Follow the handoffs that happen outside the system

Pay close attention whenever somebody leaves the application to copy a value into a spreadsheet, send a message, open a shared drive, ask a colleague, run a local script or leave a browser tab open as a reminder. Sometimes that's a workaround for poor software, and sometimes it's where an undocumented control lives.

So before proposing a feature, write down why they left the system. A spreadsheet might be making up for weak filtering, or it might be supporting a manual reconciliation against an independent source. If you build a new report to remove the hassle, you could take the independent check away with it.

A handoff needs more than an arrow between two teams. What tells the sender the work is ready to pass on? How does the receiver find out it exists? What information travels with it, and when does responsibility actually change hands? If the receiver finds an error, follow the return path too. Plenty of processes have a clear forward route and a correction route that's improvised out of messages and people's memory.

Waiting deserves its own entry. Work can sit between steps because someone's away, because a batch runs overnight, because information hasn't arrived yet or because nobody knows they own the next action. Each of those needs a different response from the software. A timer won't fix unclear ownership, and a notification won't help with an external dependency that has no expected response date.

Private queues are worth asking about specifically. People build inbox folders, personal task lists and spreadsheets when the shared system doesn't show them what they need to act on. How do items get onto those lists? How do they decide what comes first? What happens when the owner's on leave? The answers can point to missing assignment, search or escalation behaviour in the replacement.

Don't assume every off-system step should be pulled into the new product. Some channels are there for good reason, because people need to talk something through before a formal decision. Some specialist tools already do their job well. I'd mark each handoff as one to keep, integrate, simplify, replace or look into further, and leave that call until you understand what the step is for.