Prior research on how to design collaboration networks among scientists, engineers, and strategists surprisingly predicts that inefficient networks that slow down the rate of collaboration will lead to better performance on complex problems. However, empirical research has provided mixed evidence for these ideas. Here, we test this theory using an online Data Science Competition that experimentally manipulates the network efficiency of teams working on a complex problem. The results support the idea that less efficient collaboration networks increase collective performance on complex problems. The results have important implications for designing problem-solving teams in numerous domains.