One resignation away

There is often someone the team turns to when a process breaks. They know why the pricing exception exists, which customer needs a different contract, or how to close the month when the system produces an unfamiliar error.

Their experience is valuable. The dependency can also be difficult to see while everything is working.

Start with the decisions people ask them to make #

A procedure may describe the ordinary case without explaining the exceptions. Ask the person who handles those exceptions to walk through a few recent examples.

What did they notice? Which information mattered? Why did they choose one response over another? Who else needed to be involved?

Those questions are more useful than asking someone to “document everything you know.” They give the conversation a manageable scope and produce material another person can test.

Work out what needs to be shared #

Some knowledge belongs in a procedure or a searchable reference. Some can become a rule in an existing system. Other decisions still need an experienced person, but the information supporting them can be made easier to find.

Start with the processes where an absence would cause the most disruption. Consider how often the decision occurs, what a mistake would affect, and whether someone else could handle it with better support.

An AI tool may help people find or use the material. It still needs a dependable source, a way to handle uncertainty, and someone responsible for keeping the information current.

What the dependency can mean #

Take the example of a specialty manufacturer with $120M in revenue. One estimator had priced complex jobs for eleven years. His decisions combined material knowledge, customer history, and judgment that the rest of the team could not reliably reproduce.

The estimated exposure if he left ran into seven figures: a six-to-twelve-month decline in quote quality, an effect on the win rate for high-margin work, and the effort of reconstructing his decisions from earlier quotes. That estimate gives the company a reason to prioritize this process over less consequential documentation work.

Test the handoff #

Ask another team member to work through a representative case using what has been documented. Their questions will show what is still missing.

Keep the original expert involved. The aim is to share the benefit of their experience and reduce the pressure on them to answer every question personally.

A useful place to start is: which decisions wait when this person is unavailable, and what would help someone else make them?

At Joust, we can help assess that dependency, document the process, and build the supporting tools where they are needed. Tell us about the work you have in mind.