<aside> 📋 Frequency: Weekly | Time: 15 min | Trigger: Every Monday, immediately after pipeline review

</aside>

Capacity surprises are a design failure. When you don't know your available bandwidth against your current and incoming client load, you either over-commit and under-deliver, or you under-commit and leave revenue on the table. This SOP runs immediately after your Weekly Pipeline Review — using the pipeline data you just produced — to give you a current capacity picture before the week starts.

Prerequisites

• SOP complete: Weekly Pipeline Review — this SOP runs immediately after and uses the pipeline close probabilities and stage counts from that output
• Your active client roster with engagement type, estimated weekly hours per client, and projected end dates
• Your calendar for the next 4 weeks visible — including any personal commitments, travel, or blocked days that reduce available working hours

Procedure

1. Note your total available working hours this week after accounting for meetings, admin time, and any blocked calendar. This is your actual capacity — not a theoretical maximum.
2. Run the Capacity Planner skill with your current client load (hours per client per week), available hours, pipeline close probabilities from your completed Weekly Pipeline Review, and projected engagement end dates as input.
3. Review the output for current utilization rate, bench-time windows in the next 4-6 weeks, and any over-commitment risk if pipeline deals close on their current timeline.
4. If utilization is above your target ceiling, identify which commitment is most flexible — a deliverable timeline, a meeting cadence, or a pipeline deal's proposed start date — and adjust before the week is in motion.
5. If a bench-time window opens in the next 4-6 weeks and pipeline depth is insufficient to fill it, flag it now for accelerated outreach this week. A visible gap at 4 weeks is manageable. At 1 week it's a problem.
6. Record this week's utilization rate and any action items in your weekly log. The capacity snapshot feeds directly into the pipeline decisions surfaced in the Weekly Pipeline Review.

Expected Outcome

You'll have a current utilization rate, a 4-6 week capacity forecast, and a clear decision on whether to accelerate pipeline activity, adjust a commitment, or hold the current plan — all resolved before the week's client work begins.

<aside> ⚠️ Common mistakes:

— Running the capacity update without first completing the Weekly Pipeline Review. The two SOPs share data — pipeline close probabilities feed the capacity forecast. Running capacity planning against stale pipeline numbers produces a forecast you can't trust.

— Treating the capacity forecast as informational rather than decisional. Knowing you're at 95% utilization with two deals likely to close is only useful if you act on it. Every capacity update should produce at least one decision — even if that decision is to hold the current plan.

</aside>