Your organisation must double headcount in a year. What do you watch out for?

Summary

That effective capacity lags headcount because of ramp-up, onboarding and interviewing; that new teams need experienced engineers and managers; and that roadmaps follow a capacity model, not the hiring plan.

Longer Answer

Hire managers and leads early, grow teams by budding (grow to eight to ten, then split into two teams of four or five), plan interviewer and onboarding capacity explicitly, and re-forecast quarterly from measured ramp-up. Brooks's law reminds us that adding people to a late project usually makes it later.

Key Points

• Capacity lags headcount
• Managers first; grow by budding
• Roadmap from a capacity model

Deep dive: Headcount and Capacity Planning

What interviewers look for

Realistic scaling judgement.

Red flags

• Assuming output doubles with headcount
• Teams made only of new hires