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Handoff

Package evidence, readiness, and a clear recommendation — invest, iterate, pause, or pivot. If invest, transfer cleanly to an owning team with 30/60/90 support.

Published
Owner · Director, InnovationUpdated · 2026-07-21

Purpose

Handoff is where the Accelerator makes a clear recommendation and — if that recommendation is invest — transfers the work cleanly to a receiving team. A validated, ready bet with no owner is just an interesting demo. The output of this stage is a decision on the record and, when the decision is go, a package the next team can actually run with.

Entry
Validation evidence + readiness report in hand.
Artifact
Recommendation memo + (if invest) handoff package + 30/60/90 support plan.
Gate
Recommendation accepted by the sponsor; if invest, owned by the receiving team.

Lead with the recommendation

Every handoff opens with one of four recommendations. The rest of the package exists to back it up. Don't bury the call under the artifacts.

Evidence + readiness support production
Invest
Recommend an owning team and delivery scope. Package everything below. Set the 30/60/90 support plan.
Signal is there, execution isn't
Iterate
Recommend one more prototype/validation round with a specific change. Name the assumption still on the table.
Right idea, wrong moment
Pause
Recommend parking it. Name the single condition that would restart it — a market change, a policy change, a partner conversation.
The evidence points elsewhere
Pivot
Recommend a reframed problem or a different user. Feed the new frame back into Intake with everything we already know.
Package the same way regardless
Even for iterate / pause / pivot, package the evidence and readiness. Someone will pick this back up — future-you, another Accelerator, or the sponsor themselves — and they'll need the context. The recommendation changes; the artifact standard doesn't.

The handoff package (invest)

Standard shape, every time:

  • Recommendation memo — one page, leading with the call and the evidence behind it
  • Opportunity brief (the problem, the sponsor, the metric)
  • Prototype links (live URL, Lovable project, markup.io comment thread)
  • Prompt library — the prompts that built and iterated the prototype
  • Validation summary — evidence pack with the decision it supports
  • Readiness report — status per dimension, gaps, owners, dates
  • Product requirements distilled from the prototype
  • Delivery recommendations — known risks, integration points, watch items

The 30/60/90 support plan

Onboarding
Day 30
Walk the receiving team through the prototype, prompts, and evidence. Answer questions. Do not take back work.
First iteration
Day 60
Available for one working session on their first meaningful change. Coaching, not implementation.
Retrospective
Day 90
Joint retro. What survived, what didn't, what the next Accelerator should do differently.

Common failure mode

Becoming the shadow owner
The most expensive failure of a handoff is the Accelerator continuing to do the work from the sidelines. If the receiving team can't run without you at day 30, escalate to the sponsor rather than absorb the ownership. Ownership drift kills capacity for the next bet.

Supporting tools