flâneur

Benchmarking. | Irrational Exuberance

lethain.com · 653 words · saved by 1 readers

Many of the most important questions for running an organization don’t have clear answers. In most engineering organizations, both the teams working on infrastructure and the teams working on product feel they are undersized. It’s also true that most individuals feel they are undercompensated. In the boom times, there is often enough investor money laying around to say yes to all these questions, but many leaders are acutely learning the long-term costs of expanding our budget too far. While there is no perfect way to answer these questions, the best way to answer them is benchmarks. By collecting a reasonable set of data points, you can understand where similar companies operate, and ensure that you either operate in a similar location or have a clear rationale for choosing a different spot. Here are some concrete benchmarking examples from my work over the past couple months: It’s easy to lean too heavily on benchmarks by believing that they answer questions: they don’t really do tha

Many of the most important questions for running an organization don’t have clear answers. In most engineering organizations, both the teams working on infrastructure and the teams working on product feel they are undersized. It’s also true that most individuals feel they are undercompensated. In the boom times, there is often enough investor money laying around to say yes to all these questions, but many leaders are acutely learning the long-term costs of expanding our budget too far. While there is no perfect way to answer these questions, the best way to answer them is benchmarks. By collec

related reading