org-planning
anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins
Plan headcount, org structure, and team design with benchmarks and hiring sequencing.
What is org-planning?
Helps design organizational structures, plan headcount needs, and optimize team composition. Use it when thinking about team size, reporting lines, hiring sequencing, or organizational redesign.
- Generate text-based org charts and team structures
- Model headcount requirements by role and timeline
- Calculate headcount costs and budget trade-offs
- Sequence hiring priorities and critical roles
- Identify structural issues like single points of failure or management overhead
- Apply healthy org benchmarks (span of control, IC-to-manager ratios, team sizes)
How to install org-planning
npx skills add https://github.com/anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins --skill org-planningHow to use org-planning
- 1.Describe your current team size, roles, and reporting structure
- 2.Specify your growth target (headcount, timeline, or business goals)
- 3.Provide any constraints (budget, hiring velocity, skill gaps)
- 4.Request an org chart, headcount plan, or structural analysis
- 5.Review the output for benchmarks and flag any structural risks
Use cases
- Planning headcount for a startup scaling from 20 to 50 people
- Redesigning reporting lines after a merger or acquisition
- Determining the right order to hire engineers, product, and operations roles
- Evaluating if a team is top-heavy or has excessive management layers
- Modeling cost impact of different org structures
- Founders and CEOs
- People/HR leaders
- Engineering managers planning team growth
- Operations and finance teams evaluating headcount budgets
org-planning FAQ
Span of control (5-8 direct reports), management layers (4-6 for 500 people), IC-to-manager ratio (6:1 to 10:1), and team size (5-9 people). It flags warning signs like < 3 or > 12 direct reports.
Yes. It produces sequenced hiring roadmaps that prioritize critical roles and determine the right order to build out teams.
Yes. It performs headcount cost modeling and helps evaluate trade-offs between different organizational structures.
Text-based org charts, headcount plans with timelines, cost models, and hiring roadmaps with structural risk flags.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from anthropics/knowledge-work-plugins.
name: org-planning description: Headcount planning, org design, and team structure optimization. Trigger with "org planning", "headcount plan", "team structure", "reorg", "who should we hire next", or when the user is thinking about team size, reporting structure, or organizational design.
Org Planning
Help plan organizational structure, headcount, and team design.
Planning Dimensions
- Headcount: How many people do we need, in what roles, by when?
- Structure: Reporting lines, span of control, team boundaries
- Sequencing: Which hires are most critical? What's the right order?
- Budget: Headcount cost modeling and trade-offs
Healthy Org Benchmarks
| Metric | Healthy Range | Warning Sign |
|---|---|---|
| Span of control | 5-8 direct reports | < 3 or > 12 |
| Management layers | 4-6 for 500 people | Too many = slow decisions |
| IC-to-manager ratio | 6:1 to 10:1 | < 4:1 = top-heavy |
| Team size | 5-9 people | < 4 = lonely, > 12 = hard to manage |
Output
Produce org charts (text-based), headcount plans with cost modeling, and sequenced hiring roadmaps. Flag structural issues like single points of failure or excessive management overhead.
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