Do you really need a full-time hire for that?

I have the opposite problem - or more accurately, it's the opposite face of the same problem: same issues, opposite approach. I have a lot of different tasks that I would like to hire someone(s) to do, but nowhere near enough work to make it worth the overhead and inefficiencies of doing so.<p>As such, I end doing the mail, finance, support calls (omg, the support calls and emails!), etc. for our startup, and can only hope to weather it out until the amount of work becomes enough to make it actually worth hiring someone.<p>The real problem is that a lot of it is very domain-specific. This isn't generic stuff that can be freelanced - it's ongoing work that'll take up an hour of my (your) day and requires intimate familiarity with the how and what of our day-to-day routine and products. I still outsource/contract stuff like design work and other "parcelable" jobs, but most of the drudgery will remain on my shoulders until the problems outlined in TFA are no longer applicable for me.

I consider using outside resources a great strategy. Having an influential agency on your side rather an a full time designer can mean connections that wouldn't have happened otherwise.<p>It also keep the focus on projects with a beginning and an end. FTE's are great for somebody that represents a core function of the business. In my services company we have 6 of them, end everybody is at 95-100% capacity and bought into what we're doing. Adding even one more person though can be treacherous, especially when building a product.<p>The article is right, users will let you know endlessly about how to fix the UI, you don't need some UI god to figure that out before you have something built.

One problem with this idea is that most quality people aren't going to want to work as contractors part-time. Now if the work you need to do is not particularly hard or you don't need it done particularly well then this might work.

My thoughts exactly. Be smart with your hires.