New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: How does your company determine headcount?
Ask HN: How does your company determine headcount?
2 by throwaway90990 | 1 comments on Hacker News.
How does your company determine headcount for engineering and product teams? Is it centrally controlled (say by the CTO), or distributed (say to engineering managers), or something in between? How is PM, designer, and UX researcher headcount determined? How are teams — and what they focus on — determined? What are the pros/cons of your approach? My situation: I work for a well-funded, high-growth company with roughly 200 employees, 20 engineers, 5 product managers, and 1 designer. Headcount decisions are all centrally planned by the CTO and CPO, with a degree of input from engineering managers and PMs about roadmaps and swags for “how long things will take.” The CTO and CPO take these inputs and map them onto “bi/annual objectives” — such as “grow monthly active users by X%.” If they feel the swags fall way short of the objectives’ appetite, they will increase headcount — after a song-and-dance with Finance. Pros: - There is a rational framework for engineering managers and PMs to influence headcount Cons: - Engineering managers and product managers do not have the power to acquire new talent into their teams to complement or supplement the skillset and competencies of the team to deliver better quality products; only velocity seems to count - Teams that are focused on business as usual tend to be penalized with understaffing or overwork because the objective-driven rubric has mostly prioritized new strategies and products - Finance is always the “bad cop;” there’s no budget that anyone is aware of (is this a real con?)
2 by throwaway90990 | 1 comments on Hacker News.
How does your company determine headcount for engineering and product teams? Is it centrally controlled (say by the CTO), or distributed (say to engineering managers), or something in between? How is PM, designer, and UX researcher headcount determined? How are teams — and what they focus on — determined? What are the pros/cons of your approach? My situation: I work for a well-funded, high-growth company with roughly 200 employees, 20 engineers, 5 product managers, and 1 designer. Headcount decisions are all centrally planned by the CTO and CPO, with a degree of input from engineering managers and PMs about roadmaps and swags for “how long things will take.” The CTO and CPO take these inputs and map them onto “bi/annual objectives” — such as “grow monthly active users by X%.” If they feel the swags fall way short of the objectives’ appetite, they will increase headcount — after a song-and-dance with Finance. Pros: - There is a rational framework for engineering managers and PMs to influence headcount Cons: - Engineering managers and product managers do not have the power to acquire new talent into their teams to complement or supplement the skillset and competencies of the team to deliver better quality products; only velocity seems to count - Teams that are focused on business as usual tend to be penalized with understaffing or overwork because the objective-driven rubric has mostly prioritized new strategies and products - Finance is always the “bad cop;” there’s no budget that anyone is aware of (is this a real con?)
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