Flow Decision Signals are early indicators of potential flow issues within an organization. They often surface during workshops, discovery sessions, or team conversations, typically as blockers, pain points, or tensions—but they don’t yet rise to the level of a Flow Decision Trigger.

You can think of signals as the foggy outlines of a problem. Not every signal leads to a decision—but over time, patterns emerge.

⚡ What is a Flow Decision Signal?

A Flow Decision Signal:

  • Describes something that is getting in the way of flow (delivery, alignment, learning, clarity)
  • Might only affect a local area or team (not yet systemic)
  • Often reflects a symptom, not a root cause
  • Needs further investigation to determine whether a decision is required

Example:
“The team has to check with three other groups before merging code.”
→ This is a signal that might point to coordination overload or unclear boundaries.

🔄 Signals vs. Triggers

Type Definition Scope Action
Signal A localized or emerging blocker to flow Often limited to one team or capability Monitor, group, and investigate
Trigger A systemic or recurring blocker that justifies action Affects multiple teams, users, or strategic priorities Capture and respond via an FDR

🔍 Why capture signals?

Capturing signals helps you:

  • Make sense of flow issues before jumping to solutions
  • Spot patterns across teams and value streams
  • Cluster similar issues to find root causes
  • Track signals over time to see which ones escalate into triggers
  • Create a rich backlog of insights for continuous improvement

🧠 Examples of Flow Decision Signals

These are typical statements that might arise in workshops:

  • “We’re always waiting on the same team to release.”
  • “Nobody’s sure who owns the admin dashboard.”
  • “We spend more time syncing than delivering.”
  • “It feels like the platform is built for the platform team, not us.”
  • “Everyone’s reinventing the same things in different teams.”

Each of these:

  • Describes a struggle
  • Suggests a flow issue
  • May or may not justify immediate action

🧩 How do signals lead to triggers?

Look for signals that:

  • Keep recurring across different sessions or teams
  • Are linked to measurable flow problems (lead time, handoffs, rework, confusion)
  • Connect to a strategic goal or user need
  • Point to a root cause (not just a local symptom)

When multiple signals converge, they often indicate a clear Flow Decision Trigger—something that should be explored and possibly captured in a Flow Decision Record (FDR).

🗂️ Categorizing signals

To support prioritization and sensemaking, categorize each signal using the same categories as triggers:

  • Delivery Struggles
  • Structural Misalignment
  • Interaction Friction
  • User and Stakeholder Signals
  • Strategic Change

This helps:

  • Surface themes across the organization
  • Identify hot spots of systemic flow friction
  • Make signals easier to cluster and review

🛠️ Signals in practice

When running a Flow Clinic or workshop:

  • Encourage teams to write down flow blockers or pain points as signals
  • Don’t worry about naming root causes right away
  • Group and tag signals thematically
  • Revisit signals periodically to see if they’ve evolved into actionable decisions

After understanding the signals, you can use a Flow Decision Radar to guide prioritization.

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