This document provides a summary of the "Getting Started with Capacity Planning" Office Hours session, with timestamps to help you navigate to specific segments in the recording.
Overall purpose of the session: To introduce Fullcast users to the capacity planning features, demonstrating how to model headcount and quota to achieve revenue goals, and understand the inputs, outputs, and capabilities of the system.
Key Segments:
Introduction and agenda (00:01:23 - 00:02:20)
Welcome and introduction of speakers.
Overview of the session: demo of primary models, configuration, capabilities, and Q&A.
Setting the stage for capacity planning (00:02:44 - 00:04:37)
The core question: "How many reps do you need, and how much quota should you assign them to get to your revenue goals?"
Overview of key inputs: current headcount, seasonality, attrition, backfill time, average quota, attainment rate, ramp profiles.
Overview of outputs and the iterative process of tweaking inputs (e.g., adjusting ramp, attainment, quota, hiring plan).
Introduction to the Fullcast Platform and Scenarios Tab (00:05:39 - 00:06:56)
Orientation to the interconnected Fullcast platform (Plans, Capacity Models, Teams).
Navigating to the "Scenarios" tab for headcount planning and capacity modeling.
Explanation of using folders for different fiscal years and "what-if" scenarios.
Overview of Capacity Models (Scenarios vs. Models tab) (00:07:01 - 00:08:04)
Distinction between the "Scenarios" tab (holistic view with costs/revenues) and the "Models" tab (where capacity models are built).
Introduction to building up a capacity plan with smaller, interconnected models (Pipeline, Waterfall, GRR, Carried Quota, Effective Headcount).
Focus on the two primary models for capacity planning: Carried Quota and Effective Headcount.
Deep dive: Carried Quota model (00:08:04 - 00:11:17)
Purpose: Determines what quota to assign reps month-by-month and how many reps (in person-months) are needed.
Inputs:
Attainment factor.
Average monthly quota for a fully ramped rep (can be manual or derived from existing Fullcast data like targets and team headcount).
New revenue required (can be manual or distributed based on seasonality, referencing other metrics).
Outputs: Carried quota (what to assign) and required reps.
Deep dive: Effective Headcount model (00:11:21 - 00:16:36)
Purpose: Models current team, attrition, hires, and compares to required headcount to find gaps.
Inputs:
Current headcount (pulled from Teams module).
Attrition projection (can leverage HRIS integration for historical data).
Hire lead time.
Required effective headcount (output from the Carried Quota model).
Outputs: To-be-hires, to-be-replaced.
Details page (00:13:02):
Breakdown: Current heads (from Teams module reflecting org structure), attrition, replacement reps (offset by hire lead time), new hires (suggested to fill gaps).
Total headcount (current - attrition + hires).
Comparison to Required Headcount, leading to the "Gap."
Goal: Reduce the gap to zero or positive by adjusting new hire records (moving start dates).
Impact of ramp profiles on individual contributions (person-months).
Granularity and flexibility of models (00:16:36 - 00:18:48)
Models can be high-level (whole organization) or granular (specific regions like AMER, EMEA, or teams like Enterprise vs. Commercial).
Ability to have different revenue goals and models for different segments.
No limit to the number of models or scenarios that can be created.
Leveraging existing Fullcast data (00:19:25 - 00:20:15)
Reiteration that if Teams, Ramp Profiles, and Targets are already populated in Fullcast, much of the setup work for capacity planning is already done.
Example: Deriving average monthly quota from existing target assignments.
The power of assumptions and "lego block" approach (00:20:58 - 00:24:26)
Concept of building scenario plans by stacking models ("Lego blocks").
Using the "Assumptions" feature: Define variables (e.g., attainment rate, seasonality) in one place and reference them across multiple models.
Allows for easy tweaking of assumptions (e.g., changing attainment from 70% to 80%) and seeing propagation through all linked models.
Example: Stacking MQL costs, conversion rates to project revenue, then feeding that into the Carried Quota model.
Prerequisites for effective capacity planning (00:24:33 - 00:27:41)
Confirming the need for:
Teams module setup (structure, people allocated to teams).
Roles and associated Ramp Profiles.
Productivity Profiles (seasonality of business/revenue inflow, which can differ by role/segment).
Clarification on "Productivity" vs. "Quota" – productivity reflects expected actual generation considering attainment.
Ramp profile impact on productivity and revenue contribution (00:27:41 - 00:29:17)
Explanation of how a rep's ramp status (e.g., 50% ramped) translates to their expected productivity and quota attainment (e.g., expected to hit 50% of quota).
Demonstration of how individual rep contribution in dollars increases over their ramp period.
Data input sources (such as Workday integration) (00:29:24 - 00:30:51)
Discussion on using external data sources like Workday files for actual start/end dates of hires.
Current Workday integration is in beta/POC stage; customers interested should contact their CSM.
Future plans for more integrations to pull in data like attrition assumptions or expenses.
Handling manager quotas and over-assign (00:30:51 - 00:34:07)
Using the "Attainment Factor" and "Average Monthly Quota" in the Carried Quota model to build in buffer/over-assign (e.g., goal is $3M, but assigned quota is $4.1M due to attainment settings).
Separately, the Targets module can be used to craft manager quotas as a percentage of their team's roll-up.
Handling multiple quota types (00:34:07 - 00:37:18)
Capacity planning models primarily focus on a single primary revenue/headcount driver.
For tracking multiple comp plan items (e.g., ARR, variable, consumption), the Targets module allows creating targets on different metrics.
Distinction: Scenario Planner is more "tops-down" for headcount; Targets module is more "bottoms-up" for detailed quota setting against territories or people.
Possibility to build different capacity models referencing different target types for comparison.
Tips & tricks for Effective Headcount Details page (00:37:26 - 00:41:31)
Changing timeframes (quarterly, annually) for better views.
Managing changes: System detects changes (e.g., people moved in Teams module) and flags them (yellow circle) for deliberate action to add/remove TBHs/TBRs, rather than automatic changes.
Three-dot menu options:
Show/hide managers.
Move TBHs to specific territories/teams based on identified gaps.
Distribute TBHs/TBRs automatically based on metrics or equal distribution (person-based).
Building plans for different roles (e.g., CSMs) (00:41:36 - 00:43:24)
Yes, capacity plans can be built for CSMs or other roles with different rules/quotas.
Process is similar: use their specific "quota" (e.g., renewals, bookings), attainment, and ramp profiles to determine how many CSMs are needed.
Current limitations: territory/account-level data (00:43:41 - 00:45:00)
Important expectation setting: Currently, account-level information and territory potential are NOT integrated into the capacity planning module.
The focus is on linking Teams, quota (targets), and the capacity models.
Connecting territory potential to headcount planning is a recognized future direction.