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Launch Playbook
8. Leadership, Caseloads, Reliability

Leadership, Caseloads, & Reliability

Role Overview:

The Team Lead in a TA program is not a "Senior Consultant”; more importantly, they are the Operational Conductor of the program. Their primary output is not their own consulting hours, but the reliability and quality of the cohort’s output. In a remote environment, reliability is demonstrated through data. The Team Lead acts as the bridge between the chaotic reality of small business ownership, the fulfillment of a contract’s mission, and the rigid requirements of contract compliance.

This module defines the rigorous protocols for managing a distributed team of consultants, ensuring equitable caseload distribution, and detecting "Constructive Ghosting" before it impacts the client.

8.1 Team Leadership & Caseload Management

The greatest risk to a TA program is the uneven distribution of work, leading to bottlenecked "Rockstars" and underutilized "Drifters." Effective caseload management is a dynamic process of matching supply (consultant hours) with demand (participant needs).

8.1.1 The Caseload Assignment Protocol

Assignments are never made randomly or solely based on "who raised their hand." Assignments are data-driven decisions based on Skill Match and Current Capacity.

Step 1: Capacity Check (The Data)

Before assigning a new business owner to a project manager, check the consultant's current load in ClickUp. The Team Lead must open the ClickUp Workload View.

  • Check: Look at the consultant's "Task Count" and "Estimated Hours" for the next 2 weeks.
  • Rule: If a consultant has >10 overdue tasks or their Harvest utilization was >110% last week, they are Blacklisted from new assignments until they stabilize. Assigning more work to an overwhelmed consultant is a recipe for participant dissatisfaction.

Step 2: Skill Matching (The Human Element)

Consultants have "Spikes" (areas of deep expertise) and "Valleys" (weaknesses).

  • Financial Distress Cases: Must go to consultants tagged "Finance/QuickBooks" in the Internal Directory. Assigning a branding expert to a tax audit case is operational negligence and serves neither the client nor the firm.
  • Start-up vs. Scale-up: Match the lifecycle stage. Senior consultants handle complex "Scale-up" turnarounds; whereas more junior consultants might handle "Start-up" formation mechanics.

Step 3: The "Warm Handoff"

The assignment is not complete until the handoff occurs.

  • Action: The Team Lead posts in the #proj-clientname ClickUp board: "Hi @Consultant, assigning you to [Client]. They are a [Industry] looking for help with XXX. I’ve checked your capacity and you look good to take this. Please confirm receipt and book the intake by XXX."
  • Requirement: The consultant must either post a message back or use an emoji (e.g., checkmark) or reply to confirm acceptance. Silence is not acceptance.

8.1.2 Visualizing Capacity: The ClickUp At-Risk Dashboard View

To execute the above, the ClickUp At-Risk Dashboard View must be configured correctly.

  • Cards

    • **AI - Tasks at Risk**
    • **AI - Executive Summary**
    • **Who’s Behind**
    • **Overdue Tasks -** *Group by Assignee*
    • **Total Tasks by Assignee**
    • **“Stagnant” Task List**
      • Settings, Grouped by Team
      • Filter: Date updated is not last 14 days
    • **Discussion**

  • The "Red Zone" Indicator: If the Workload View shows a consultant with 2x the average task load of their peers, the Team Lead must intervene immediately to redistribute tasks.

8.2 Service Allocation & The "Friday Audit"

Technical Assistance programs often have strict hour caps per beneficiary. The Team Lead acts as the gatekeeper and influencer of hours utilization. The "Friday Audit" is the single most important operational ritual for the Team Lead. It is the mechanism that ensures data integrity and prevents "compliance debt" from accumulating.

  • **Timing: Every Friday between 11:00 AM and 3:00 PM**

  • Objective: To ensure that by Monday morning (the hard deadline for timesheets), the previous week's data is locked, accurate, and ready for reporting.

The Audit Checklist:

  1. Harvest Hour Verification:
  • Action: Open the "Time Report" in Harvest for the current week.
  • Check 1: Descriptions. Are the descriptions compliant with 2 CFR 200?
  • Bad: "Meeting." (Disallowable - too vague).
  • Good: "Zoom meeting with client re: Cash Flow Forecast and Q1 projections." (Compliant).
  • Correction: Slack the consultant immediately: "Hey [Name], your entry for Tuesday just says 'Work'. Please update it to be specific before Monday's lock."

