Agency Capacity Planner

A capacity model isn't enterprise resource management software. It's a spreadsheet's worth of clear thinking that prevents the most common ways agencies fall over — overcommitting to pipeline they expected to lose, sustaining burnout because no individual week looks bad, or turning down work that would have fit if anyone had checked the model first.

The skill uses productive hours, not total hours, because nobody does 40 hours of client work in a 40-hour week. The default is 30. It scores each person against four zones: under 60% (under-utilised, you're paying for slack), 60-80% (healthy with room for quality and surprises), 80-90% (full, watch carefully), and above 90% (quality drops, burnout risk, deadlines at risk). Then it stress-tests pipeline at three conversion rates — all closes, half closes, nothing closes — and flags which weeks and which roles break in each scenario.

Recommendations come with trigger conditions and dates, not "consider hiring." If Project X closes by 15 June, you need a freelance designer booked by 1 June. If utilisation stays above 85% across a role for six consecutive weeks, that's the PAYE hiring signal. The model also flags revenue concentration risk per person — which clients suffer first if someone leaves or goes on leave — so the planning doubles as a continuity check.

The skill refuses to fabricate team data. If you provide only headcount without project allocations, you get a blank template to fill in, not a fictional plan. Solo freelancers get the same model with different levers — scope reduction, deadline extension, or subcontracting in place of rebalancing. The output is one page that an agency owner can take into a Monday meeting and use.