Postman is a 700-person company that provides an API platform for developers. The company was growing rapidly, which made headcount management especially difficult.
As the Talent Acquisition Leader, Pavan worked closely with Yatin Mody, Head of Strategic Finance, to create and track the headcount plan. Yet, they encountered significant operational challenges.
Inefficient headcount processes affected forecasts
One of the most pressing issues was inefficient headcount tracking. Pavan's team relied on error-prone and outdated data in spreadsheets, which bogged them down and made it especially difficult to make informed hiring decisions.
For example, it was not uncommon for unplanned jobs to find their way onto the master headcount spreadsheet. The Talent team wouldn’t know exactly who added them or why, but in many cases, would still deliver against them before realizing they were unplanned.
This inefficiency made it really challenging to budget and forecast accurately.
“The downside of hiring somebody that is unplanned goes beyond just the budget. The other side is a chaotic and inefficient org structure.” –Yatin Mody, Head of Strategic Finance
Chaotic email approval chains led to uninformed hiring decisions
Compounding these difficulties was the non-collaborative approval process for hiring and budget adjustments, mainly conducted through email. This decentralized approach caused delays and a lack of transparency in decision-making, making it challenging for Pavan and Yatin to track and manage each request efficiently.
“I would get an email for a specific headcount add, but there was no context. I'd have to go down the email thread to see what really happened to make sure I understood the request so I could approve it.” –Yatin Mody, Head of Strategic Finance
Yatin essentially was relying on his memory of past approvals to help guide his decision to approve another role. Had he already approved a new Sales Engineer this quarter? What did the Sales organization look like at this point? All of this context was lost in an email exchange.
As a result, Postman faced departmental imbalances and budget overruns, which affected the entire organization when they had to do reorganizations. Reorgs are inefficient and force employees to work through unnecessary change, while creating a huge amount of work for HR and Finance teams.
“We discovered organizations that had grown in an unplanned way, as well as other areas that were under-resourced. We had to do reorgs, which are very expensive from a time management perspective,” said Yatin.
Siloed data and efforts
Additionally, there was a noticeable misalignment between departmental needs and available resources, complicating effective talent and financial management.
“People would add jobs to our master headcount plan spreadsheet seemingly at random. But we’d never notice that it was a net new add on a spreadsheet of hundreds of jobs. We’d just deliver on it. But it was never approved, it wasn’t in the budget or the forecast, and then we’d find it after the fact.” –Pavan Chatlapalli, Talent Acquisition Leader
The culmination of these challenges underscored the critical need for a solution that could streamline efficiency, ensure accuracy, and bring strategic coherence to Postman's headcount management process. Addressing these hurdles was essential for Postman to continue its trajectory of innovation and growth.
Most importantly, the solution had to be collaborative. It needed to be the single source of headcount truth for all stakeholders.
“The biggest issue with our process was that it was not collaborative. We relied on others, but we weren’t working together effectively. That was number one.” –Yatin Mody, Head of Strategic Finance
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