  • Check 2: Usage. Look for consultants who logged 0 hours. Look for consultants who logged over their weekly cap.

    • Correction: Slack the consultant immediately: "Hey [Name], I don’t see that you logged any hours this week. Can you be sure to reach out to X, Y, Z by Monday afternoon?”
    • If the consultant doesn’t have any assigned work, offer some Community Outreach time with a list of 5 prospects that they should attempt to contact.

  1. No Activity Audit

    • ***Check 1: Harvest “Activity” Report***
      • You can run a report to see which participants were interacted with in a given timeframe. Harvest doesn't have a list of which clients have NOT had activity on them.
      • To run the “Activity” report, in Harvest go to Reports/Detailed Time/set the timeframe (i.e. “This Week”) and choose the client “City of Sacramento - CORE Technical Assistance Program“. Click Run Report. Save this report.
      • You can now see a list of everyone that was interacted with this week, then go to Projects and run a list of all Participant projects (i.e. City of Sacramento - CORE Technical Assistance Program” and if you don’t see the name of the participant on your Activity Report, then you need to investigate the status.
    • ***Check 2: Nutshell No Activity Report***
    • Go to the People section and under “Your Lists” run the “CORE Stagnant Participants” list. Cross check this against people we have talked to recently based on the Harvest Reach Out Report. If you see someone on the Harvest Reach Out report that does not show activity in Nutshell, look to see why the activity was not logged in Nutshell, and correct it.
    • Once you have determined who needs to be contacted, Slack the consultant immediately: "Hey [Name], I don’t see that you have logged any time with XXX in over a week. Can you share what’s going on with this participant?”
    • Once you have determined who did not CC core@launchindustries.biz which causes the list to be updated, Slack the consultant immediately: "Hey [Name], I see in Harvest that you emailed XX, but I don’t see that reflected in Nutshell. Can you please forward the email to core@launchindustries.biz for our participant records?”

  2. Closing Truly Stagnant Participants.

  • If a participant has been stagnant for over 1 month with no explanation by the Project Manager, the Team Lead should review the account. If you can see that the Project Manager has been documenting their outreach attempts, great. If they say they forgot to, the Team Lead should intervene by attempting their own full round of Outreach (protocol is in Part 1 of this guide). Only after one fully completed round should the Team Lead proceed with closing the account. Also please counsel the PM consultant on documentation.
  1. ClickUp "Overdue" Sweep:
  • Action: Check the "Overdue Tasks" widget on the Dashboard.
  • Protocol: If a task is >7 days overdue, it is considered "Ghosted" until determined otherwise. The Team Lead must explicitly ask for a status update.

8.3 Quality Assurance (QA) & System Compliance

We do not micromanage how consultants consult, but we strictly micromanage how they document it. This distinction is vital for maintaining morale while ensuring compliance.

8.3.1 Documentation Review Protocol

Once per month, the Team Lead performs a "Deep Dive" QA on 3 random files.

  • The Folder Check (Google Drive): Are the client's assets (logos, financials) stored in the Shared Drive, or are they trapped on the consultant's laptop? (Risk: Data Loss).
  • The Artifact Check: The consultant wrote in their Harvest report that they worked with the participant on a business plan. Do you see it in the file? Open the file. Is it a template, or is it customized?
  • Standard: If the advice is generic (e.g., "You should post on social media"), it fails QA.
  • Standard: The advice must be actionable (e.g., "Post 3x/week on Instagram using these 5 specific hashtags relevant to Seattle coffee culture").
  • Widespread issues: If the Team Lead is finding widespread issues with a Consultant’s documentation, the Team Lead will need to perform a complete review of the Consultant’s work, meet with the Consultant, review artifacts for all client files, provide a due date, and then re-audit the file and check back in with Consultant.

8.3.2 Participant File Hygiene Enforcement

If a consultant consistently fails to update participant files, including Google Drive, Nutshell, and/or Harvest, the Team Lead issues a Tier 1 Correction.

  • Script: "I noticed [Participant]’s file is empty but you recorded in Harvest that you delivered a social media strategy. Please add this to their Google Drive file so our records are complete.”

8.4 Community Resource Management

The Team Lead acts as the "Librarian" of the ecosystem. Consultants often need to refer clients to external partners (legal aid, lenders, permitting offices). The Team Lead connects the dots between the business owners and the broader ecosystem.

