I’ve always worked in relatively small teams, on fairly self-contained projects. And I’ve always taken pride in how lean everything was. No fluff. No red tape. Minimal process, just enough structure to keep things moving.
That didn’t mean we were sloppy, far from it. We shipped, we debugged, we delivered. It was just a highly fluid environment: no ceremonies, just checkpoints and a lot of hands-on problem-solving. Every hour felt like it was going into something meaningful. That kind of deep flow, being in the trenches all day, was addictive. And I genuinely loved it.
So, when I joined my new team, much larger, much more complex, and tightly bound by compliance, I’ll admit: I was worried.
Here, the dev org is split into cross-functional teams. The project is big. Really big. And process matters. A lot. Meetings, documentation, rituals, best practices, the whole Agile toolkit and then some. And for a developer who was used to just “grabbing a ticket and going,” this sounded like a bureaucratic nightmare.
Would I ever find my rhythm? Would I get buried in meetings and lose all sense of momentum?
Well… turns out I was wrong. Again.
Yes, the structure here is tighter. Sprint planning is thorough. There are more meetings on the calendar. But here’s the kicker: they’re good meetings.
No delays. No calendar chaos. No standups that spiral into hour-long tangents. Everything has a purpose, everything runs on time, and people respect the flow.
But what surprised me the most is how liberating it feels to work this way.
Because when the plan is clear, the expectations are aligned, and the unknowns are addressed before you dive in, you get to just… code. No last-minute context switches. No rabbit holes. No rewrites because someone forgot to mention a crucial detail. The structure removes friction, and in doing so, it amplifies focus.
It’s not about removing creativity. It’s about removing chaos.
Another unexpected upside: connection.
We’re a fully distributed team spread across Europe, but daily touchpoints — even the quick check-ins — help build a rhythm and a shared atmosphere. The occasional small talk, the sense of continuity, the awareness of who’s doing what, it makes a huge difference. Especially when you’re new. Especially when you’re remote.
This has been one of the biggest surprises since I joined. What I thought would slow me down has actually made me faster. Clearer. Less anxious. I can already tell this system fits my brain better than I expected.
Will I feel the same way in six months? Who knows. I’m sure I’ll spot some cracks as I go. But today, I’m writing this down as a reminder: not all structure is bad. Sometimes it’s the thing that makes growth sustainable.