Go-to-Market Ops Handoff Without Losing Context

I never green-light an experiment unless I know who will run it afterwards.

Context

Too many experiments die because they never get productized. Growth teams celebrate a win, then throw a Notion doc over the fence to operations. Weeks later the play stops working, nobody knows who owns alerts, and leadership questions why we invested at all. I built a handoff framework that forces us to capture owners, metrics, runbooks, and dependencies before we declare victory. It behaves like a contract: if ops can’t run it on day one, we aren’t done shipping.

Stack I leaned on

• Linear for the shared roadmap: We use Linear as our project management tool, providing a centralized platform for our shared roadmap. It allows us to track initiatives from ideation through to operationalization, with clear stage gates and dependencies.
• Notion + Loom for handbooks: Notion serves as our central repository for detailed handbooks, runbooks, and documentation. For complex workflows, we supplement written guides with Loom video walkthroughs, ensuring that context is conveyed effectively and visually.
• Supabase to check exit metrics: Supabase acts as our lightweight data store for tracking key exit metrics and operational KPIs. This allows us to monitor the performance of initiatives post-handoff and quickly identify any deviations from expected outcomes.
• Slack workflows for reminders: Automation is crucial for keeping the handoff process on track. We leverage Slack workflows to send automated reminders to owners about upcoming deadlines, required approvals, and checklist items, ensuring timely completion of tasks.

The Five Questions We Answer

1. Owner: Who runs the play after launch? Include backup owner and escalation path.
2. Metric: Which KPI proves it’s working, and where is that metric instrumented?
3. Runbook: What steps, scripts, and SLAs keep the play healthy?
4. Risks & guardrails: What could break (capacity, compliance, dependencies) and how do we monitor it?
5. Backlog & roadmap: Which follow-up tasks remain, and who prioritizes them?

The experiment doesn’t close in Linear until each question has a documented answer and the ops lead signs off.

Handoff Packet Anatomy

| Section | Tool | Notes | |---------|------|-------| | Summary + video | Notion + Loom | 5-minute walkthrough showing flows, metrics, and failure modes | | Process checklist | Notion template | Step-by-step instructions with links to scripts, dashboards | | Data contract | Supabase / dbt docs | Defines tables, fields, freshness targets, alert thresholds | | Automation map | Miro diagram embedded | Shows n8n/Zapier/Fly flows with owners | | SLA + escalation | PagerDuty runbook | Who is paged, how fast, what “good” looks like | | Backlog | Linear project | Remaining items labeled “post-handoff” with owners and due dates |

Ops can ramp by consuming the packet without booking extra meetings.

Playbook

1. Co-design during discovery: Ops lead joins the kickoff and helps define success metrics + constraints. No late surprises.
2. Instrument exit criteria: Supabase + Metabase dashboards watch the KPI for two weeks pre-handoff. If it’s unstable, we keep it in the build squad.
3. Create the packet: Growth squad fills in the Notion template, records Loom walkthrough, and links every script or dashboard. Slack workflow reminds them 48h before the handoff review.
4. Live handoff meeting: 30-minute session where growth demos the play, ops runs it themselves, and we capture open questions. Meeting recorded and linked back to the packet.
5. Shadow period: For two weeks ops runs the play with growth on standby. Alerts route to both teams, so knowledge transfer happens via real incidents.
6. Formal sign-off: Once ops confirms they can operate without help, the experiment is archived in growth backlog and moved to the ops roadmap.
7. Quarterly retros: Ops + growth review which handoffs succeeded, which slipped, and what tooling/process needs updates.

Key Principles of Effective GTM Handoffs

• Treat handoffs as contracts: Define clear terms, responsibilities, and success metrics that both growth and operations teams agree upon.
• Early and continuous collaboration: Involve operations teams from the discovery phase of an experiment to ensure operational feasibility and buy-in.
• Comprehensive documentation: Provide detailed handoff packets, including owners, metrics, runbooks, and dependencies, using a combination of written guides and visual aids.
• Structured knowledge transfer: Implement a shadow period where operations teams run the initiative with growth team support, facilitating practical learning.
• Clear exit criteria: Define what "done" looks like for the growth team, ensuring that initiatives are fully operationalized before being handed off.
• Automated reminders and checks: Leverage automation to keep the handoff process on track, ensuring accountability and timely completion of tasks.
• Post-handoff monitoring and feedback: Continuously monitor the performance of handed-off initiatives and establish feedback loops for continuous improvement.

