Podcast Ep 20 | Capacity Planning in an MSP

Capacity Planning Challenges in MSPs 05:22

• Managing time becomes challenging as the MSP team grows, balancing client-facing sales and actual service delivery.
• Growth can lead to unpredictability in workload distribution among engineers, making capacity planning more complex.
• Juggling client work, internal systems management, and proactive maintenance adds layers of difficulty to capacity planning.

"You're either selling or doing the work, and as the team grows, forecasting workload and balancing client needs with internal and proactive work becomes more challenging."

Implementing Pod Teams for Capacity Planning 08:16

• Breaking down the capacity planning issue into smaller, manageable components is essential.
• Introducing pod teams with designated pod leaders helps distribute responsibilities and streamline workflow.
• Pod leaders oversee various tasks within the team, enhancing coordination and efficiency in workload management.

"The approach of utilizing pod teams with designated leaders allowed us to break down the problem, assign responsibilities, and improve our capacity planning process."

Workload Planning and Role of Pod Leaders 08:54

• Pod leaders play a crucial role in workload planning by keeping track of their team's workload and ensuring they have a clear understanding of their team's availability for new assignments.
• The primary responsibility of pod leaders is to monitor the workload of their team members, enabling efficient assignment of tasks based on availability.
• "The primary thing as it relates to workload planning is that person is responsible for keeping the pulse on the workload of their team."

Having pod leaders allows for effective workload planning and distribution of tasks based on team availability.

Simplified Tracking System and Weekly Meetings 09:35

• Utilizing a weekly pulse system with a spreadsheet for each pod to input their workload data simplifies tracking and planning.
• Weekly meetings with pod leaders to review upcoming work based on the workload planner inputs ensure efficient task allocation.
• "We have a weekly meeting with the Pod leaders, we discuss upcoming work that's coming."

By streamlining data input and holding regular meetings, workload planning becomes more structured and ensures accurate task scheduling.

Client Communication and Flexibility 11:50

• The ability to adjust the next available slot weekly based on client needs and internal capacity enhances flexibility and client satisfaction.
• Flexibility in changing weekly numbers enables strategic allocation of resources based on current demands.
• "It allows you to be flexible enough...if you do get a window, the number can be changed weekly."

Flexibility in adjusting availability weekly ensures that client needs are met promptly, enhancing overall project management efficiency.

Utilizing ConnectWise for Capacity Planning 13:42

• ConnectWise serves as a fundamental tool for capacity planning, providing a reliable source of data for proactive obligations and budget management.
• The pre-assigned budgets in ConnectWise facilitate accurate capacity planning and resource allocation for proactive work.
• "ConnectWise...is our source of Truth for a lot of our data."

ConnectWise's role in capacity planning lies in providing accurate data for proactive obligations and budget management, ensuring efficient resource allocation.

Role of Pod Leaders in Communication and Project Management 16:30

• Pod leaders not only monitor workload capacity but also handle client communication and oversee elements of project management.
• Integrating project management responsibilities within the role of pod leaders ensures a holistic approach to workload planning and client engagement.
• "Pod leaders have a specific responsibility to keep a finger on the workload capacity...There's a bit of project management in that role."

Pod leaders serve a multifaceted role in workload planning, encompassing workload capacity monitoring, client communication, and project management responsibilities.

Capacity Planning and Team Structure 17:21

• The speaker currently serves as the pod leader or manager, but foresees the need for additional leadership as the team grows.
• Leveraging the structured approach allows him to optimize his time efficiently, but acknowledges the inevitability of requiring more management as the team expands.

"I can leverage my time a whole lot better because of the way we got it structured but eventually that'll get too big as well and then we'll have to put somebody in the middle of that."

Efficient Tool Management and Process Variation 17:43

• Admin time for managing the Excel tool is minimal, typically taking only 30 minutes weekly.
• Encourages autonomy among team members by giving them flexibility in approaching tasks, resulting in varied but successful methods of achieving the same goals.

"There were two of them; they went different directions on the same process and they came up with the same result, same quality, just different ways of doing it."

Project Quantity versus Active Hours 18:40

• Focuses on ensuring the appropriate allocation of active hours to projects rather than micromanaging the quantity of projects.
• Recognizes the impact of multitasking on productivity and prefers to limit engineers to handling a maximum of two projects at a time.

"I'm not really concerned about the number of projects. Although, you know, the more you have going on, the more context switching there is, and so there's other problems with having a large number of projects in your pipeline."

Diverse Work Allocation and Employee Satisfaction 21:42

• Emphasizes distributing different types of work among team members to maintain engagement and prevent monotony.
• Acknowledges the need for variety in tasks to prevent declining employee satisfaction and to keep the team motivated.

"Employee satisfaction goes down significantly if they're doing exactly the same thing every single day. Fortunately, we have a nice variety of work that needs to get done."