Start with a real delay
Choose one recent outcome that arrived late: a proposal, a delivery, an invoice, or a customer reply. Write down what should have happened and what actually happened. Avoid starting with a sweeping judgment such as “the team is overwhelmed.” You need a sequence you can examine, not a label you have to defend.
Walk through the work with the people who handled it. Record when each step was ready, when someone started, and what was missing. If you do not know the timing, mark it as unknown rather than reconstructing a confident story.
Separate three different problems
Capacity means more ready-to-do work than the available people can reasonably complete. Rework means a task had to be repeated or corrected. Waiting means work could not move because an input, decision, approval, or handoff was missing.
These categories can overlap. A rushed task might create rework that consumes capacity. The purpose is not to force every delay into one box; it is to identify the next question worth answering.
Map one delayed outcome before committing to a bigger solution.
Try a smaller change first
Hypothetical example: a team takes several days to send a proposal, but the writing takes only a few hours. If the proposal sits waiting for a scope decision, another writer may not resolve that specific delay. A clearer scope handoff or a defined review time could be worth testing.
If ready-to-do work still exceeds realistic capacity after the avoidable friction is addressed, additional help may be appropriate. This review is not a rule against hiring, and safety or compliance needs should never wait for a productivity experiment.
Give the test an owner
Choose one change, one person responsible for it, and a review date. Observe the result and the side effects: did the work move sooner, did quality hold, and did the burden simply move to someone else? Keep the test small enough to reverse.
Use the Business Bottleneck Review to capture the sequence. The useful output is a better-informed decision, not a promise that every delay has a simple fix.
Trace one delayed outcome. Separate capacity, rework, and waiting before deciding what to change.
Open Business Bottleneck Review