Intake

How to bring an idea to the COE. What happens after you submit.

Who can submit

Anyone at Balsam. Operators, leaders, anyone who sees a workflow that could work differently. You don't need to have the solution — you need a real problem.

What makes a good submission

A good submission names:

  • A workflow that is constrained today. Not "we should use AI for X" — "here's how this work moves now, here's where it gets stuck."
  • Who feels the friction. The people doing the work, the people downstream, the customer.
  • What a better outcome looks like. Concrete enough to test against.
  • Why now. Is there a decision coming up? A season? A strategic bet this enables?

A good submission does not need a proposed technical solution. Often the most useful submissions are the ones that describe the problem cleanly and leave the "how" open.

Submission template

Copy this template. Fill it in. Open a pull request against the backlog (coming in V2) or email it to the COE operating team.

# [Workflow name]

**Submitter:** [your name]
**Date:** [YYYY-MM-DD]
**Sponsor (optional):** [a leader who would back this]

## The workflow
[1–2 paragraphs describing how this work happens today. Who does what. What tools. What hand-offs. What breaks.]

## Who feels it
[Who is the person with the problem? Who downstream feels the consequences? Is a customer affected?]

## Why it matters
[What is the cost of leaving this alone? What opens up if it gets better?]

## What a better outcome looks like
[Describe the end state concretely. What would you see on a good day that you don't see now?]

## Why now
[Is there a deadline, decision, season, or bet that makes this timely?]

## What you've already tried
[Optional — any prior attempts, prototypes, tools evaluated.]

## Anything else
[Optional — people to talk to, data sources, related efforts at Balsam.]

What happens after you submit

Within one week, the COE triages your submission.

Three possible outcomes:

  1. Accepted to backlog. The COE writes it up as a one-pager for the Operating Council. You're credited. You'll be invited to contribute if it becomes a cohort.
  2. Routed. Sometimes a submission is better handled by an existing team (IT, a pod, the AI Council). The COE routes it with an introduction and a copy of your brief.
  3. Parked with reasoning. If the submission doesn't fit (too early, too narrow, duplicates ongoing work), the COE responds with the reason. You can iterate and resubmit.

No submission goes silent. Every one gets a response.

How priority calls get made

The backlog is public. Every submission is visible, every one-pager is visible, every decision is recorded.

Priority calls are not a free-for-all. The Operating Council (a subset of Balsam's Leadership Team) reviews the backlog monthly and picks the next cohort. Criteria:

  • Fit with Balsam's strategic objectives. The workflow matters to a real business outcome.
  • Readiness. A core owner willing to give real time. A sponsor willing to clear blockers. Data and access available.
  • Capacity. Balsam has the downstream build capacity (internal or external) to land what the cohort produces.
  • Portfolio balance. Not too similar to the current cohort; mix of depth and reach over time.

The Operating Council's reasoning is recorded. If your submission isn't picked this month, you'll see why. You can resubmit with updated context.

How to get picked

Clear submissions move faster than ones that need translation. Submissions with a willing sponsor move faster than orphans. Submissions that show prior work — a mapped workflow, a prototype, a conversation you've already had — move faster than pure ideas. Submissions that already have cross-functional interest tend to run better cohorts when they start. None of this is scored, but all of it helps.

Frequently submitted ideas

If you're thinking of submitting something, check the backlog first. A similar idea may already be in flight.

Questions

Open an issue on this repo, or ping the COE operating team in Slack.