Process: Improvement Recommendations
Process Flow
graph TD S0["Purpose"] S1["Overview"] S0 --> S1 S2["Steps"] S1 --> S2 S3["1. Draft the recommendation"] S2 --> S3 S4["Problem Statement"] S3 --> S4 S5["Root Cause"] S4 --> S5 S6["Recommendation"] S5 --> S6 S7["Expected Impact"] S6 --> S7 S8["Suggested Owner"] S7 --> S8 S9["Priority"] S8 --> S9 S10["Status"] S9 --> S10 S11["2. Prioritize"] S10 --> S11 S12["3. Route to the correct owner"] S11 --> S12 S13["4. Track implementation"] S12 --> S13 S14["5. Verify and close"] S13 --> S14 S15["6. Quarterly insights summary"] S14 --> S15 S16["Quality Gate"] S15 --> S16 S17["Escalation"] S16 --> S17
Process: Improvement Recommendations
Owner: Customer Feedback Analyst (Fiona) Type: Manual Frequency: Monthly (from trend reports) + ad hoc (critical items)
Purpose
Defines how feedback insights are turned into concrete, actionable recommendations that drive factory improvement. Ensures that feedback does not stop at "interesting report" but results in tracked changes. Covers the recommendation format, prioritization, routing to the correct role, and tracking through to implementation.
Overview
Insight Identified -> Draft Recommendation -> Prioritize -> Route to Owner -> Track Implementation -> Verify & Close
Steps
1. Draft the recommendation
For every High or Critical trend identified in the analysis process, and for any recurring Medium item that persists across two or more months, draft a formal recommendation.
Recommendation format:
# Recommendation: [Short descriptive title]
- **ID:** REC-YYYY-MM-NNN
- **Date:** [Date]
- **Source:** [Monthly trend report / Critical escalation]
- **Severity:** [Critical / High / Medium]
- **Category:** [Quality / Communication / Timeline / Onboarding / Capability / Support / Value / Process]
## Problem Statement
[2-3 sentences describing the feedback pattern, with data. What are clients experiencing? How many clients? Over what period?]
## Root Cause
[Summary from root cause analysis. Which process or step is breaking down? Reference the analysis.]
## Recommendation
[Specific, actionable recommendation. What should change? Be precise — "improve communication" is too vague. "Send the client a status update within 24 hours of each milestone completion" is actionable.]
## Expected Impact
[What improvement should result? How will we know it worked? Define a measurable outcome if possible.]
## Suggested Owner
[Which role should implement this? Why?]
## Priority
[See prioritization matrix below]
## Status
- [ ] Drafted
- [ ] Reviewed by Fiona
- [ ] Routed to owner
- [ ] Accepted by owner
- [ ] Implementation in progress
- [ ] Implemented
- [ ] Verified (feedback improved)
2. Prioritize
Use the following prioritization matrix to determine the order in which recommendations should be acted upon.
Prioritization matrix:
| Factor | Weight | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Client impact | 40% | 1 = minor inconvenience, 5 = client churn risk |
| Frequency | 30% | 1 = single occurrence, 5 = affects most clients |
| Effort to implement | 20% | 1 = major project, 5 = quick fix (inverted: easy = higher priority) |
| Strategic alignment | 10% | 1 = nice-to-have, 5 = directly supports factory vision |
Actions:
- Score each recommendation on the four factors
- Calculate weighted priority score
- Rank recommendations by score
- Group into priority tiers:
- P1 (score > 4.0): Act this month
- P2 (score 3.0-4.0): Act this quarter
- P3 (score < 3.0): Backlog — review next quarter
3. Route to the correct owner
Each recommendation must have a clear owner who is responsible for implementation.
Routing guide:
| Category | Primary owner | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Quality (digital talent performance) | QA Engineer (Quinn) | QA process and standards |
| Quality (production defects) | Production Line Architect (Pablo) | Production process improvement |
| Communication | Delivery Manager (Dana) | Client communication process |
| Timeline | Delivery Manager (Dana) + Pablo | Scheduling and production planning |
| Onboarding | Delivery Manager (Dana) | Delivery handover process |
| Capability (feature requests) | CTO (Clara) | Technical roadmap decisions |
| Support | Maintenance Engineer (Max) | Post-delivery support process |
| Value | CEO | Pricing and value proposition |
| Process (intake) | Client Intake Manager (Camille) | Intake process improvement |
| Process (factory-wide) | CTO (Clara) | Cross-department process decisions |
Actions:
- Assign the recommendation to the identified owner
- Send the recommendation document to the owner with context
- Request acknowledgment within 3 business days
- If the owner disputes ownership, escalate to Clara (CTO) for routing decision
4. Track implementation
Fiona maintains a recommendation tracker to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.
Recommendation tracker:
# Recommendation Tracker — [Quarter YYYY]
| ID | Title | Severity | Priority | Owner | Status | Target date | Actual date | Verified |
|----|-------|----------|----------|-------|--------|-------------|-------------|----------|
| REC-YYYY-MM-001 | | | | | | | | |
Storage: departments/client-services/customer-feedback-analyst/tracker/
Naming convention: YYYY-QN-recommendation-tracker.md
Actions:
- Update the tracker weekly
- Follow up with owners on overdue items (reminder at target date, escalation at target date + 5 business days)
- Report tracker status in the monthly trend report
- Escalate stalled recommendations (no progress for 2 weeks) to Clara (CTO)
5. Verify and close
A recommendation is not complete until the improvement is verified through subsequent feedback.
Verification criteria:
- The recommended change has been implemented (confirmed by the owner)
- Subsequent feedback shows improvement in the affected category (measured over at least one monthly cycle after implementation)
- If feedback does not improve, the recommendation is reopened for revision
Actions:
- After implementation, monitor the relevant category in the next 1-2 monthly trend reports
- If improvement is observed, mark the recommendation as "Verified" and close it
- If no improvement, reopen the recommendation, conduct additional root cause analysis, and draft a revised recommendation
- Report verification results in the quarterly insights summary
6. Quarterly insights summary
At the end of each quarter, compile a summary of all recommendations, their status, and the overall impact of the feedback-driven improvement program.
Quarterly summary includes:
- Total recommendations made vs. implemented vs. verified
- Top improvements achieved (with before/after metrics)
- Outstanding recommendations and blockers
- Recommendations for the next quarter's focus areas
- Overall trend: is client satisfaction improving?
Storage: departments/client-services/customer-feedback-analyst/reports/
Naming convention: YYYY-QN-quarterly-insights.md
Quality Gate
The improvement recommendation process is healthy when:
- Every High/Critical trend has a corresponding recommendation
- Recurring Medium items (2+ months) have been escalated to recommendations
- All recommendations have assigned owners who have acknowledged receipt
- Tracker is updated weekly
- Overdue items are followed up within 5 business days
- Implemented recommendations are verified through subsequent feedback data
- Quarterly insights summary published within 10 business days of quarter end
Escalation
- Owner rejects a P1 recommendation: Escalate to Clara (CTO) with supporting data
- Recommendation stalled for 2+ weeks with no progress: Escalate to Clara (CTO)
- Same issue reappears after recommendation was marked "Verified": Reopen and escalate to Clara — the fix did not hold
- Multiple P1 recommendations compete for the same owner's time: Escalate to Clara for priority arbitration