The Friction Finder

Stop guessing where the work is getting stuck.

The Friction Finder is a facilitated strategic engagement that follows the work across your people, processes, technology, and customer experience to uncover what is creating drag—and build a practical roadmap for what to address first.

Book Your Discovery Call Start with a discovery call to determine whether the Friction Finder is the right next step for your organization.

Facilitated strategic engagement Focused working sessions Internal + external friction Customized Operations Blueprint

Every organization has friction

Some of it lives inside the organization. Some of it lives in the experience people have with you.

Most organizations feel the symptoms long before they understand the source. More meetings. More follow-up. More workarounds. More abandoned forms, stalled decisions, missed handoffs, and frustrated customers.

Internal friction

Broken handoffs, unclear ownership, disconnected tools, manual work, approval bottlenecks, and processes that rely on memory.

External friction

Confusing intake, slow response times, unnecessary steps, poor communication, and client or customer experiences that are harder than they should be.

The work gets done. It just takes too much effort to get it there.

The Friction Finder helps you stop fixing isolated symptoms and see the operating picture clearly.

Where friction hides

You may be feeling it without calling it friction.

Everything requires follow-up.Tasks move only after someone checks, reminds, or manually pushes them forward.
Clients struggle to move through your process.They wait, repeat information, abandon steps, or need help with things that should be simple.
Your tools create more work.Information gets copied, re-entered, cleaned up, and chased across multiple systems.
Growth keeps exposing the same weak spots.New people, programs, or customers increase the strain instead of increasing leverage.
Hiring feels like the answer.But adding people to a broken process can simply give the chaos a new login.

Strategic Operational Engagement

Inside the Friction Finder

Through interviews, analysis, collaborative working sessions, and independent assessment, we identify the operational constraints limiting your organization and design a practical roadmap for improvement.

Phase 01

Diagnose

We get into how work actually moves—not just how it is documented. Through stakeholder conversations, operational materials, and facilitated working sessions, we follow the evidence to identify the friction, patterns, bottlenecks, and constraints affecting performance.

Phase 02

Design

We turn the diagnosis into a practical future state built around your actual goals, people, processes, technology, and capacity. Together, we determine what needs to change and prioritize the opportunities that will make the biggest difference.

Phase 03

Deliver

We turn the future state into an actionable Operations Blueprint. You’ll leave with prioritized next steps, quick wins, strategic initiatives, and a realistic implementation sequence so you know what to tackle first, what can wait, and how to move forward.

Your Operations Blueprint

You will leave knowing what to fix, why it matters, and what comes first.

No giant report. No vague advice. No list of recommendations disconnected from your actual capacity.

✓

Primary friction pointsThe internal and external breakdowns creating the greatest drag.

✓

Priority matrixWhat needs attention now, next, and later.

✓

Quick winsChanges your team can begin without launching a massive initiative.

✓

Process improvementsOpportunities to simplify handoffs, workflows, ownership, and communication.

✓

Technology opportunitiesWhere tools can be improved, connected, automated, or eliminated.

✓

Implementation sequenceA realistic order of operations built around your bandwidth.

Is It the Right Fit?

Built for leaders who need clarity before committing more time, money, people, or technology.

The Friction Finder is a strong fit when:

Your organization has grown faster than its operations.
Your team is capable, committed, and still overloaded.
The same operational issues keep coming back.
You have technology, but the work is not getting easier.
You are considering hiring or restructuring and want clarity first.
You know something needs to change, but not where to begin.

This is not:

A generic productivity workshop.
A software sales pitch disguised as strategy.
A full implementation engagement.
An audit designed to make your team defensive.
A giant report full of recommendations nobody has time to use.
A substitute for leadership making hard decisions.

The Investment

Clarity before another expensive decision.

The goal is not to generate more ideas. It is to give your organization a clear, practical roadmap for reducing friction, reclaiming capacity, and making better operational decisions.

Your engagement is built around the work we need to understand. That may include interactive working sessions, stakeholder interviews, job shadows, process observation, and review of relevant systems, workflows, documentation, and data. We use what we learn to build your customized diagnosis and prioritized Operations Blueprint.

Engagements Range From

$2,500 - $10,000

Final scope is confirmed after your discovery call based on the size of your organization, complexity of the work, and level of discovery required.

Book Your Discovery Call

What Happens After?

First, we find the friction. Then, you decide how to move the work forward.

You can implement the Operations Blueprint internally. When you need additional capacity, Runway Hours provides flexible operational support for process improvements, technology configuration, automation, documentation, data cleanup, and the work required to turn the roadmap into progress.

Frequently asked questions

A few things to know.

How long is each session?

Working sessions are usually around 90 minutes, but can vary depending on the topic, number of participants, and complexity of the issue.

Who should participate?

The strongest engagements include the leader responsible for the outcome and the people closest to the day-to-day work.

Do we need polished documentation?

No. Relevant workflows, forms, spreadsheets, systems, reports, and examples are useful—but messy is useful too. It tells the truth.

Is this a workshop?

No. The Friction Finder is a facilitated strategic engagement. We are not delivering generic training or asking your team to work through a one-size-fits-all exercise. We follow the work inside your organization and build the engagement around what we find.

Is implementation included?

No. You may implement the blueprint internally or use Runway Hours for flexible implementation support.

What does the engagement cost?

Friction Finder engagements range from $2500 - $10,000+. Final scope and investment are confirmed after the discovery call based on organizational size, participation, and complexity.

When is payment due?

Payment is due upfront before the first working session.

The Friction Finder

Ready to stop guessing where the work is getting stuck?

Let’s talk about what is happening inside your organization and determine whether the Friction Finder is the right next step.

Book Your Discovery Call