Over two years on a large technology program, I facilitated handoffs for 300+ epics across multiple delivery teams. When we started, the average epic took 41 days to move from discovery to feature elaboration. When we finished, we'd reduced that to 11 days with 80% efficiency.

The difference wasn't new tools or frameworks (or AI as it didn't exist in the workplace yet). It was four specific patterns that either accelerated flow or killed it completely.

I could predict which handoffs would create smooth delivery velocity just from watching the first ten minutes. The teams that mastered these patterns didn't just deliver faster—they created the foundation for everything else to work.

The 4 Patterns That Determine Flow Velocity

1. Prepared But Not Over-Prepared

The sweet spot where everyone's done "just enough work" to enable productive collaboration.

Under-prepared: One-line requirements for complex work. High ambiguity with assumptions about delivery timelines. Forces the receiving party to "figure it out"—disrespectful and creates immediate delays.

Over-prepared: Creates waste and shows disrespect for the receiving party's expertise. Sometimes the handing-over party even does part of the receiving party's work, which then gets ignored or redone. Assumes the other party needs more information than they actually do.

Just right: Enough context and clarity to enable the conversation, but room for the receiving party to apply their expertise and ask the right questions.

2. Dialogue Over Monologue

True dialogue: People hold their opinions lightly enough to be influenced. They start with a position, then stop to ask "I've spoken enough now—what's your view on that point before we move on?" It's a genuine exchange where both parties can shape the outcome.

Talking AT someone: Ten minutes of explanation without once stopping to seek clarification or ask for the other person's perspective. No space for the receiving party to influence the conversation.

The key: Whether the handoff is highly creative or purely transactional, successful flow requires both parties to have a voice in shaping how the work moves forward.

3. Decision Authority in the Room

The right people present: All necessary stakeholders who actually have authority to make handoff decisions are present—both the formal authority and the subject matter expertise closest to the work.

Organizational reality check: Many organizations have centralized decision-making, so people may not have the delegated authority they appear to have. Know this before the meeting.

The nightmare scenario: Handoff meeting happens, everyone feels aligned, then decisions get overturned because a sponsor/senior person/SME wasn't consulted and doesn't agree.

The pre-work: Understanding your stakeholders and their actual decision-making authority before the meeting. If people can't make decisions, it's not a handoff—it's just a status update disguised as one.

4. System of Record

Why it matters more now: Remote/asynchronous/distributed teams working at faster speeds make documentation critical, not optional.

Assurance capability: You need data to verify that handoffs actually happened—which party has the work, in what state it was handed off, by whom, and when.

Flow tracking: Enables monitoring of work progress and value creation using actual delivery data. This is how you measure whether your handoffs are actually accelerating or impeding flow.

Process optimization: Allows lean delivery metrics—understanding how work travels through the system, wait times at handoffs, and process efficiency improvements.

The execution gap: People might have the meeting and the system, but don't enter data in ways that enable tracking and verification. Without this, you can't measure flow improvements.

The bottom line: In modern delivery, if it's not recorded in a way that enables tracking and verification, the handoff is incomplete.

The Real Cost of Getting This Wrong

In a time of AI and automation, there's a lot of focus on technological solutions to delivery challenges. But human-to-human handoff processes for key moments in the value delivery lifecycle will remain for quite a while and therefore require our attention to optimise them for flow and efficiency while ensuring the humans and their ideas are respected as part of the process.

On a large technology program, our initial 41-day cycle time wasn't a tool problem—it was a flow problem. We had all the same tools after the improvement, but radically different handoff patterns.

The teams that master these four patterns don't just deliver faster—they create the foundation that makes everything else work more effectively.

Want to become the person who makes handoffs work instead of watching them fail? Our integrated ICAgile program teaches product strategy and delivery execution as one skillset. Read more here.