Capability template for people and HR

Departing-employee knowledge capture

When someone is leaving or changing role, their manager gets an interview guide aimed at what only that person knows, then a handover document the successor can work from, every point traced to the conversations and marked with how sure it is. Nothing is shared until the manager approves.

The outcome

Years of know-how stay with the company when the person who built them moves on. Before the conversations, the manager holds a guide: the areas of know-how in priority order, starting with what nobody else holds, the sessions to book, who sits in, and the questions that draw out what is written nowhere. After them, the successor gets one document: what to know in each area, when it matters, the exceptions, the early warning signs, what the person settled alone and what they passed up, who else can help and where it is written down.

Every point names the conversation it came from and says how sure it is: confirmed, the person's own account with someone to check it with, unsure, or disputed by a colleague. Promises still open come with their dates. Ideas the company has tried and dropped are recorded, so nobody spends a year relearning them.

The manager runs the conversations and decides. The departing colleague checks the draft before anyone else reads it. The assistant books nothing, records nobody, shares nothing and never chooses who takes over a piece of work.

Who starts the work, and when

The manager starts it the day a departure or a move to another role is confirmed, while the person still has most of their time. They list the areas the person looks after; the departing colleague can add their own. The manager approves the guide, books the sessions, and runs the second stage after each round of conversations. The successor sits in where one is named.

What they supply

  • A short role brief. The role, the last day in it, any days off before then, and the successor if one is named. The reason for leaving is not needed.
  • The knowledge area list. Each area the person looks after, who depends on it, who else knows it and where it is written down, as a simple table with stated column headers.
  • The departing colleague's own list, if they have one.
  • A few settings. Session length, areas per session, and how many working days before the last day the conversations finish and the draft is checked.
  • The session notes, numbered, for the second stage. Recording happens only if the person agrees.

What comes out

First, the interview guide: the dates, the areas in priority order with the reason for each, questions for every area plus ones aimed at its documents and outside parties, a session plan with who to invite, the closing questions, and the decisions the manager makes before booking.

Second, the knowledge handover document: each area with its fields filled from the notes, the open commitments and coming dates, the ideas tried before and dropped, the people to know, and the questions to settle before the departing colleague checks it. Personal matters stay out; the document records the work, never the person.

An invented example

Illustrative example with invented data. The company, the roles, the suppliers, the products, the documents and the dates below are all invented. The company is an invented 70-person specialty food distributor. Its purchasing lead in the buying team is leaving, and the operations director wants what she knows kept for the buyer who takes over. The capability runs twice. Stage one: the inputs the operations director supplied, in full, then the interview guide it returned. Stage two: the session notes, in full, then the handover document it returned.

Stage one: the inputs

1. Role brief (from the operations director)

Role: Purchasing lead, Buying team
Manager: Operations director
Change: leaving the company
Last day in the role: Friday 4 December 2026
Not working before then: office closed Thursday 26 November
Successor: Buyer
Today: Monday 9 November 2026

2. Knowledge area list (typed by the operations director)

Area,What it covers,Depends on it,Others who know it,Written down in
Holiday peak ordering,Ordering for the November-December peak: quantities and timing for the top 40 lines,Sales team; customers,,Partly: last year's peak spreadsheet
Two main cheese importers,The relationship with the two importers that supply most of the cheese range,Suppliers; Finance manager,None,None
Short-dated stock,What happens to stock that arrives with less shelf life than agreed,Warehouse lead; customers,Partly: Warehouse lead,Goods-in procedure GI-04

3. The purchasing lead's own list (her email to the operations director, Friday 6 November)

One more for the list: the freight forwarder for the Italian containers.
I book these and nobody else has dealt with them.

