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GPU Economics & Capacity Planning1 / 2

1 min lesson

Running the allocation forum

Use the lesson to respond to this: "In the allocation review, two teams want the same GPUs and both have strong cases. How do you run the decision without having authority over either team?" Keep the answer plain.

Step 1 of 2

Capacity decisions are not made in a spreadsheet. They are made in a room where ML and Infra leaders trade off whose work gets the GPUs - and the TPM owns that room.

This is where the role's whole thesis lands: influence without authority. You do not get to assign GPUs by fiat and you should not want to. You build the framework, run the forum and own the data, so the decision is made on evidence by the people accountable for it. The final political call belongs to leadership; the quality of the call is yours.

  1. 1Stand up the cadence. A recurring allocation review with ML and Infra leadership and one named decision owner - not a committee that diffuses accountability.
  2. 2Require evidence to request. Every capacity ask brings current utilization, projected demand and expected value; no narrative-only requests.
  3. 3Make tradeoffs explicit. Funding one team's GPUs is declining another's - surface the opportunity cost in the room, do not let it stay implicit.
  4. 4Decide and record. The owner calls it; you log the decision and its rationale in a living ledger.
  5. 5Revisit on real data. Next cycle, check whether the granted capacity got used as promised and claw back what did not.