Plan the team
Shape the team before you open a single req.
Each project type loads a starting shape: a handful of roles you can add to, remove, reorder and resize. It is a place to start editing, not a benchmark and not an industry norm. Everything runs in your browser and nothing you enter is stored or sent.
Your team board
What are you building?
Cloud migrationStarting shape, edit it
To reorder, focus the handle, press Space to pick up, use the arrow keys to move, Space to drop, Escape to cancel.
Card color and the label both show the engagement. A deeper stack behind a card means more than one person in that role.
Team size in your brief
Your team brief
Forward this. It rewrites as you edit.
| Role | People | Engagement | Start |
|---|
Send copies the brief to your clipboard and opens the contact page, so you can paste it into your message. Nothing leaves this page until you do.
How the team composer works
Start with the project type closest to yours. The board fills with four roles in a rough priority order. Treat that first shape as a sketch. Nobody measured it across hundreds of companies, and your project will differ from it, which is the point of the board.
Each card holds one role. Use the minus and plus buttons to set how many people you need in it, pick when you want them to start, and choose how you want to engage them. Drag a card by its handle to change the order, or use Move earlier and Move later. The order matters because the brief lists roles in it and names the first card as the first seat to fill. Add roles your project needs, and remove the ones it does not.
As you edit, the brief on the right rewrites itself. The phrase you just changed gets a pale blue sweep so you can see what moved. The headcount total, the split by engagement and the earliest start all come straight from your board. There is no hidden math and no assumed rates.
The four engagement types
| Engagement | What it means | When teams pick it |
|---|---|---|
| Contract | A specialist joins your project for the length of the work. | The work has an end date, or you need hands before you can open a headcount. |
| Contract to hire | The person starts on contract, and you can hire them onto your staff once you both know it fits. | You want to see the work before you commit to a permanent seat. |
| Direct hire | A permanent hire onto your payroll from day one. Direcstaff direct hire placements carry a 90 day replacement guarantee. | The role is core to how the team runs after the project ships. |
| Retained search | A dedicated search for one senior or hard to fill permanent role. | Leadership roles, or searches that need to stay quiet. |
What the tool does not do
It does not price the team, estimate a timeline or tell you the right size for your project. Those depend on your stack, your budget and the people you already have. If cost is the open question, run the numbers in the contract vs full time cost calculator. If timing is, work backward from the start date with the hiring timeline planner.
When the brief looks right, send it to us. Direcstaff presents the first candidate in 48 to 72 hours on average.