This is such a useful guide especially for those who have just been promoted to director or even senior management level. Increasing the team headcount is tricky, there's always a concern for culture changes but also whether it's a good investment. Bigger companies are often more apt to use this article too because they have more processes to make sure they can onboard new team members. For startup, it's a bit of a toss up as most of them often decide on ad hoc so I actually think they're more for the political momentum phase.
Indeed, this article is more suitable for medium to large companies. Startups operate on a different wavelength. However, in both cases, political momentum plays a role in staffing decisions. Also, startups tend to have a smaller investment budget for staff increases or training, which only strengthens the political side of these decisions.
Thank you for sharing this. I 100% agree, and it's even better when increasing your headcount is market driven, not customer driven.
Your intro about people reminds me one critical thing I learned the hard way : when you add one person to a team, you get a new, completely different team.
Having grown my engineering teams by up to 10x in less than 2 years, I found it the most challenging.
This is such a useful guide especially for those who have just been promoted to director or even senior management level. Increasing the team headcount is tricky, there's always a concern for culture changes but also whether it's a good investment. Bigger companies are often more apt to use this article too because they have more processes to make sure they can onboard new team members. For startup, it's a bit of a toss up as most of them often decide on ad hoc so I actually think they're more for the political momentum phase.
Thank you, Paola, for your kind words.
Indeed, this article is more suitable for medium to large companies. Startups operate on a different wavelength. However, in both cases, political momentum plays a role in staffing decisions. Also, startups tend to have a smaller investment budget for staff increases or training, which only strengthens the political side of these decisions.
Thank you for sharing this. I 100% agree, and it's even better when increasing your headcount is market driven, not customer driven.
Your intro about people reminds me one critical thing I learned the hard way : when you add one person to a team, you get a new, completely different team.
Having grown my engineering teams by up to 10x in less than 2 years, I found it the most challenging.
Having a 10x is definitely a brand new team on several iterations!
Market-driven opportunities can be a very interesting source for new projects, which could potentially allow for an increase in HC.
Thank you for your comment. It touches an interesting approach.