Friction Inventory template
Document every point of friction, complaint, and breakdown in the human system.
Download Friction Inventory as Excel or CSV, free.
One form unlocks every template and paper on the site.
Worked example
6 filled rows showing the level of detail that makes this inventory useful — from one fictional mid-market B2B SaaS company, so the examples across the library describe a single coherent operation. The download keeps these on a separate sheet, so the one you fill in starts empty.
| Area | Description | Who is Affected | Frequency | Impact | Root Cause |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Handoffs | Scope is retyped from the proposal into the onboarding project | Sales → CS | Weekly | High | Line items do not carry to the project tool; no integration owner assigned |
| Data | Territory assignment relies on a spreadsheet maintained by one person | RevOps | Daily | Critical | Territory was never modelled as a CRM property |
| Approval | Discount approvals stall when the single approver travels | Sales | Weekly | High | No delegation rule; approval is a person, not a role |
| Reporting | Marketing and sales quote different MQL counts in the same meeting | Marketing, Sales | Monthly | Medium | Two definitions of MQL, neither written down |
| Tools | Outreach activity does not always appear on the contact timeline | SDRs | Daily | Medium | Integration fails silently and nobody owns it |
| Workflow | Leads submitted after 5pm are not touched until the next morning | SDRs | Daily | High | SLA defined in policy but not enforced in the system |
What's in it — 6 columns
The full schema is below, so you can see exactly what you're getting before you download it — or rebuild it by hand if you'd rather.
| Column | Input | Allowed values / hint |
|---|---|---|
| Area | Choose one | Workflow · Data · Tools · Communication · Handoffs · Reporting · Approval · Other |
| Description | Text | What is the friction? |
| Who is Affected | Text | People or teams |
| Frequency | Choose one | Daily · Weekly · Monthly · Quarterly · Ad-hoc |
| Impact | Choose one | Critical · High · Medium · Low |
| Root Cause | Text | Why does this happen? |
LEARN HOW TO FILL IT IN
This schema comes from Friction & Breakdown in RevOps Audit, where the same table is an interactive tool that saves your work and exports into the full audit workbook.
See the course