A customer or problem with no work behind it.
Your team writes down the customers you serve and the problems they have. In the product, these are personas and problem definitions. When one is active but no open project serves it or addresses it, Helen flags it so a person can link work to it or set it aside. The check is called Coverage Gap.
- How it works
- Rule-based, follows links to projects
- Where it stops
- It looks only at active, unarchived personas and problem definitions, so drafts and closed ones never raise this flag. It checks that open work is linked, not whether that work meets the need.
What the check catches.
Helen's Foundry keeps the line from your strategy down to each piece of work as linked records. In the product, this line is called the context chain. Personas and problem definitions sit on it as the demand your work answers. A project links to them when it serves a persona or addresses a problem definition.
The check starts from each persona and problem definition that is active and not archived. It looks for a project linked to it that is open work, meaning backlog, to do, in progress, in review, or active, and not archived. A linked project also counts when open projects or tickets sit below it.
A link to a closed or deprioritized project does not count on its own. The persona or problem definition still has nobody working toward it.
What Helen records.
When part of your plan is missing, Helen raises a flag. In the product, this flag is called a finding. Each Coverage Gap finding records the persona or problem definition and what is missing.
- The persona or problem definition Its title, its type, and its current status.
- What is missing A note that no open project or ticket is linked to it.
What a person does about it.
The flag goes to Reconcile, the place where a person decides what to do about a flag. Reconcile lists Coverage Gap findings under Completeness, with other missing work, and keeps that group collapsed until you open it.
Reconcile asks you to create or link projects and tickets. If a project already serves this need, link it. If your team set the persona or problem definition aside on purpose, close it. Once open work is linked, Helen resolves the finding on her next check.
A workspace admin can also acknowledge the flag, which hides it from the default view, or dismiss it with a reason. There is no bulk action for this flag. Helen does not label it as blocking, and she never changes a decision on her own.
Research basis.
Mintzberg, H., & Waters, J. A. (1985). Of strategies, deliberate and emergent. Strategic Management Journal, 6(3), 257–272.
See what Helen flags in your own plans.
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