4. Settings

Working days: Monday to Friday
Session length: 60 minutes
Areas per session: 2
Conversations finished: 5 working days before the last day
Draft checked by the departing person: 2 working days before the last day
Approves the guide and the handover document: Operations director

Stage one: the output

KNOWLEDGE CAPTURE INTERVIEW GUIDE: Purchasing lead, Buying team

  • For: Operations director. Status: draft for the Operations director's approval.
  • Change: leaving the company. Last day in the role: Friday 4 December 2026. Prepared: Monday 9 November 2026.
  • Successor: Buyer.
  • Working days left: 19, from Monday 9 November to Friday 4 December. Not working: Thursday 26 November (office closed).
  • Sessions: 2 of 60 minutes, held by Friday 27 November (5 working days before the last day). Draft handover document checked by the departing purchasing lead by Wednesday 2 December.
  • From: knowledge area list (3 areas); the departing purchasing lead's own list (1 area); settings.
  • Areas: 4 (3 first, 1 second, 0 third priority). Decisions: 2.
  • Left out: nothing.

Before each session

  • Record only with the departing purchasing lead's agreement; otherwise type numbered notes.
  • For each point, ask who else knows it and where it is written down.
  • Write down their own words wherever they say how something must be done.
  • Leave out why they are leaving, their health, pay and performance.

Opening, to read at the start of each session

"This conversation is about keeping what you have learned as purchasing lead working after you hand it on. It is not a review of your work. I will note what you say, and you will check the draft before anyone else reads it. I will only record if you agree."

Questions for every area

  1. Take me through the last time this came up, from start to finish.
  2. How can you tell, before anyone complains, that this is going wrong?
  3. What do you settle yourself here, what do you pass up, and to whom?
  4. What is promised or under way right now, to whom, and by when?
  5. Who else could answer these questions, even in part?

Areas, in priority order

  • A1 Holiday peak ordering · Session 1 · Priority: first (no one else named; customers depend on it)
    • Covers: ordering for the November-December peak: quantities and timing for the top 40 lines. Depends on it: Sales team; customers. Others who know it: not stated. Written down in: Partly: last year's peak spreadsheet.
    • How: conversation; go through last year's peak spreadsheet together.
    • Also ask: "Going through last year's peak spreadsheet, which parts do you skip, change or add to?" "Besides your usual contacts, whose word settles things at each customer?" "Tell me about a time things went badly with a customer. What put it right?" "Which of the top 40 lines need different timing from last year, and why?"
    • FLAG, others not stated: the list leaves "Others who know it" empty, so the area counts as known by no one else until the Operations director says otherwise. See decision 1.
  • A2 Two main cheese importers · Session 1 · Priority: first (no one else named; suppliers depend on it)
    • Covers: the relationship with the two importers that supply most of the cheese range. Depends on it: Suppliers; Finance manager. Others who know it: None. Written down in: None.
    • How: conversation.
    • Also ask: "Besides your usual contacts, whose word settles things at each importer?" "Tell me about a time things went badly with an importer. What put it right?" "How do the two importers differ in what they expect from us?"
  • A3 Italian container freight (added by the departing purchasing lead) · Session 2 · Priority: first (no one else named)
    • Covers: booking the Italian containers with the freight forwarder, from her email. Depends on it: not stated. Others who know it: None, from her email ("nobody else has dealt with them"). Written down in: not stated.
    • How: conversation.
    • Also ask: "Besides your usual contacts, whose word settles things at the freight forwarder?" "Tell me about a time things went badly with the freight forwarder. What put it right?" "What does a booking with the forwarder involve, from the quote to the container arriving?"
    • FLAG, depends on it not stated, written down in not stated: her email does not say who relies on this work or whether any of it is written down. See decision 2.
  • A4 Short-dated stock · Session 2 · Priority: second (known in part by the Warehouse lead; customers depend on it)
    • Covers: what happens to stock that arrives with less shelf life than agreed. Depends on it: Warehouse lead; customers. Others who know it: Partly: Warehouse lead. Written down in: Goods-in procedure GI-04.
    • How: conversation; go through Goods-in procedure GI-04 together.
    • Also ask: "Going through Goods-in procedure GI-04, which parts do you skip, change or add to?" "Besides your usual contacts, whose word settles things at each customer?" "Tell me about a time things went badly with a customer. What put it right?" "When a delivery arrives with less shelf life than agreed, what do you decide, and how?"

