What decision does the Three-List Remit frame?
What a Digital FTE is for, and what it is not for, in a form a manager can write in an hour and a team can read in five minutes. A remit that is a paragraph invites the role to interpret; a remit that is three lists leaves nothing to interpret. On ftes.ai the remit is written in the first-run wizard and lives in the Setup tab, and the three lists are how the autonomy ladder, the always-escalate list, and the never-automated list connect to the actual work.
The frame is the same for every role, from a Finance Controller FTE to a Social Growth FTE; only the contents differ.
What are the three lists?
Owns: the task classes the role handles from end to end, proposing each with evidence for approval, and which may earn autonomy per class under the Promotion Standard. Each item is a class, not a task: exact bank matches under a threshold, order-status replies, first-touch outreach drafts. Asks: the items that always go to a named person with a four-part summary before anything happens, whatever the role's level: refunds, complaints, offers, anything about a person, anything the manager wants to see. Each item names its receiver. Never: what the role does not do at any level and cannot be promoted into: the platform's never-automated list, decisions about people, prices, money, plus whatever the manager adds for this role. The Never list only grows.
The test for a finished remit is that any task the role could meet sits on exactly one list.
- Owns: classes proposed with evidence; may earn autonomy
- Asks: always escalated, with a summary, to a named receiver
- Never: fixed at every level; only grows
How does the worked example read, with the inputs left blank?
Role: Customer Support FTE for [property]. Owns: replies in the [category] category from the knowledge base with a citation; triage and routing of tickets to [teams]; proposed knowledge base articles from recurring gaps; escalation summaries for everything on the Asks list. Asks: refunds and credits, to [name]; account access and permissions, to [name]; complaints and anything mentioning [legal terms], to [name]; distressed customers, to [name] at any hour; tickets with no source in the base, to [name] as a gap. Never: issuing a refund or credit, changing an address after dispatch, publishing an article unattended, answering beyond the cited source, contacting a customer about money without an approved draft, and the platform's never-automated list. Signed by [manager] on [date]; reviewed with the send-back reasons on [date].
A bracket that cannot be filled is an item that belongs on a different list, or a receiver who has not been named.
How do items move between lists?
Through the send-back reasons. An Owns item that keeps being sent back for judgement is an Asks item mis-sorted; move it. An Asks item the receiver approves identically every time with no judgement involved may be an Owns item the manager was cautious about; move it after a cycle, and it starts at Level 0 like any class. A Never item never moves toward Owns; if the manager wants the role to do something on the Never list, the remit was wrong about the role, and the question is whether a different role should exist. Items move at the monthly review, recorded in the review note.
The Never list also grows after incidents, and never shrinks.
How do you know a list is too wide or too narrow?
Too wide an Owns list shows as a high volume of escalations with substantive reasons and a manager spending more time than the baseline predicted; the role was given judgement work. Too narrow an Owns list shows as people doing by hand the tasks the FTE was hired for, because the remit did not include them; the baseline sheet reveals it. Too wide an Asks list shows as approvers approving the same trivial item daily with no judgement; it should be an Owns class. Too narrow an Asks list shows as an incident, which is why the first remit errs toward Asks and the Promotion Standard moves items out slowly.
The remit templates in the library give a starting set of lists for each catalogue role.
How is the frame applied?
Write the three lists with the people who do the work today, in an hour, using the role's remit template as the starting point. Name a receiver for every Asks item. Confirm the Never list includes the platform's list and anything your compliance lead wants added. Read it to the team in five minutes. Enter it in the first-run wizard. Read the send-back reasons weekly, and at each monthly review move any item the reasons say is on the wrong list, recording the move. After a quarter, the lists are the truest description of the function that exists anywhere in the company.
The playbook on writing your first remit walks the hour step by step.