The Resource Directory (ClickUp Doc):

This must be a live document, not a static PDF. It lives here. (opens in a new tab)

  • Structure:
  • Category: (e.g., Capital, Legal, Marketing).
  • Organization: (e.g., Business Impact NW, Craft3).
  • Contact Person: (Specific name and email).
  • Status: (Active/Waitlisted).
  • Gap Identification: If three consultants ask, "Do we know a lawyer who speaks Vietnamese?" within a month, the Team Lead has identified a Systemic Gap. The Team Lead is responsible for finding that partner and adding them to the directory.

8.5 Facilitating Team Growth

Remote consulting is isolating. The Team Lead must establish a regular 1:1 check-in schedule with each consultant, and also with the full team (i.e. CORE TA Consultant Roundtable). Full Team Roundtables should have planned Teach-Back moments to encourage continued growth from two consultants each month.

8.6 Team Member Ghosting & "Total Situational Awareness"

The Team Lead plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth operation of the program and maintaining the quality of service provided to participants. It is essential that the Team Lead maintains awareness of a consultant’s engagement levels, especially in a remote environment where communication gaps can pose risks.

If a consultant with an assigned participant becomes disengaged or unresponsive for more than 72 hours, it is structurally unacceptable for the Team Lead to remain unaware of this situation. In a remote environment, a lack of communication—silence—should be treated as a risk indicator. Such silence may signal that the consultant is overwhelmed, disengaged, or possibly prioritizing other professional commitments. While it is acknowledged that many consultants are independent contractors who may hold other jobs, this should not impact the level of service provided to participants.

To mitigate risks, the Team Lead must:

  1. Establish Regular Communication: Proactively maintain consistent and open communication with consultants to understand their availability and capacity. This ensures the Team Lead can anticipate potential issues before they escalate.
  2. Monitor Risk Indicators: Be attentive to signs of disengagement, such as unresponsiveness or delays in delivering updates. In these cases, immediate follow-up is necessary to assess and address the situation.
  3. Ensure Participant Support: Regardless of a consultant’s other commitments, the Team Lead must ensure that participants receive timely and adequate service. This may involve redistributing tasks or stepping in to provide support when necessary.

Ultimately, the Team Lead should foster an environment of mutual trust and accountability, ensuring that consultants feel supported while upholding the program’s commitment to delivering exceptional service to participants. Regular communication and thoughtful oversight are key to achieving this balance.

8.6.1 The Ghosting Detection Protocol

Launch Industries defines "Ghosting" as 48 hours of unexplained silence regarding a direct tag, participant request, management request, or co-worker inquiry.

Tier 1: The "Pulse Check" (48 Hours Silence)

  • Trigger: Consultant hasn't replied to a Slack message or updated a task in 24 hours.
  • Action: Team Lead sends a DM via Slack.
  • Script: "Hey [Name], just checking in on the [Particiant] file? Wanted to make sure you aren't blocked. Let me know if you need support."
  • Tone: Supportive, not accusatory.

Tier 2: The Escalation (72 Hours Silence)

  • Trigger: No response to Pulse Check. No activity in Harvest/Nutshell.
  • Action: Team Lead attempts contact via Text/Phone.
  • Script: "Hi [Name], haven't heard from you on Slack. Please check in by EOD today so I know you're okay. If I don't hear back, I'll need to reassign your caseload to ensure client coverage."
  • Operational Shift: Suspend New Assignments. The consultant is flagged as "At-Risk".

Tier 3: Constructive Job Abandonment (1 Week / 5 Business Days)

  • Policy: If a consultant is unresponsive for one calendar week without prior leave approval, the position is considered abandoned.
  • Action: Execute Emergency Caseload Reassignment Protocol.
  • The Kill Switch: Revoke access to Nutshell, 1Password, and Google Drive immediately to protect client data.
  • The Rescue: Map all active clients to a "Rescue Consultant" (Senior/Lead).
  • The Client Communication:
  • Script: "Dear [Client], Your previous consultant had an unforeseen personal emergency. I will be personally handling your file to ensure you don't miss any deadlines. I’m reviewing your folder now and will be in touch tomorrow."
  • Note: Never badmouth the ghosting consultant to the client. Frame it as an "emergency" to maintain professionalism.

Tier 4: Offboarding (2 Weeks)

  • Policy: If a consultant is unresponsive for two weeks without prior leave or approval, HR will offboard the consultant.
7. Operational Infrastructure9. Technical Assistance Lifecycle