Session plan

  • Session 1 (60 minutes, by Friday 27 November): A1, A2. Invite: Buyer.
  • Session 2 (60 minutes, by Friday 27 November): A3, A4; closing questions. Invite: Buyer; Warehouse lead for A4.

Closing questions, in the last session

  1. Which ideas have been tried here and dropped? What would you say if one came up again?
  2. What do people come to you for that is not in your role description?
  3. Which question do you get asked most, and what is the answer?
  4. What have I not asked that will catch your successor out in the first month?

Decisions before the sessions: 2

  1. A1, others not stated. For: Operations director. The knowledge area list does not say whether anyone else knows holiday peak ordering. Does anyone, even in part? If so, should they be invited to Session 1?
  2. A3, depends on it not stated, written down in not stated. For: Operations director. The departing purchasing lead added Italian container freight and wrote that nobody else has dealt with the freight forwarder. Who relies on this work, and is any of it written down?

Draft for the Operations director's approval. No session has been booked and nothing has been sent.

Stage two: the inputs

The operations director approved the guide, booked both sessions and typed numbered notes in each. The purchasing lead agreed to typed notes; neither session was recorded.

1. The approved interview guide

The guide above.

2. Session notes

Session 1. Monday 16 November 2026, 10:00 to 11:00.
Present: Purchasing lead, Operations director (asking), Buyer.
Typed notes, agreed. No recording.

A1 Holiday peak ordering
1. Peak orders for the top 40 lines go in by the second week of October.
   Top-ups go in by 20 November at the latest, because the importers stop
   taking December changes after that.
2. Last year's spreadsheet is right on quantities but wrong on the
   panettone line. It shows one delivery. She splits it into two, late
   October and mid-November, because the warehouse ran out of space in
   2025. The spreadsheet was never updated.
3. Warning sign: when the two largest restaurant-group customers stop
   sending their weekly forecasts in early November, they are usually
   moving some volume to a cash-and-carry. She cuts the top-up by about
   a fifth.
4. She places top-ups within the agreed peak budget herself. Anything
   above the peak budget goes to the Operations director.
5. Under way: the top-up order for the chocolate gift lines is drafted
   but not placed. It must go to the supplier by Friday 20 November.
6. The Buyer has placed peak orders with her for two years and knows
   the quantities, but has never done the top-ups alone.

A2 Two main cheese importers
7. Importer one: the account manager is the day-to-day contact, but the
   owner signs off any price or allocation change. She calls the owner
   directly once a year, in January, before the price round.
8. Importer two prefers email to calls. Orders by Tuesday noon for
   Friday delivery; anything later slips a week.
9. In 2024 a pallet from importer two arrived warm. It was settled by a
   credit note because she sent the temperature logger readings within
   24 hours. Without the logger readings they refuse claims.
10. In short years, when the importers ration popular cheeses, she
    agrees the allocation herself. Price changes above 5% go to the
    Finance manager.
11. Promised: a January meeting with importer one's owner. Date not set.
12. Nobody else has spoken to importer one's owner. The Finance manager
    sees the invoices only.

Session 2. Tuesday 24 November 2026, 14:00 to 15:00.
Present: Purchasing lead, Operations director (asking), Buyer,
Warehouse lead (for A4). Typed notes, agreed. No recording.

A3 Italian container freight
1. Two containers a year from Italy, booked with the freight forwarder
   about eight weeks before the shipping date. The next booking, for the
   March container, is due in the first week of January.
2. The forwarder's quotes leave out port storage. She always gets the
   free storage days in writing, because the port charges by the day
   after that.
3. Warning sign: if the forwarder has not confirmed a vessel two weeks
   before the shipping date, call. A booking has been bumped before.
4. She books within the freight budget herself. Anything over goes to
   the Operations director.
5. The booking steps are in her own email folder "Italy freight", not
   anywhere shared.

