New Lead

You just became the support lead. The job doesn't arrive as a calendar. It arrives as situations. The backlog grows while the team works flat out. The first escalation lands on you and nobody can say who owns it. A senior agent who wanted your job goes quiet. Your manager loves a number you suspect is wrong. Every small refund waits for your approval.

New Lead is 25 plays for those situations. Start on the Find your situation page, pick the line that sounds like your week, and go straight to the play. One made-up team, Tallyfold, runs through every play, so you can watch a new lead get things wrong and correct them. Each play gives you:

• The situation and the signs, so you know you've picked the right play
• The move, step by step
• Say it like this: words you can use out loud or send as is
• Decision rules for the judgment calls
• A template to copy and fill in
• Watch for: the ways the play can go wrong
• The usual advice next to what to do instead, plus one worked judgement call with the test to use
• Starting defaults: the numbers I'd begin with, each with its reason
• A check step: how you'll know it worked, and when to look
• A walk-away line: when the play has done its job and you should stop or switch
• An AI draft prompt that turns your notes and exports into a first draft. It drafts; you decide.

Where a play touches performance, health, leave or anything contractual, it tells you to follow your company's policy and bring in HR. It gives no legal or HR advice.

What's inside

• When the team is sizing you up: your first team message, leading former peers, the same six questions in every first 1:1
• When the numbers don't add up: freeze the baseline, the metric your boss loves, work the queue yourself, find the top five contact drivers
• When the backlog is on fire: stop the backlog growing, batch the top driver, stale tickets with a way back, an honest delay notice, a one-page headcount case with a worked capacity example
• When everything lands on you: the first escalation that lands on you, decision boundaries, partner teams, saying no to other teams, fixing the thing the team keeps naming
• When quality and people need you: QA checks you can point to, a calibration hour, coaching from one ticket, a ramp ladder for new hires, the struggling performer, burnout signals
• When you have to report up: a weekly update upward, and one page when your manager asks how it's going
• A situation map, a templates index, a measurement worksheet and a standing rules block for your AI assistant
• Weak versions next to better ones, for the first team message and the first 1:1
• PDF, 50 pages

Who it's for

• Agents newly promoted to support or service desk team lead
• Managers newly hired into a support team of roughly three to fifteen people
• Leads taking over a team after a rough patch

It assumes you know how to do support well. It doesn't assume you've led before.

Who it isn't for

If you want a fill-in-the-blanks calendar, or a guide to a specific help desk tool, this isn't it.

Try it first

The free sample has three complete plays: the first 1:1 question set, decision boundaries, and stopping a backlog from growing.

The small print

By Draft First, written by a customer success and support lead. Examples use made-up companies and figures. Not legal or HR advice. Questions: hello@draftfirstcs.com.

All sales are final. Please read the free sample before you buy.

Get New Lead

Questions before you buy? Email hello@draftfirstcs.com.