Most of my freelance work has put me in the lead seat of a small team — three, sometimes five people — with a real deadline and a production launch at the end.
The temptation is to copy big-company process. Resist it. Small teams move on trust and clarity, not on ceremony. Pick the few practices that actually reduce risk and drop the rest.
Clean architecture is the cheapest insurance you can buy. MVC, clear boundaries, predictable naming — none of it is glamorous, but it's what lets three people work without stepping on each other.
Ship, then refine. A platform in production teaches you more in a week than a month of planning. The goal was never perfect — it was real, reliable, and live.