      onlycfo.io · 2025-04-07
      · 422d
    

How I Do Headcount Planning

A comprehensive guide to annual headcount planning that emphasizes aligning organizational structure with financial targets, categorizes planning by capacity-driven (GTM, support, implementation) and calendar-driven (R&D, G&A) roles, and advocates for zero-based headcount reviews before relying on benchmarks. The article addresses common mistakes like organizational debt, over-reliance on benchmarking, and poor employee retention during cutdowns.

3 metrics· Cited 0× in the knowledge base ·Open source ↗

Metrics in this report

Marketing Budget per AE

450000USD

Mentioned in comments as an interesting tracking metric for well-supplied demand

Marketing Spend to Sales Ratio

1/3ratio

Rule of thumb cited as common but not universally applicable

Sales Engineer to Account Executive Ratio

1:2ratio

Common benchmark cited but author recommends building from first principles