For many leaders, capacity planning has become the defining challenge of the year. Yet taking the first step is often the most difficult. Here's advice from the expert on how to start strong.
This year, leaders aren’t just talking about capacity planning – they’re treating it as mission-critical. But knowing where to begin is often the hardest part.
So in our recent webinar, we put David Binnings, Senior Director of Service Strategy and Operations at DocuSign, on the spot: If you had to build a capacity model from scratch, what would you do? His answer was packed with insight.
In line with David's explanation, here are five concrete steps to set your organization up for capacity planning success.
Too often, leaders focus exclusively on revenue-generating projects when justifying headcount. David warns:
A lot of times, people focus on the sales forecast but they miss out on other things, like if you have to do $0 work or there are many internal projects that are asked of the team. Even though you might not be generating revenue, there is still demand on resources, and that is often missed in a good capacity model.
Start by cataloging all sources of demand: backlog, sales forecast, and critically, internal or non-billable work. Use historical data to identify patterns and estimate time spent on internal projects.
➡️ Related: How to Forecast Resource Demand (Visual Guide)
Counting headcount isn’t enough. David highlights the importance of capturing skills data as well as resource numbers:
Just looking at headcount, a lot of people fall flat on the skills part of that, right? Not all resources are the same, so you need different skill sets for different things.
Maintain a practical, up-to-date list of essential skills in a central system – not in spreadsheets or people’s memories – to inform both your planning and staffing decisions.
➡️ Related:
Complexity ruins consistency. David advises:
Put it in a system. The second thing is to make the skills – the list of skills – the lowest level you staff to. If you get down to that level, then it’s much easier to keep those up to date so that you have accurate information.
Focus on tracking what truly matters for decision-making – not hundreds of skills, but the core 20–40 that drive project outcomes in your business.
➡️ Related: The 6 Skills Management Best Practices Your Business Needs
Resource management and finance must work hand in hand. David shares:
A key thing I didn’t mention earlier is a common mistake: requests for headcount fall flat because they’re not integrated with the finance teams.
Regularly engage your finance partners about how headcount is justified and modeled – don’t let them rely only on revenue formulas. Bring them evidence and context for the full breadth of demand your teams face.
➡️ Related: 4 Common Mistakes Leaders Make When Justifying New Headcount
Capacity planning is not a “set and forget” process.
Don’t look for perfection – if you can get 80% there, that’s a great goal. Just don’t get stopped in your tracks because you don’t have everything perfect, says David.
Start with the best model you can, track its accuracy, learn from what unfolds, and share these results with leadership. Over time, you’ll build a stronger, more trusted process that supports business agility.