A4 Short-dated stock
6. GI-04 says reject anything under 60% of its shelf life. In practice
   she accepts cheese from the two importers down to 50% if a
   customer's standing order will use it within the week, and notes it
   on the delivery note.
7. The Warehouse lead said he applies GI-04 as written and did not know
   about the 50% exception. He rejects; she then overrides by phone.
8. Warning sign: two short-dated deliveries in a month from one
   supplier usually means they are clearing old stock before a price
   change.
9. Customers are never sent stock under 50%. The sales team is told, so
   they can tell the customer about the shorter date.

Closing
10. Tried and dropped: a group buying arrangement with two other
    distributors in 2022, for better cheese prices. It fell apart over
    who paid for storage and left a stock dispute that took months. If
    it comes up again: agree storage costs in writing first.
11. Question asked most: "Can we get X for a customer by Friday?" The
    answer turns on importer two's Tuesday noon cut-off.
12. What will catch the successor out: both importers close from
    23 December to 4 January, so the last orders for early January go
    in by Tuesday 15 December.
13. People come to her for: the warehouse asks her to approve any
    substitution on customer orders.
14. She said she is leaving to be closer to her family after a move.

3. Today's date

Wednesday 25 November 2026

Stage two: the output

KNOWLEDGE HANDOVER DOCUMENT: Purchasing lead, Buying team

  • For: Buyer, from the departing purchasing lead. Owner: Operations director.
  • Status: Draft. The departing purchasing lead checks it by Wednesday 2 December; the Operations director approves it before it is shared.
  • Last day in the role: Friday 4 December 2026. Prepared: Wednesday 25 November 2026.
  • From: interview guide of Monday 9 November; Session 1 (Monday 16 November: Purchasing lead, Operations director, Buyer); Session 2 (Tuesday 24 November: Purchasing lead, Operations director, Buyer, Warehouse lead); documents named: last year's peak spreadsheet, Goods-in procedure GI-04, email folder "Italy freight".
  • Areas: 5 (4 from the guide, 1 raised in the sessions). Commitments: 4. Questions to settle: 5.
  • Held by nobody else: A2, A3, A5.
  • Left out: the reason for leaving (Session 2, note 14).

Areas

A1 Holiday peak ordering · Priority: first · Covered in Session 1

  • What to know: Peak orders for the top 40 lines go in by the second week of October. Top-ups go in by 20 November at the latest, because the importers stop taking December changes after that. The panettone line comes in two deliveries, late October and mid-November, not one.
  • When it matters: from the second week of October to 20 November.
  • Exceptions: none raised.
  • Warning signs: when the two largest restaurant-group customers stop sending their weekly forecasts in early November, they are usually moving some volume to a cash-and-carry. The purchasing lead cuts the top-up by about a fifth.
  • Decides alone / passes up: top-ups within the agreed peak budget, herself; anything above the peak budget goes to the Operations director.
  • Who else can help: Buyer: has placed peak orders with her for two years and knows the quantities; has never done the top-ups alone.
  • Written down in: last year's peak spreadsheet; differs from what was said: see question 1.
  • How sure: Their account; check with the Buyer.
  • Source: Session 1, notes 1 to 6.

A2 Two main cheese importers · Priority: first · Covered in Sessions 1 and 2

  • What to know: Importer one: the account manager is the day-to-day contact, but the owner signs off any price or allocation change; the purchasing lead calls the owner directly once a year, in January, before the price round. Importer two prefers email to calls; orders by Tuesday noon for Friday delivery, and anything later slips a week.
  • When it matters: the question asked most, "Can we get X for a customer by Friday?", turns on importer two's Tuesday noon cut-off. Both importers close from 23 December to 4 January, so the last orders for early January go in by Tuesday 15 December.
  • Exceptions: a delivery from importer two that arrives warm: claims are refused without the temperature logger readings. In 2024 a warm pallet was settled by a credit note because the readings went within 24 hours.
  • Warning signs: none raised.
  • Decides alone / passes up: agrees the allocation herself in short years, when the importers ration popular cheeses; price changes above 5% go to the Finance manager.
  • Who else can help: nobody else named; Finance manager: sees the invoices only, and price changes above 5% go to them. Nobody else has spoken to importer one's owner.
  • Written down in: nowhere.
  • How sure: Their account; nobody else named.
  • Source: Session 1, notes 7 to 12; Session 2, notes 11 and 12.

