# Marcus Delgado, Director of Operations at Thornfield Creative — read of Capacity Planner AI, May 7 2026

> 11 years in agency ops, currently keeping 28 people from overcommitting themselves to death at a brand and digital studio in Denver.

## How I got here

I Googled "agency capacity planning tool not spreadsheets" last Thursday after our third project in two months slipped because we didn't catch the bottleneck until the PM was already screaming. Found a Reddit thread on r/agency where someone mentioned this alongside Runn and Float. I have tabs for all three open right now. This one had the cleanest URL so I clicked it first.

## What I clicked first

"Stop over-committing projects. Stop missing revenue. Stop guessing." That hero line is basically the exact words I used in a Slack message to our CEO four days ago. So I kept reading. The subhead pulled me in too: "forecasts your team's available hours, skills, and availability so you can take on the right work at the right time." That's the actual sentence. That is the problem. I stayed.

## Where I paused

The "See Your Capacity in 30 Seconds" section. Specifically this: "Upload your team data or connect your tools. Capacity Planner immediately shows you available hours, skill gaps, and how many projects you can safely take on." I paused because "how many projects you can safely take on" is a strong promise. That's not just a calendar view. That's a judgment call. I want to know what model that's based on. What does it use to define a "project"? Our projects range from a $4k logo refresh to a $200k site build. If it's treating those the same, the forecast is worthless.

## What I distrusted

"Join 200+ service firms using Capacity Planner." That number is doing a lot of work. 200+ could be 201. It doesn't say active users, paying customers, or firms that have been using it for more than 30 days. I've seen SaaS landing pages hit 200 during a free trial launch month and then churn 80% of it. No logos. No named companies. No testimonials with a person's name and title. Just the number floating there. That specific gap is a yellow flag.

Also: "Most teams are forecasting in under 10 minutes." I've heard that from every tool I've ever evaluated. Runn said the same thing. It took us three days to get accurate data in because we had to clean up four years of Harvest project tagging. I'd need to know what "connect your integrations" actually means when your data is a mess.

## What would convince me

One case study from a creative or brand agency specifically, not a dev shop or consulting firm, where the before/after is in hours reclaimed or projects scoped correctly. I want a number like "we used to overbid by 20% on projects over 6 weeks. After 60 days with this tool, that dropped to 4%." That kind of specificity. I also want to see what the actual interface looks like when you have skill overlap. My designers do both UX and brand work. Does it distinguish? A screenshot showing a real-looking team with mixed roles would help more than any copy on this page.

## What I'd ask in an email reply

1. When the AI forecasts how many projects we can take on in 30/60/90 days, what inputs drive that model? Is it hours-remaining on active projects, or does it factor in project type, team velocity, or something else?

2. We use Harvest and Asana but our project naming is inconsistent across both. What does the setup experience look like if our existing data isn't clean?

3. Can you show me a demo with a team that has generalists, not just specialists? Most of my team wears two or three hats and I want to know if your skill-matching logic handles that or breaks.

## Verdict: on-the-fence

The problem statement is exactly right and the pricing is not crazy for what it's promising. But there is nothing on this page that proves it works the way they say it does, and the 200+ firms claim without a single named customer makes me squint. I'd book a demo if I see a real case study somewhere, probably on their blog or LinkedIn. Right now I'm going to look at Float next.

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*Memo by skeptic persona, generated 2026-05-07. Studio breaks own self-grading loop.*