Staff analysis for operators and leaders · 20–100 people

The bottleneck isn't you.

It's how the company is built. When you grow faster than your people, your structure, and your systems, everything routes back to the top. A Staff Analysis finds where it's breaking — and hands you the five moves that fix it.

Book a Staff Analysis See what you get →
Fixed scope·5 business days·One operator, not a consultancy
The operator bottleneck

If everything still runs through you, working harder won't buy you speed.

01

Every real decision routes back to your desk.

02

Two people own the same outcome — so it quietly belongs to no one.

03

The work lives in a few people's heads, undocumented.

04

You can't take a week off without the company holding its breath.

None of this is a discipline problem. It's how you're built — and that's the one thing you can actually redesign.

The Staff Analysis

A five-day read of how your company is built.

An operator-run diagnostic of how your organization is staffed and structured. It looks across three layers — where you're short or overloaded, who really owns and decides what, and whether the work is tooled and documented — and returns five role-level moves, ranked by what matters most.

It's a diagnostic, not a headcount forecast. It won't tell you how many people to hire — it tells you whether what you've built holds as you grow.

A clear path through an open landscape at first light
Layer 01 · People

Are the right people in the right places?

  • Staffing levels vs. the load
  • Key-person risk & single points of failure
  • Seat fit (role-level, never a name)
Layer 02 · Structure

Is the org built to move?

  • Spans and layers
  • Who owns what — gaps and overlaps
  • Where decisions route and stall
Layer 03 · Systems

Does the work run without you?

  • The right tools for your stage
  • Process documented or in people's heads
  • What breaks when you step back

The verdict → whether you're scale-ready, and the five moves to get there.

3 layers
People · Structure · Systems
5 days
Turnaround
5 moves
Ranked by impact
90 days
Sequenced plan
What you walk away with

A short, board-ready read — and the five moves that matter.

  • A scorecard across the three layers

    Red, amber, green — your whole org at a glance.

  • An annotated map of your org

    Where it's overloaded, where a seat is missing, where one's miscast.

  • Your Top 5 People Moves The headline

    Ranked by impact, role-level, ready to act on Monday.

  • A 90-day sequence

    What to do first, next, and after — in the right order.

Every recommendation is about roles and structure — never a verdict on a named person. You make the people calls, with a far clearer picture.

A path toward an open doorway, past structural shapes
The read, in one picture
Overloaded span Missing seat Holding
How it works

Four steps. No drawn-out engagement.

Step 01

Book & prepay

Lock your engagement. Founding cohort — limited slots.

Step 02

Intake & key staff interviews

A short structured intake, then focused conversations with you and the key people who run the work.

Step 03

We read the org

People, structure, systems. Five business days.

Step 04

You get the audit

The scorecard, the map, the five moves, the 90-day sequence.

Pricing

One fixed fee. No retainer, no surprises.

$3,500
Fixed scope · 5 business days
  • The full people / structure / systems read
  • Key staff interviews
  • An annotated org map + accountability matrix
  • Your Top 5 People Moves, ranked by impact
  • A 90-day sequence
Book a Staff Analysis
An operator working at the edge of an open landscape
Who runs it

Run by an operator, not a consultancy.

StaffAnalysis is Ben Surman — a former COO who helped scale a staffing company to a $52M exit, and now reads orgs for the people running them. No junior associates. No 80-slide deck. One operator, one read, and five moves you can act on.

Ben Surman · Balanced Company
Why this, instead

The fastest way to know what to fix.

Staff AnalysisManagement consultantFractional COOWait and see
Time to clarity5 business daysMonthsOngoing rampIt doesn't come
What you get5 ranked moves + a mapA deckHands on the workThe same bottleneck, bigger
Who does itA former operatorA team of associatesOne hire, slow startYou, still
Cost$3,500, fixedSix figuresMonthly retainerYour time and best people
Questions

The things operators ask first.

Is this a staffing analysis?

In plain terms, yes — it's a structured read of your staff and how your company runs. It's not a headcount-forecasting or skills-gap study; it won't tell you how many people to hire. It answers what actually keeps you up at night — are you short people where the load is heaviest, do your tools fit the stage you're at, is the work documented or living in a few people's heads, and who really owns and decides what.

Do you tell me who to fire?

No. The audit works at the level of roles and structure, never named people. You make the people decisions — with a much clearer picture of what each seat requires.

We're not a startup. Does this apply?

Yes. It's for any organization of roughly 20–100 — startups, agencies, services firms, nonprofits, portfolio and public-sector teams — run by whoever's accountable for how it works, founder or not.

What does it cost, and how long?

$3,500, fixed scope, delivered in five business days. That includes key staff interviews and the full read — no tiers, no retainer.

Five days from now, you'll know exactly what to change.

Stop being the bottleneck. Get the read, get the five moves, and get back to building.

Book a Staff Analysis Founding cohort — a limited number of engagements