ENG · 02 · Operational Friction Mapping
Find the friction. On paper. In one engagement.
A structured mapping of how work actually moves through your organization — every handoff, every rework loop, every place a decision waits on a person who's already overloaded.
At a glance
- Deliverable
- Friction map + ranked findings
- Timeline
- 3 weeks, kickoff to readout
- Audience
- Business · GovCon optional
- Cadence
- Weekly working sessions
- Best fit
- $2M – $50M operations
- Output format
- Visual map + 30-page report
What it is
Diagnostic, not discovery.
Most "discovery" engagements end with a deck nobody acts on. Friction Mapping ends with a map your team can read in ten minutes and a ranked list of what to fix first.
We sit with the people doing the work. We trace one full pass of the operation. We name every place it routinely breaks.
What we look at
Six dimensions on every map.
Handoffs
Where the work moves between people and what gets lost on the way.
Rework loops
Tasks redone because the first pass had no source of truth.
Decision queues
Where work waits on a single person to approve, route, or judge.
Information drift
Where four versions of the truth coexist and none are canonical.
Owner load
Where one person is absorbing exceptions that the system should.
Evidence gaps
Where the operation produces no record of what was done or decided.
What you get
The map and the ranked plan.
The three weeks
Kickoff
Scope alignment, stakeholder interviews, one full pass of the operation observed in situ.
Mapping
Draft friction map, working session with the operating team, ranking and re-ranking findings.
Readout
Final map, ranked findings, recommended repair plan with owners attached.
Map your friction in 3 weeks. Then decide what to repair.
A Friction Discovery Call is 30 minutes. We scope the engagement together. You decide whether to proceed.
