Work handoffs
Work handoffs: passing a task without losing the thread.
A handoff is the moment a piece of work changes hands. It is also where most projects lose time, because the tool records a new assignee but not the fact that responsibility moved. This is how Relay treats it instead.
A good handoff changes who has the ball, and the project notices.
Definition
What a work handoff actually is.
A work handoff is a deliberate transfer of responsibility for moving a piece of work forward, from one person to another, with enough context that the next person can start.
Four things should be true afterwards: it is obvious who has the ball, the context travelled with the work, the project's state changed, and the sender can see that it landed. Most tools guarantee only the first, and only partly.
- Responsibility moves
- One named person now owns the next step.
- Context travels
- The work carries why it moved, not a chat thread.
- The project updates
- The handoff is the status change.
- The sender can see it
- It shows as waiting until it is picked up.
Why it breaks
Reassignment is not a handoff.
Changing an assignee field is a data edit. It does not tell the recipient that something is now theirs, it does not tell the sender whether it was seen, and it leaves the project's status to be updated separately by hand.
So teams compensate in chat: a message explaining the change, a follow-up asking if it was picked up, and a status update written later for a board. Three artefacts for one event.
Pass
One action that does all four things.
In Relay you pass the work. Ownership moves to the recipient, the work leaves your list and appears in their Needs you, the reason travels with it, and the project records the handoff. While it is unopened it sits in your Waiting, so you can see it has not been picked up yet — and take it back if you need to.
Tuesday, September 8
Good morning, Maya.
Here’s what needs you, what you chose, and what is moving with someone else.
Needs you
2Packaging feedback
Spring launchSarah requested changesback with you
Today
2Campaign brief
Fall launchMaya planned this for todaydue Friday
MSNewsletter draft
LifecycleMaya planned this for todaydue today
Waiting on someone else
2Homepage copy
Website refreshMaya owns itSarah has it for review
Upcoming
2Q3 campaign brief
LifecycleMaya owns itnot planned for today
Maya owns the campaign brief and planned it for today.
Not the same thing
Passing, reviewing, and asking are different moves.
Collapsing these three into one "assign" action is what makes project history unreadable. Relay keeps them separate, because they answer different questions about who is accountable.
- Pass
- Ownership moves. The next person is accountable.
- Send for review
- The reviewer has it; you are still the owner and it comes back.
- Ask a team
- No owner yet. Ownership begins when a person accepts.
My Work
Both sides of a handoff show up honestly.
The recipient sees it under Needs you, because something genuinely waits on them. The sender sees it under Waiting on someone else, because they still care about it but do not have the ball. Neither person has to ask.
Tuesday, September 8
Good morning, Maya.
Here’s what needs you, what you chose, and what is moving with someone else.
Needs you
2Packaging feedback
Spring launchSarah requested changesback with you
Approve photography selects
Brand libraryAlex sent it to you for review
Today
2Newsletter draft
LifecycleMaya planned this for todaydue today
Event run-of-show
Summer offsiteMaya planned this for todaydue Friday
Waiting on someone else
2Homepage copy
Website refreshMaya owns itSarah has it for review
Upcoming
2Q3 campaign brief
LifecycleMaya owns itnot planned for today
Best practices
How to hand off work well, in any tool.
Most handoff problems are avoidable with a few habits. They apply whether or not a team uses Relay.
- Name one recipient
- Hand off to a person, not a channel or a group.
- Say what done means
- State the next step, not only the history.
- Keep context on the work
- Attach the reason where the work lives.
- Confirm it landed
- A handoff is finished when it is picked up.
- Avoid silent reassignment
- Changing a field without telling anyone is not a handoff.
Example
A draft moving from writer to designer.
A writer finishes launch copy and it needs layout. In a field-based tool, she changes the assignee, posts in chat to say so, and later updates a status column. The designer may miss the message; the board is stale until someone remembers.
As a pass, the same moment is one action: the copy moves to the designer with a note on what the layout needs, appears in his Needs you, and sits in the writer's Waiting until he opens it. The project records that the work changed hands without a separate update.
Explore Relay
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