Workflows break at the edges
Failures rarely happen in the middle of a task — they happen in the handoff between people. Treating handoffs as first-class design objects is what prevents the drops.
Velocity EngineExecution Game
The Art of the Handoff
hoping it gets done→precise execution
The Goal
Prevent drops between functions by formalizing coordination points.
Ideal For
High-growth startups with emerging functional silos.
The Shift
From hoping it gets done to precise execution.
The Neuroscience
Clean coordination reduces role overload, and formalized handoffs satisfy the brain's well-documented preference for certainty — ambiguous responsibility is experienced as a low-grade threat that quietly drains attention.
The techniques, and why they work
A shared Definition of Done
At each coordination point, a written, mutual definition of what "done" means — in the disciplined spirit of surgeons and pilots — eliminates the rework that grinds execution to a halt.
Accountability, not blame
When a handoff fails, fix the architecture, not the person: "where was our coordination unclear?"
From the research
The thinking behind this lab, published in full: