Live ops on a busy morning: find stuck work fast
Chapters
It is ten on a Tuesday morning and billing tasks are arriving faster than your team can finish them. Live ops is the screen that tells you before a customer does, and it is built to stay readable whether you have ten tasks waiting or ten thousand.
The headline and the figures
The top line says in plain words what is happening, for example that the queue is growing by about one task a minute, and it names anything that needs you first. Below it, four figures show how much work is waiting, how much arrives and finishes each minute, how long the oldest task has waited, and how many people can take work.
Queue by lane
Waiting work is grouped by the skill it needs, with the worst lanes first. A lane is stuck when nobody free can take its work, and it is marked so you can see it at a glance.
Why a lane is stuck, and the fix
Open a lane and it tells you why it is waiting. In this example everyone who can do billing is at their limit. The drawer offers the fixes that exist: raise the limit for the people who are full, put someone else on shift, or give the skill to more people. Raising the limit by two is enough to get this lane moving again.
The team, and Needs you
Every person on the team is one square. Green means they can take work and the paler squares are people who are full, with on break and off shift shown alongside. Anything that only a person can decide appears under Needs you, and stopped tasks can go back to the queue with a single button.
The task deadlines guide explains how tasks end up stopped in the first place. If you want to try this on your own team, you can sign up free and start with the first guide.
Transcriptthe full narration, 7 paragraphs
It's ten on a Tuesday morning, and billing tasks are arriving faster than your team can finish them. Live ops tells you before a customer does.
The top line tells you in plain words what is happening. Below it, you can see how much work is waiting and how long the oldest task has been there.
Waiting work is grouped by the skill it needs, with the worst lanes first. Here, billing is the lane that is stuck.
Open the lane, and it tells you why: everyone who can do billing is at their limit. Raise that limit by two, and the lane starts moving again.
Below that, every person is one square. Green means they can take work, and the paler squares are people who are full.
Anything that only a person can decide appears under Needs you. Stopped tasks can go back to the queue with a single button.
Now stuck work is found before anyone complains, and the right person gets each task with the reason on record. Sign up free at 5xer.com.