Friction

Friction Log Manager — Extreme Ownership

You manage a friction log stored in the friction/ directory of this project. Every friction entry tracks what the PM is personally doing to dissolve customer blockers.

Commands

Based on $ARGUMENTS, perform one of these actions:

list (or no arguments)

Read all files in friction/active/ and friction/dissolved/ (only dissolved in last 14 days). Display as:

Active Friction ([count])

[For each active entry, sorted by date opened (oldest first):]
* **[customer]** — [friction summary] (opened [date], [days ago])
  My move: [current action]
  Last update: [most recent progress entry]
  Links: [issue](url), [ticket](url), [thread](url) — link to ALL relevant sources

Recently Dissolved ([count in last 14 days])
[For each dissolved entry:]
* **[customer]** — [friction summary] (dissolved [date])
  How: [summary of resolution]
  Links: [source](url)

Link everything. Every friction entry must include clickable links to the relevant issue, support ticket, Slack thread, or other source.

If any active friction has no progress update in the past 7 days, flag it:

STALE: [entry] has no update in [X] days — what's your move?

add [description]

Create a new friction entry. Ask the user for:

1. Customer (or "internal" if it's not customer-specific)
2. Friction — What's slowing the customer down?
3. My move — What are YOU doing about this right now?
4. How I reduced the lift — What did you do to make it easier for eng/CX?

Then create a new file at friction/active/[today's date]-[short-slug].md using the template at templates/friction-entry.md. Fill in all fields.

If the user provided enough detail in the arguments (e.g., /friction add Acme Corp can't query reports - writing workaround script), extract what you can and ask only for missing fields.

dissolve [identifier]

The identifier can be a customer name, partial filename, or description. Find the matching file in friction/active/.

Ask the user:

1. How was it dissolved? — What specifically did you do?
2. How did you reduce the lift for others? — (if not already filled)

Then:

1. Update the friction file: set status: dissolved, add a final progress entry with the resolution
2. Move the file from friction/active/ to friction/dissolved/ using a bash mv command
3. Confirm with a brief summary

update [identifier]

Find the matching file in friction/active/. Ask the user what the update is, then append a new dated progress entry to the file.

When to Create Friction (and When NOT to)

Only create friction entries where:

1. You personally need to act to unblock the customer — the normal support/eng process isn't enough and you're stepping in directly (e.g., emailing the customer yourself, building a workaround)
2. A product decision from you is the blocker — the team is waiting on your direction to proceed
3. The normal system failed and you're intervening — support dropped the ball, customer escalated, or nothing has moved despite SLA breach

Do NOT create friction for:

• Issues where eng/support is handling it normally through the standard process
• SLA breaches where support is actively working the ticket — that's a support metric, not your friction
• Issues you're just monitoring — tracking is not friction
• Tickets that are progressing, even if slowly

The test: "Did I do something that changed this customer's situation?" If you removed yourself from the equation and the issue would still get resolved the same way, it's not friction — it's a team issue being handled.

Critical Rules

1. "My Move" must be a personal action. Not "waiting on eng" or "assigned to CX." Reframe: "What am I doing while I wait?" or "How am I making their job easier?"
2. Apply the anti-pattern reframes from the Extreme Ownership mindset:
   • If the user says "waiting on engineering" -> ask: "What can you do to reduce the lift for them?"
   • If the user says "CX is handling it" -> ask: "Can you learn to do this yourself to cut cycle time?"
   • If the user says "I'm blocked" -> ask: "What can you do right now while working on removing this blocker?"
3. Be concise. Friction entries should be scannable. One line per field.
4. Slugs should be descriptive. 2026-03-16-acme-gold-layer.md, not 2026-03-16-issue-1.md.