Baton
Baton makes it clear who holds a task: a person or the agent, never both. A task changes hands only with an explicit handover that says what to do, what not to touch and when to hand it back. Whoever doesn’t hold it can always ask for it back.
Hand the October reconciliation to the agent and choose when it hands back. “When done” returns it with every exception listed; “At the first problem” returns it at the first payment short by more than S$1,000. Take it back at any time.
Anatomy
When to use
- For tasks that pass back and forth: reconciliations, document reviews, tenant onboarding.
- When both a person and the agent could work on the same thing, and doing both at once would collide.
- Not for one-off actions. Use reach marks for those.
Behaviour
| Handover | Says | Example |
|---|---|---|
| What to do | The task in one line | Match October payments to service-charge invoices |
| Hand back when | The condition that ends the agent’s turn | When done · At the first problem |
| Don’t touch | What stays out of bounds | Disputed accounts |
| Hand back note | What was done and what needs you | 41 of 43 matched; L07 and L12 need you |
Taking it back stops the agent at its next safe point, between records, and says where it stopped.
Best practices
- Make every handover explicit. A task never drifts to the agent because nobody was looking.
- Let people choose when it comes back, before they hand it over.
- End every hand-back with a note: done, not done, and what needs a person.
- Keep a log of who held it when.
Accessibility
- The holder is an image with its label in words: “Held by the agent”.
- Hand-back conditions are a labelled radio group.
- Every handover is announced and logged as text.
Specifications
- Track
- 52 pt pill, two lanes
- Baton
- Ink with you, tyrian with the agent; slides in one signal, 280 ms
- Handover
- Card with task, conditions and limits
- Log
- Latest first, with times