Resource Management

TL;DR –

Resource management in scale-ups is hard, and there’s no magic wand. But piles of good accumulated data, and some standardised solutions and processes can get us most of the way there. Simples (right?)

Deep breath, and here we go –

In my experience, SaaS scale-ups often struggle with one or more of the following resource management challenges:

• Sales pipeline volatility. Ever heard “we are closing this bad boy next week” and never got to implement the solution for that client? Sales people are forever optimistic, and we love you guys for this, but please help us here.
• No trustworthy velocity metrics. For example, do we know how long will the next sprint take (how long is a piece of string), do we trust the answer that we get to this question? This happens when the data was not fully captured or when a newly assembled team starts working together.
• Projects overrunning. The reasons vary – scope creep, missing product capabilities, lack of resources, planning, client readiness…
• Internal cost pressures. This is a tricky one because we are all about reducing costs. Having said this, one impact is high utilisation and little to no bench of resources waiting for new work or to replace on existing projects.
• Knowledge silos. You know what I mean –  there are only two people in the organisation that can do a specific task, one is on leave and the other is assigned to a project with a higher priority.
• Not a full list…

Is it solvable? Yes, but it’s a journey. It requires data for dashboards, KPIs, and reports. Standardised processes across PS teams. An honest and trusting relationship with Sales, Product, Dev, others. And ongoing knowledge dissemination. No magic wand, but absolutely achievable with the right approach.