# Case: Taras is fast and cuts corners > Taras closes the most tickets, and too many come back. Read his reopened tickets, separate habits from bad luck and script the one-to-one where you give him feedback. - Course: [From Specialist to Manager: Your First Year Leading a Team](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager.md) - Module: One-to-ones and feedback - Lesson 8/32, ~39 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/fast-and-cutting-corners-case ## The fastest person on the team **Alex Tutor:** End of February. One conversation is left from your 30-day plan, and it's the hardest: Taras. **Alex Tutor:** In December and January he closed 726 tickets, 33.85% of the team's, with the fastest first reply, 10.5 minutes. But 9.50% of his tickets came back, and his satisfaction was 78.24% on 216 survey answers. **Iryna:** Taras is our engine for the March peak. Whatever you tell him, don't slow him down. **Sofia:** Maybe I praise the speed and mention the reopens lightly at the end? **Alex Tutor:** That's the sandwich again: he'll hear the praise and miss the rest. And "your reopen rate is too high" is no better: it names a number, not something he can do differently. **Alex Tutor:** So what do you prepare first? > **Exercise:** Before the feedback conversation with Taras, what is the most useful preparation? **Alex Tutor:** So before the conversation, read the tickets themselves. You pulled all 36 that families reopened in January. **Dataset (CSV):** [Taras's reopened tickets, January 2027](https://productovi.com/datasets/from-specialist-to-manager/fast-and-cutting-corners-case/klasna-taras-reopened-january.csv) All 36 tickets of Taras's that families reopened in January, read in early February. Cause: what the lead found in the ticket thread. - `reopen_id`: Reopened ticket - `week_start`: Monday of the week it was reopened - `subject`: english, exam_maths or programming - `cause`: answered_first_question_only, skipped_account_check, closed_before_fix_confirmed, new_question_from_family, platform_fault_returned - `extra_replies`: Replies needed after the reopen - `picked_up_by`: Taras, or a teammate when it came back on another shift **Alex Tutor:** Three causes are habits Taras controls: answering only the first question in a message, skipping the account check, closing before the family confirms a fix. Count them. > **Exercise:** Using the dataset, what **share** of Taras's 36 January reopens came from the three shortcut causes (answered_first_question_only, skipped_account_check, closed_before_fix_confirmed)? In %. **Alex Tutor:** And which single habit is biggest? > **Exercise:** Using the dataset, what **share** of Taras's 36 January reopens came from the single biggest cause, answering only the first question (answered_first_question_only)? In %, two decimals. ## What's his, and what isn't **Alex Tutor:** 27 of 36, 75%. The biggest single habit is answering only the first question: 15 tickets, 41.67%. A family asks about a schedule and a payment, gets the schedule, and writes again. **Sofia:** And the other nine? **Alex Tutor:** Five families came back with a new question, four were platform faults that returned. Not his doing, and fairness means leaving them out of the feedback. **Olha:** Can I add one thing? When his tickets come back on my shift, I answer them a second time. It's not rare. **Alex Tutor:** The data agrees: 20 of 36 came back on a teammate's shift, with 51 of the 88 extra replies. That's the impact beyond families. > **Exercise:** Which conclusions does the January data **support**? Select all that apply. ## How big the fix is **Sofia:** If he dropped those three habits, how much would change? **Alex Tutor:** Work it out for January. He closed 379 tickets; 36 came back. Remove the 27 shortcut reopens and see what rate is left. **Alex Tutor:** One caution: this is one month. December's rate was almost the same, 9.51%, so it's a steady pattern, not a bad week. That's why you can call it a habit. **Iryna:** So the fix doesn't slow him down. It stops the same tickets coming back. > **Exercise:** In January Taras closed 379 tickets and 36 were reopened. 27 of those reopens came from three shortcut habits (answering only the first question, skipping the account check, closing before the family confirmed the fix). If those 27 had not happened, what would his January reopen rate have been? In %, two decimals. **Alex Tutor:** One more check before you call it a habit. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** Taras's January reopen rate of 9.50% is enough on its own to call his shortcuts a habit; checking another month adds nothing. ## The conversation itself **Alex Tutor:** 2.37%, below Olha's 4.09%. That's your strongest argument, and it's a hopeful one: the problem is three habits, not the person. **Alex Tutor:** Hold it in his regular one-to-one, on video, his topics first. Then: "Can we look at a few of your January tickets together?" Open two of them and ask what happened before he closed each one. **Sofia:** And if he gets defensive? **Alex Tutor:** Stay on the tickets, not on him. Let him find the pattern; people own fixes they find. Then agree one next step, like re-reading the message and ticking every question before closing, and a date to look at February's reopens by cause together. **Alex Tutor:** And his speed deserves real praise, on its own, another day. Glued to this talk, it becomes the bread of a sandwich. > **Exercise:** Taras's one-to-one has started and his own topics are done. Which line best opens the feedback? ## When he pushes back **Alex Tutor:** Expect one objection for sure: "If I check every question, my numbers drop, and Iryna watches the numbers." **Iryna:** For the record: I'd rather have fewer tickets closed once than more tickets closed twice. **Sofia:** So I can tell him that Iryna said it. **Alex Tutor:** Better to say it as the team's standard: done means every question answered, the account checked, the fix confirmed. Then say how you'll look at it: reopens by cause, not a target on his rate. **Alex Tutor:** How do you answer that objection? > **Exercise:** Taras says: “If I check every question, my numbers drop, and Iryna watches the numbers.” Which answer works best? > **Exercise:** Taras says: **"If I check every question, my numbers drop, and Iryna watches the numbers."** Write your answer in 2–4 sentences. ## Your script **Alex Tutor:** Last step: write the conversation plan you'll take into Taras's one-to-one on Monday. **Sofia:** Opening, the tickets, his view, the impact, one next step and a date. And no ranking, no tracking, no "you always". **Alex Tutor:** Add what you'll do if he disagrees, and how you'll follow up in writing. Half the team works remotely; the summary is what he'll reread. **Olha:** And please, nothing in the team chat. He'd never forgive that. > **Exercise:** Write your plan for the feedback part of Taras's one-to-one on Monday. > **Key ideas** > > - Top volume isn't top performance: Taras closed 33.85% of the team's tickets, but 9.50% came back. Read the tickets, not only the rate. > - Sort causes into what the person controls and what they don't: 27 of 36 reopens (75%) were three repeatable shortcuts; 9 were new questions or platform faults and stay out of the feedback. > - Name the impact on families and on colleagues: 20 of 36 reopens landed on a teammate's shift, with 51 of 88 extra replies. > - Make the fix concrete and hopeful: without the shortcuts January's rate would be 2.37%, below Olha's 4.09%. > - In his own one-to-one: his topics first, look at tickets together, ask his view, agree one next step and a date. Praise his speed separately. No sandwich, no target on one number, nothing in public. **Alex Tutor:** That closes February. In March the peak begins, Dmytro and Sofiia join, and the question becomes what you hand to whom. - Previous lesson: [Feedback going up: your blind spots](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/feedback-going-up.md) - Next lesson: [The delegation brief](https://productovi.com/courses/from-specialist-to-manager/the-delegation-brief.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.