Warm Handoffs Redux

My Warm Handoffs post generated a lot of activity. Before I had shared it, a former coworker happened to find it via a Google search for “Warm Handoffs Slack.” A few people reposted it on LinkedIn, and someone I don’t know at all shared it on Hacker News, where it briefly reached number 7 on the homepage. Several people told me they shared it with their teams to implement the practice. My favorite quote was:

Oh wow, ha. I’ve hit a lot of cold redirects since starting here and could not pinpoint what I was finding so frustrating. This encapsulates, gives me words to describe it, and provides a solution to socialize.

One fun thing about the Hacker News comments was that I learned that Will Larson wrote something similar earlier this year.¹ I agree with Larson’s post, which focuses specifically on the ability that a “wrong” team has to enrich someone’s request. I think this is implicit anytime you redirect someone–you know more than they do.

Someone else highlighted Postel’s Law, which you can definitely read as sort of an overarching philosophy supporting Warm Handoffs and No Wrong Doors.

A nice bit of feedback was that the term “policy” seemed too strict. I went back and read my article, and found I agreed. I’ve since ammended it to soften that language a bit.

Implementation-wise, I don’t think there’s much difference between a introducing a “policy” vs. a “standard,” but the latter may imply a more open process of gathering support and feedback. In any case, when I read the updated language, it feels closer to my intent and experience.

I’m excited that this idea resonates with so many people.