Administration
When the team grows from five to fifty
What worked with five people stops working, and gives no warning.
With five people everything works with nothing configured: everyone sees everything, everyone can do anything, and if something goes wrong you talk it out. That model holds up to a point and then stops working without warning — usually between fifteen and twenty-five people.
The signs you are no longer five
| Sign | What is happening |
|---|---|
| Someone deletes something by accident | Too many people with delete permission |
| Nobody knows who owns a case | No owner, and with five it was not needed |
| People ask on chat who did what | The log exists, but nobody uses it yet |
| A colleague sees something they should not | Teams need separating |
| There are seven administrators | Nobody feels responsible for anything |
Important
None of these signs is a tool failure: they are the five-person model applied to twenty-five. And none resolves itself, because individually each looks like an isolated case.
The order to fix it in
- 1
Reduce to two administrators
Fastest, and removes the most risk. Half an hour.
- 2
Remove delete permission from whoever does not need it
Almost nobody needs it daily, and it does the most damage.
- 3
Give cases an owner
One per case, by name. It is what prevents dead cases.
- 4
Separate into teams if something should not be seen by all
And only then: splitting before it is needed gets in the way.
Watch out
Do not do it all in one day or without warning. Removing permissions without explaining why reads as distrust, and people remember that longer than the improvement lasts.
Worth knowing
The natural moment is when someone new joins and you do not know what permissions to give them. That doubt is the signal: it means there is no longer one profile that fits everyone.
›When exactly is the right time?
There is no magic number. The signal is doubt about a new joiner's permissions.
›Can it be reversed?
Yes, everything adjusts. But explain changes rather than making them silently.
›What if we grow very fast?
Then start with two administrators and delete permission; the rest can wait.
A real case
The situation
A company grows from 8 to 30 people in a year and everyone is still an administrator.
What you do
- Reduces to two administrators
- Removes delete permission from 26 people
- Explains why at the team meeting
What you get
Accidental deletions disappear without anyone experiencing it as distrust.
The situation
What worked with five people breaks with fifty.
What you do
- Reviews permissions and structure as it grows
What you get
The organisation keeps up with the team.
The situation
Everyone is still an administrator.
What you do
- Adjusts roles to the job
What you get
Access stops being general.
The situation
Nobody knows who handles what.
What you do
- Assigns owners per process
What you get
Requests reach somebody.
The situation
Each department builds its own templates.
What you do
- Unifies what repeats
What you get
Improvements reach everyone.
The situation
Onboarding new people is done by hand every time.
What you do
- Defines an onboarding process
What you get
Growth does not consume a person.
This article answers
- organising the platform as the team grows
- everyone is an administrator and we are now many
- reorganising permissions in a growing company
- scaling document management