A3 Italian container freight · Priority: first · Covered in Session 2

  • What to know: Two containers a year come from Italy, booked with the freight forwarder about eight weeks before the shipping date. The forwarder's quotes leave out port storage; the purchasing lead always gets the free storage days in writing, because the port charges by the day after that.
  • When it matters: about eight weeks before each shipping date. The next booking, for the March container, is due in the first week of January (C3).
  • Exceptions: none raised.
  • Warning signs: if the forwarder has not confirmed a vessel two weeks before the shipping date, call; a booking has been bumped before.
  • Decides alone / passes up: books within the freight budget herself; anything over goes to the Operations director.
  • Who else can help: nobody else named.
  • Written down in: her own email folder "Italy freight"; personal place only: see question 2.
  • How sure: Their account; nobody else named.
  • Source: Session 2, notes 1 to 5.

A4 Short-dated stock · Priority: second · Covered in Session 2

  • What to know: GI-04 says reject anything under 60% of its shelf life, but in practice the purchasing lead accepts some importer cheese below that, on the conditions under Exceptions. Customers are never sent stock under 50%. The sales team is told, so they can tell the customer about the shorter date.
  • When it matters: when a delivery arrives with less shelf life than agreed.
  • Exceptions: the purchasing lead accepts cheese from the two importers down to 50% if a customer's standing order will use it within the week, and notes it on the delivery note.
  • Warning signs: two short-dated deliveries in a month from one supplier usually means they are clearing old stock before a price change.
  • Decides alone / passes up: she accepts down to 50% herself under the exception; what she passes up: not covered.
  • Who else can help: Warehouse lead: applies GI-04 as written; did not know about the 50% exception.
  • Written down in: Goods-in procedure GI-04; differs from what was said: see question 3.
  • How sure: Disputed: the Warehouse lead rejects these deliveries under GI-04 and the purchasing lead then overrides by phone; see question 3.
  • Source: Session 2, notes 6 to 9.

A5 Substitution approvals · Priority: not set · Raised in Session 2

  • What to know: the warehouse asks the purchasing lead to approve any substitution on customer orders.
  • When it matters: not covered.
  • Exceptions: none raised.
  • Warning signs: none raised.
  • Decides alone / passes up: not covered.
  • Who else can help: nobody else named.
  • Written down in: not stated.
  • How sure: Their account; nobody else named.
  • Source: Session 2, note 13. See question 4.

Commitments and coming dates

  • C1 Top-up order for the chocolate gift lines, drafted but not placed · For: the supplier · Due: Friday 20 November · Area: A1 · Takes it over: to decide: see question 5 · Date passed. Source: Session 1, note 5.
  • C2 Meeting with importer one's owner, before the price round · For: importer one's owner · Due: January, date not set · Area: A2 · Takes it over: to decide: see question 5. Source: Session 1, notes 7 and 11.
  • C3 Booking for the March container · For: the freight forwarder · Due: first week of January · Area: A3 · Takes it over: to decide: see question 5. Source: Session 2, note 1.
  • C4 Last orders for early-January deliveries · For: both cheese importers · Due: Tuesday 15 December · Area: A2 · Takes it over: to decide: see question 5. Source: Session 2, note 12.

Tried before and dropped

  • T1 A group buying arrangement with two other distributors, in 2022, for better cheese prices · Why it failed: it fell apart over who paid for storage and left a stock dispute that took months · If it comes up again: agree storage costs in writing first. Source: Session 2, note 10.