Contracts & Checklists

• Experiment contract: single-page doc that states scope, KPIs, dependencies, and support model. Signed by PM, Ops lead, and RevOps director.
• Run checklist: e.g., for a lifecycle email play: verify segment sync, run A/B test schedule, check unsubscribe alerts, deploy new creative. Each step links to script or UI path.
• Stop checklist: criteria for pausing or rolling back (metric drop, deliverability issues, compliance review).

Checklists live as Notion databases so we track completion and spot skipped steps.

Instrumentation & Alerts

• Supabase triggers track metric thresholds and push updates to Slack (#gtm-health).
• PagerDuty light policy ensures someone is paged if the KPI breaches for >4 hours.
• Metabase dashboards show daily performance, backlog tasks, and on-call schedule for the play, giving leadership transparency.

Handoffs fail when ops inherits a black box; we make telemetry part of the deliverable.

Metrics & Telemetry

• Increased initiative longevity: 92% of initiatives are still alive after three months, a significant increase from 54% previously.
• Reduced transition time: The transition time for initiatives to operations has been reduced from 14 days to 4 days, thanks to pre-existing artifacts.
• Fewer context-related incidents: Incidents due to missing context have been reduced by 60%.
• Lower onboarding hours: The average onboarding hours per operations analyst has decreased by 35% due to standardized Loom videos and checklists.
• High executive confidence: Our executive confidence score is 9/10 in quarterly surveys, indicating strong trust in ownership of launched plays.

Sample Handoff Timeline

| Day | Activity | |-----|----------| | -7 | Ops joins discovery sync, confirms KPIs + constraints | | -3 | Growth squad drafts packet skeleton, records first Loom | | -2 | Slack workflow pings owners to finalize runbooks/alerts | | 0 | Live handoff walkthrough + Q&A | | +3 | Ops runs play with growth shadowing; log issues in Notion | | +7 | Shadow period review; tune alerts/dashboards | | +14 | Formal sign-off + backlog transfer |

By visualizing the timeline we eliminated last-minute scrambles.

Cost & Tooling Snapshot

• Linear: already in use; we added templates and automations (no extra cost).
• Notion: $8/user; playbook templates live here with relational databases.
• Loom: $12/user for recording walkthroughs.
• Supabase: free tier for monitoring exit metrics; upgraded to Pro ($25/mo) once we tracked >1M rows.
• Slack workflow builder: part of Slack Pro plan; sends reminders and routes approvals.

Under $100/mo in incremental tooling to keep multi-million dollar plays alive.

Common Failure Modes (and Fixes)

1. Docs without narrative → We require Loom walkthroughs; humans remember stories better than bullet points.
2. Ops looped in too late → Add ops to discovery invites automatically via Slack workflow.
3. Invisible backlog → Post-handoff tasks stay in Linear under an “Ops” team board with clear owners, not in secret spreadsheets.
4. Alert fatigue → During shadow period we tune alerts; ops cannot inherit noisy PagerDuty rules.
5. Tool access gaps → Handoff checklist includes “permissions verified” for every system (Segment, Resend, n8n, Metabase).

Cultural Tactics

• Demo days: every Friday ops demos one newly adopted play to the broader team. Reinforces accountability and creates a feedback loop.
• Office hours: growth squad hosts a weekly 30-minute slot for ops questions during the first month post-handoff.
• Recognition: we shout out ops leads in #wins when a handoff goes smoothly. Incentives matter.
• Runbook drills: once a quarter ops reruns a random handoff play from scratch to ensure docs stay fresh.
• Escalation simulations: similar to chaos engineering; we intentionally break a handoff and watch how ops responds, then adjust the packet.

What stuck with me

• A solid handoff needs storytelling; cold documents flop.
• Operations must show up in discovery, not only at the finish line.
• Ownership becomes real when dashboards, alerts, and scripts are handed over—not when a PM says “it’s done.”

What I'm building next

I'm writing a reusable template for any squad plus a Linear workflow that enforces the five questions before you can mark an experiment “done.” Want to pilot it? leave me your email.

Want me to help you replicate this module? Drop me a note and we’ll build it together.