Define what is intentional/deliberate collaboration in a ticket and what is not
Request for comments
Need
At the APAC Support Pod Pilot sync on 2021-08-03, we reviewed a CI/CD pod ticket (Zendesk, internal only) in which a pod member had left internal notes on what they did to investigate the problem, how the troubleshooting might be progressed, and how the problem might be resolved. The ticket assignee, who was not a pod member, then followed up on those internal notes with the customer and with the pod member for further collaboration.
It was generally agreed that this was a great approach to take, but it also did raise the question of whether this might have been considered "drive-by collaboration", as the ticket assignee did not actively solicit this collaboration. As a counterpoint, there was clear intent to collaborate asynchronously through internal notes on the pod member's part as they did not send a public reply.
There is definitely great value in this approach, so perhaps the problem to solve is that we should clarify what is intentional/deliberate collaboration and what is not, specifically for the case where multiple support engineers contribute to a single ticket.
While this discussion came out of a Support Pods scenario, it is also equally applicable to our general ticket handling workflows, so I'd like to invite all Support team members to participate.
Context: "drive-by collaboration" was a term used in the context of the previous hybrid hot queue model which I personally understand was used to describe the phenomenon of multiple support engineers sending public replies to customers on a single ticket, possibly pulling the ticket in multiple directions (not all of them productive).
Approach
Within the context of our current workflows, we know we must/should:
- Continue having the assignee be the primary owner of a support request.
- Honour the customer's selected Preferred Region for Support as best as we can.
- Prioritise asynchronous collaboration and be careful not to equate intentional collaboration with synchronous collaboration (h/t
@jgianoutsos).
We should discuss this in the issue, then document this in the handbook.
Benefit
Clarifying what intentional or deliberate collaboration is, or is not, when multiple support engineers contribute in a single ticket will:
- Help clarify how multiple support engineers can collaborate on a ticket, particularly when collaboration is asynchronous.
- Help clarify how Support Pod members should interact with tickets that are assigned to someone else.
Competition / Alternatives
Do nothing.