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Key Takeaways Break a proposed role into its recurring tasks and sort them into four categories — judgment, relationship, repetition and coordination — to determine whether you truly need to hire another person.
If the bottleneck is mostly judgment or relationship work, hiring or developing a person is probably the right answer. If the bottleneck is mostly repetition, test automation before adding permanent headcount.
If the bottleneck is mostly coordination, redesign the process first. If the job contains all three, separate the workflow so the human role is built around the work that deserves a human.
Before you approve the next hire, write down the 10 things you expect that person to do.
Not the job title. Not the qualifications. The actual recurring work.
Now separate the list into four categories: judgment, relationship, repetition and coordination.
That exercise has become one of the most useful ways I know to tell whether a growing company has a headcount problem or a workflow problem.
Headcount is an expensive default
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