Testimony during the ongoing legal battle between Samsung and Apple has revealed that the two companies have very different product development styles. Whereas Samsung employs over 1, 000 people to help design its wares, Apple leaves its design decisions to a handful of engineers who meet weekly around a kitchen table.
三星（Samsung）与苹果（Apple）之间的诉讼尚在进行当中，呈堂证供向我们揭示，这两家公司的产品开发风格截然不同。三星的产品设计队伍有1,000多人，而苹果却是让少数几个每周在餐桌旁聚会的工程师来决定产品设计的。
The 15 industrial designers Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) employs come from the U.S., U.K., Australia and Japan. It was in these pow-wows that products such as the iPhone and iPad were designed.
苹果聘请的这15位工业设计师来自美国、英国、澳大利亚和日本， iPhone和iPad这些苹果产品就是在他们的定期聚会中设计而成的。
According to an Apple engineer, the small group of engineers is headed by Sir Jonathan Ive.
据一位苹果工程师称，这个小团队的带头人是乔纳森·埃维爵士（Sir Jonathan Ive）。
And why shouldn’t big decisions be made by a small group of thoughtful, committed tech designers? Indeed, there is something to be said for having feedback from a great number of smart people – less of a possibility that certain details might fall through the cracks, etc. – but a large number of decision makers submitting input and opinion can both slow down the process of coming to a final design for production, and weigh the product down with too many features in the hope of making everybody happy or trying to think of everything. Think about your local diner: there are many things on the menu, sure, and some of them are pretty good (always go with breakfast at a diner) but how many of the items are really great?
为什么那些重大的决定就不能由一小组思考周密、全心投入的科技产品设计师做出呢？的确，从很多聪明人那里获得反馈意见是有好处的——这有助于减少某些细节遭到忽视的情况发生——但如果提供意见和观点的决策者人数太多，则不仅可能延缓敲定产品最终设计的进程，也可能因为怀着取悦所有人或面面俱到的愿望添加太多功能，从而令产品不堪重负。想象一下你当地的餐厅，那里的菜单上肯定有很多菜式，其中一些非常不错（往往是早点），但又有几个称得上真正非常棒的呢？
Another positive aspect of a smaller, more manageable team is that conflicts are there, out in the open. There is no possibility of hiding amongst the crowd, forming cliques that can stymie teamwork and ultimately be destructive to the group’s overall goal.
精干、好管理的团队的另一个积极方面在于，团队里的冲突是公开透明的。在这样的团队中不可能有所隐藏，而拉帮结派是团队合作的绊脚石，并最终会破坏整体目标。
A smaller team also makes it possible for a leader to look into the eyes of everyone that reports to him/her and see whether the understanding is there, that all the pieces of a task are coming together and everyone is on the same page. Great teams are packed with individuals who are focused on moving forward and breaking new ground. That’s a fantastic thing, but the end goal has to be the aim and the leader’s job is to keep the boat going in the right direction while setting priorities.
另外，较小的团队规模也让领导者有可能去了解每名属下的想法以及他们是否理解团队合作，即一项任务的每一个环节都要联系在一起，而所有人都要形成共同的认识。伟大的团队离不开那些专注于向前进发和开拓新领域的个人，这些品质非常好，但个人的最终目标必须跟团队的目标一致，而团队领导者的任务就是在设定优先事项的同时把握好前进方向。
What are some other upsides or downsides of having a lean and mean design or business team? Do smaller teams, like the one working on Apple’s products, put themselves at any kind of risk by limiting their numbers?
组建一支精干的设计或商业团队的优缺点还有哪些呢？那些规模较小的团队——比如苹果的产品设计团队——限制自身人数的做法是否存在风险呢？
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