Silos & Handoffs
Work Disappears Into the Cracks
Every Handoff Is a Place for Work to Die.
Work passes through seven teams before it reaches customers. Each handoff adds delay and loses information. When something goes wrong, everyone points at someone else. Support work constantly derails planned work because teams can't say no to their "internal customers."
- Work touches 5+ teams before reaching customers
- Information lost at every handoff. Rework required
- When things break, finger-pointing instead of fixing
- Work sits in queues between teams for weeks
You're Not Imagining It
If any of these sound familiar, you've found the right place.
Work touches 5+ teams before reaching customers
Information lost at every handoff. Rework required
When things break, finger-pointing instead of fixing
Work sits in queues between teams for weeks
Support tickets constantly interrupt planned work
No one owns the whole. Everyone owns a piece
Why Silos Form and Persist
Silos are usually accidents of history. Organizations grow by adding specialized functions. Frontend, backend, QA, DevOps, security, each becomes a team. Before long, every piece of work requires all of them, and nobody owns the outcome.
Handoffs create queues. Each team has their own priorities and their own backlog. Your work competes with everyone else's work. Even if each team is fast, the total time is dominated by waiting.
Support work exploits this structure. When you're organized by function, every team serves every other team. There's no way to say "that's not my problem." So interrupts flow freely and nobody can focus.
This Is Common
One Team Owns It, Start to Finish
Stop passing work between teams. One team builds it, ships it, and owns the result.
Features get done in weeks, not months of handoffs
When something breaks, one team fixes it (no finger-pointing)
Support work stops derailing your roadmap
Teams have everything they need to ship without waiting
How We Eliminate Silos and Handoffs
We restructure teams so each one can complete work from start to finish, with one team owning the outcome.
Map How Work Actually Flows
We trace how work moves from idea to customer. Where does it wait? Where does information get lost? Where does ownership get confused? The map reveals where time is wasted.
Build Teams That Can Ship Alone
We reorganize so each team has all the skills needed to deliver: frontend, backend, testing, deployment. No handoffs because no gaps in the team.
Establish Clear Ownership
Each team owns an outcome, not a function. They're accountable for the result, not just their piece. Ownership eliminates finger-pointing.
Contain Support Work
We create explicit policies for handling support work: dedicated capacity, rotation schedules, or separate teams. Protect the focus of teams doing planned work.
What Happens When Silos Fall
Cycle time drops dramatically
Removing handoffs removes waiting. Work that took months now takes weeks.
"We were able to develop an application that handled large scale schedule changes and the solution was built and deployed into production in 3 weeks. Prior to the transformation, this effort would have taken months." - Marty Garza, VP Air Operations Technology, Southwest Airlines
Quality improves
Teams that own the outcome care about quality. No more throwing problems over the wall.
Problems get fixed faster
Clear ownership means accountability. When something breaks, one team owns fixing it.
Planned work stays on track
Protected capacity for support work means planned initiatives don't get derailed.
See How We Fixed It
Real organizations that overcame this challenge with our help.
Texas Mutual Insurance
Rather than waiting to be disrupted by competition, Texas Mutual chose proactive transformation to deliver seamless customer value faster and better than ever before.
Infrastructure Operations
An overwhelmed infrastructure team regained control by establishing clear boundaries, formal intake processes, and Kanban-based workflow management.
Read Full StoryReady to Break Down Silos?
Tell us about the handoffs. We'll help you identify which can be eliminated and how to restructure. 30 minutes, no pitch.
Eliminate Handoffs