Work that cannot survive a handoff is not finished. Grok can help you find the hole. It cannot sign that the work is true.
Why this matters
The last two lessons made a desk and a clerk. This lesson is how something leaves. Sales to ops. You to a partner. Friday-you to Monday-you. Field to office. If the only copy of the decision is in a chat you will not find, the shop will reinvent the job.
QA is not “make it nicer.” QA is a pass that looks for invented facts, a missing ask, a promise nobody signed, and a tone you would not put your name under. The capstone will need both a weekly brief and an SOP. Today you practice the check those documents must survive.
Teach
Handoff packet (one page)
Job:
Who owns it now:
Who owned it before:
Artifact (link or filename):
What was decided:
What is still open:
What was checked (facts, sources, numbers):
What must not be assumed:
When it is due:
How to reach the last owner (channel, not a private dump):
If a line is empty, write UNKNOWN or NOT DECIDED. Do not let Grok fill a due date you did not give. The next person will treat that date as real.
When to hand off. The job changed chairs. You will be in the field. The quote became a flight. The inbox item became a research brief someone else must finish. Do not hand off a mood. Hand off a job.
QA clerk, not editor-in-chief. After an artifact exists (a reply, a brief, an SOP, a client note), you run a fixed pass:
Stay in this thread. Do not rewrite unless a line is false.
QA this artifact against the brief and the SOP/agent card.
Return a table:
- Line or claim
- Problem class: invented fact / stale / missing ask / unsigned promise / tone / scope creep / none
- Evidence (quote the line)
- Action: keep / cut / NEED owner
Then a pass/fail. Fail if any invented fact or unsigned promise remains.
You accept or reject each action. Then Grok reprints the artifact. You send.
Problem classes worth teaching the clerk
- Invented fact. A date, fee, acreage, statute, or “we already said.”
- Stale. Last year’s hours, an old URL, a staff member who left.
- Missing ask. A polite email that never says what you need them to do.
- Unsigned promise. A delivery date or a dollar the owner did not type.
- Tone. Slogans, fake warmth, “As an AI,” a joke your shop does not make.
- Scope creep. The clerk added a service you do not sell.
What QA is not. A second draft for taste. “More punchy” is not a defect. If you want shorter, say a number: 120 words, 10 lines. If you want a different ask, write the ask.
Handoff + QA together. The next owner should receive: the artifact, the QA table (or a one-line “QA pass, no invented facts”), and the packet. A pretty PDF with no packet is how they call you from the lot.
People. Handoffs about personnel, students, or medical stay thin: “Item is personnel — see the HR folder, not this thread.” Grok does not get the file.
You still read. A clean QA table can be wrong. Open the source if a claim is checkable. If you will not read the artifact, do not send it. The clerk is not a witness.
Worked example
The late-mosaic email from lesson 1. Draft exists. Owner runs QA against the facts: north half processed, south half reflies Monday 10:00 if weather holds, two options for the superintendent, no apology paragraph, no intern.
Grok’s first QA missed an invented “we will have the full mosaic Tuesday 16:00” — a line the model had slipped in while being helpful. The owner sent the table back: “That date is an unsigned promise. Cut it.” Second QA: fail on missing ask? No — the two options are the ask. Pass on invented facts after the cut. Tone: one slogan (“we value your partnership”) — cut.
Handoff: the partner is taking calls Tuesday. Packet says: artifact is the sent mail (paste), decided = two date options offered, open = her choice, checked = reflight window from the PIC not from Grok, must not assume = full mosaic exists, due = her reply, last owner = principal, text not email if the site is live.
The partner can run Tuesday without asking what was promised.
Your turn
Open grok.com. New thread named handoff-qa — [job]. Bring a real artifact you will send or already sent this week (redact). If you have the agent card from lesson 2, paste it as the rail.
Exercise d-biz-l03-e1
| Field | Value |
|---|
| whereToDo | grok.com |
| time | 22 min |
Copy-ready prompts
Message 1:
I am in Grok Mastery (Russell Tech), Pathway D, Business, lesson 3 — handoff and QA.
Artifact to QA:
[paste]
Rails (facts that are allowed):
[bullet the facts I already know]
[optional: paste agent card]
Do not rewrite yet.
Write the QA table (line, problem class, evidence, action).
Pass/fail: fail if invented fact or unsigned promise.
Message 2:
I accept these actions: [list]
I reject these: [list]
Reprint the artifact with accepted actions only.
Then write a Handoff Packet with the eleven lines from this lesson.
Do not invent a due date, owner, or decision I did not give — write UNKNOWN.
Session stamp: today's date and "Handoff and QA written by Grok in this thread."
Artifact to paste
- The QA table and pass/fail.
- The reprinted artifact.
- The Handoff Packet.
- The session stamp.
- One line from you: the invented fact or unsigned promise you almost shipped (or
none — and here is how I know).
Rubric
- Pass: QA table is Grok-authored. Artifact is real. Packet has owner, artifact, decided, open, must-not-assume. UNKNOWN used instead of invented dates. Stamp present. You named what almost shipped or why nothing did.
- Fail: “Looks good.” No table. You wrote the packet without Grok. A handoff with no artifact. Secrets pasted. QA that only comments on tone.
Common failure
The common failure is handoff by screenshot. A crop of a chat, no owner, no due, no “must not assume.” The next person will assume. Write the packet. It is faster than the phone call you are trying to avoid.
The other failure is QA as praise. You ask Grok if it is good. It says yes. That is sycophancy, not a check. Demand the table and the fail condition.
What’s next
You can sort a week, leash a clerk, and hand off without fiction. Capstone: one weekly brief plus one SOP you will actually run — with the agent card and a QA pass attached.
