# Case: support for the summer with two people > Use last summer's ticket mix to plan August with two coordinators on shift: forecast the load, choose the structure, decide who decides, and run a pre-mortem. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: Decisions and team structure - Lesson 28/32, ~37 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/summer-with-two-people-case ## Two people on shift **Alex Tutor:** Third week of July. So far July has been fine. Iryna wants the August plan before the vacation weeks pile up. **Iryna:** One page by Friday: how Support runs in August with you and two coordinators on shift. Structure, who decides what, risks. Last August we barely coped, and we've grown since. **Sofia:** I have last summer's ticket mix and this June's. Where do I start? **Alex Tutor:** With load against capacity. The rule: each coordinator on shift has 30 ticket hours a week, you have 8, as in your target week. A month counts as four weeks: (2 × 30 + 8) × 4 = 272 hours. **Alex Tutor:** Start with the easy number. What's the monthly capacity? > **Exercise:** Capacity rule: each coordinator on shift has **30 ticket hours a week**, the lead **8**, and a month counts as **four weeks**. How many ticket hours does Support have in a month with the lead plus **two coordinators** on shift? **Dataset (CSV):** [Support ticket mix: June–August 2026 and June 2027](https://productovi.com/datasets/from-specialist-to-manager/summer-with-two-people-case/klasna-ticket-mix-summer.csv) Tickets by month, subject and channel. Handling minutes are the total time spent on those tickets, follow-ups included. After-hours tickets arrived outside the Kyiv shift (09:00–18:00). - `month`: Year and month - `subject`: scheduling, payments_and_refunds, video_and_tech, packages_and_club or teams_corporate - `channel`: chat or email - `tickets`: Tickets that month - `handling_minutes`: Total minutes spent on those tickets - `after_hours_tickets`: Tickets that arrived outside 09:00–18:00 Kyiv time **Alex Tutor:** June to June, handling hours grew 15.95%: from 288.67 in June 2026 to 334.7 in June 2027. Tickets grew 15%, from 860 to 989. **Alex Tutor:** Scale last summer by that growth. Start with August. > **Exercise:** Forecast the **handling hours for August 2027**: August 2026 handling hours scaled by the June-to-June growth in handling hours (+15.95%). Round to two decimals. ## July fits, August doesn't **Sofia:** 312.77 against 272. August is 40.77 hours over, about 10 a week. **Alex Tutor:** And July: 186.58 × 1.1595 = 216.34, with 55.66 to spare. Planned on last year's raw numbers, August would have looked fine: 269.75, just under 272. **Alex Tutor:** Why August? Payment, refund and package tickets: 200 in July 2026, 390 in August. Families buy before the September restart. **Alex Tutor:** And payment tickets are long. Work out their share of August 2026 handling minutes. > **Exercise:** In August 2026, what share of all **handling minutes** went to **payments_and_refunds** tickets (both channels)? Round to two decimals. ## A structure for two **Alex Tutor:** 22.52% of August tickets, 38.49% of the minutes. Scheduling is the reverse: 28.48% of tickets, 16.96% of minutes. **Alex Tutor:** So what do those two shares mean for the plan? > **Exercise:** In August 2026, payments and refunds were **22.52% of tickets** but **38.49% of handling minutes**; scheduling was 28.48% of tickets and 16.96% of minutes. What does this mean for the August plan? **Alex Tutor:** Split by channel? Chat brings 64.9% of tickets. A chat person and an email person would be lopsided, and one family's payment story would bounce between them. **Alex Tutor:** Split by subject? With two people and rotating vacations, a payments specialist is gone half the month. **Olha:** And refund exceptions: when I'm on vacation, someone on shift has to decide them. Inside the policy, with a limit. > **Exercise:** In August two coordinators are on shift (vacations rotate), chat brings 64.9% of tickets, payment and refund tickets take 38.49% of handling minutes, and Olha, who decides refund exceptions, will be away part of the month. Which structure fits best? ## Closing the gap **Alex Tutor:** Now the 40.77 hours. Several options, not one answer: you take more ticket hours in August, a set number; stagger the last vacation weeks so three people are on shift; ask Iryna for temporary help; cut minutes on the long tickets. **Alex Tutor:** Cutting minutes: a clear payment-and-package help page with the product team before mid-August, and AI drafts for scheduling and package questions, with refund replies written by hand. **Sofia:** If I take 10 more hours a week myself, that's 18 hours of tickets. Isn't that January all over again? **Alex Tutor:** It's a risk to name, not a ban: capped, for four weeks, with an end date. In January it had no cap and no end. And vacations move only if the people agree. **Alex Tutor:** Several options, then. Which of these would you actually put on the page? > **Exercise:** August is about 40.77 hours over capacity. Which are **real options** to close the gap? Choose all that apply. > **Exercise:** Which parts of the August plan need **Iryna's approval**, rather than the lead's own decision after consulting the team? Choose all that apply. ## Mode and pre-mortem **Alex Tutor:** Decision mode: the structure is yours, after consulting the two on shift and Olha. It's reversible, so trial it from Monday 2 August and review on the 16th. **Alex Tutor:** Then the pre-mortem: it's 31 August and the month went badly. Ask the three of them to write why, alone, before you share your own list. **Olha:** My guess: on a Monday morning the payments owner was also the only one on chat. **Alex Tutor:** Turn that into a check: the payments owner never covers the morning chat alone. Specific, checkable, cheap. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** to save time, the lead can write the pre-mortem risks alone and present them to the team for comment. ## Your plan **Iryna:** Friday, one page. If it involves money, I'll read it with Hanna. **Alex Tutor:** Cover the structure, who decides what, how you close the August gap, the pre-mortem with checks, what Iryna approves, and the review date. Numbers where they matter. **Sofia:** And after-hours? A quarter of last summer's tickets arrived outside 09:00–18:00. **Alex Tutor:** 25.15% last summer, 38.24% of emails. Your late-shift trial from earlier this month is part of the answer. **Alex Tutor:** And plan for the two people on shift: they carry more than usual. Breaks and days off are part of the plan, not an afterthought. > **Exercise:** Write your one-page August plan for Support with two coordinators on shift. > **Key ideas** > > - Plan load against capacity in hours, not tickets, and scale last year by this year's growth: August 2027 needs about 312.77 hours against 272, while last August unscaled (269.75) would have looked fine. > - Look inside the mix: payments and refunds are 22.52% of August tickets but 38.49% of the minutes; chat brings 64.9% of tickets; a quarter arrive after hours. > - With two people on shift and rotating vacations, a shared pool with named rotating roles (a daily payments owner, evening cover) beats a split by channel or by subject. > - Close a gap with real options and their costs: capped lead hours with an end date, fewer minutes per ticket, temporary help, vacations moved only by agreement. > - Name who decides what (refund limits and money go to Iryna), trial the structure as a reversible decision, and run a pre-mortem whose reasons become checks and triggers. **Alex Tutor:** That's July. In August the team runs the plan, and you turn to the people: coaching, fair evaluations, and a team that can run without you. - Previous lesson: [Structuring a small team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/structuring-a-small-team.md) - Next lesson: [Coaching conversations](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/coaching-conversations.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.