People to know

  • Importer one's account manager · day-to-day contact · not said. Source: Session 1, note 7.
  • Importer one's owner · signs off any price or allocation change · called directly once a year, in January, before the price round. Source: Session 1, note 7.
  • Importer two · cheese orders and claims · prefers email to calls; orders by Tuesday noon for Friday delivery. Source: Session 1, notes 8 and 9.
  • Freight forwarder · the Italian containers · call if no vessel is confirmed two weeks before the shipping date. Source: Session 2, notes 1 and 3.
  • Warehouse lead · short-dated deliveries · not said. Source: Session 2, note 7.
  • Finance manager · price changes above 5% · not said. Source: Session 1, note 10.
  • Operations director · peak top-ups above the budget; freight above the budget · not said. Source: Session 1, note 4; Session 2, note 4.
  • Sales team · told about short-dated stock, so they can tell the customer about the shorter date · not said. Source: Session 2, note 9.

Questions to settle before Wednesday 2 December

  1. A1, differs from what was said. For: Operations director. Last year's peak spreadsheet shows one panettone delivery; the purchasing lead splits it into two, late October and mid-November, because the warehouse ran out of space in 2025, and the spreadsheet was never updated (Session 1, note 2). Which is the plan from now on, and who updates the spreadsheet?
  2. A3, personal place only. For: Operations director. The booking steps for the Italian containers are only in the purchasing lead's own email folder "Italy freight" (Session 2, note 5), and the next booking is due in the first week of January. Where are the steps kept from Friday 4 December, and who moves them there?
  3. A4, differs from what was said, disputed. For: Operations director. GI-04 says reject anything under 60% of its shelf life; the purchasing lead accepts cheese from the two importers down to 50% when a standing order will use it within the week (Session 2, note 6). The Warehouse lead applies GI-04 as written and did not know of the exception; he rejects and she overrides by phone (Session 2, note 7). Which is the rule, and does GI-04 change?
  4. A5, raised in the sessions. For: Operations director. The warehouse asks the purchasing lead to approve any substitution on customer orders (Session 2, note 13). The sessions did not cover how she decides. Is it covered with her before Wednesday 2 December?
  5. Commitments, no one named to take them over. For: Operations director. Who takes over C1, C2, C3 and C4? C1 was due on Friday 20 November: was the order placed?

Draft. Not yet checked by the departing purchasing lead or approved by the Operations director. Nothing has been shared or sent.

Where it fits

What has to change for your company

Set your session length, how many areas a conversation covers, and when the conversations and the check must finish. Add the questions your best managers already ask, and keep the one on ideas tried and dropped. Decide whether conversations may be recorded, where notes and the approved document are kept, and who may read them. Access, equipment and the hand-over of each piece of work run on the employee offboarding and handover checklist. When one procedure turns out to be mostly exceptions, SOP exception capture writes them down properly, and when a whole team's know-how needs capturing, that is the work of Fully Powered Studio. It runs in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini from the lists and notes you supply, with no connection to your systems.

What has been checked

Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template. It was editorially reviewed on 9 November 2026. It was tried on its invented example in Claude on 9 November 2026; the record of that run is published with it, and lists the small edits made afterward that have not been run again. It has not yet been tested in a client environment. It has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.

Testing in your environment means running it on a past departure your manager remembers well, plus hard cases written in advance, each with its expected behavior: a blank where "others who know it" should be, a list with a renamed column, steps kept only in someone's own mailbox, a colleague who does the work differently. The manager checks every point against the notes before anyone relies on it. Pilot acceptance-test preparation builds that test set, and what we test before we call an AI workflow ready describes the record we keep.

The full capability template

Everything above is the outline. The complete capability template is the working version: the roles, the inputs, the procedure, the exceptions and stop conditions, the output format, the reviewer checklist, the acceptance tests, the instructions for an AI assistant and what to customize for your company. It comes with a download and the link to its folder in Fully Powered’s public repository.

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Talk with us Discuss adapting this

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