the number of meetings between team members (although we work from different countries).

For instance, we have just one team meeting per week, and we discuss everything we can there: new signups, clients, marketing, and releases. We do all the rest async, saving time for more critical work.

Being a small team isn’t a limitation — it’s a forcing function for clarity and focus. With the right mindset and tools, you can get things done faster and make your investor a little bit happier. And sometimes, you even get to sleep at night.