Lens Status Workflow

Outcome

You will know when to use each Lens status, who is responsible for moving items between them, and how to keep the queue from becoming ambiguous over time. Consistent statuses are the difference between an inbox you can scan in thirty seconds and one that takes thirty minutes.

The State Machine

Every Lens item flows through the same set of states. The diagram below shows the full lifecycle, including the dismissed branch for items that turn out not to be actionable and the escalation branch for items that need support attention.

stateDiagram-v2
  [*] --> New
  New --> Triaged: reviewer assigns
  Triaged --> InProgress: work begins
  InProgress --> Resolved: fix shipped
  InProgress --> Escalated: needs support
  Escalated --> InProgress: resumed
  Resolved --> [*]
  New --> Dismissed: not actionable
  Dismissed --> [*]

The shape of the diagram is intentional. Items either get worked through to resolved, or they exit early through dismissed. There is no “indefinite hold” state, because indefinite holds are how queues stop being trustworthy.

Status Reference

The table below is the short reference your team should agree on before scaling Lens. The “Typical duration” column is a guideline, not a hard rule, but consistently exceeding it is a signal that the queue needs attention.

Status	Meaning	Who moves it	Typical duration
New	Just submitted by a reviewer, not yet triaged.	System (set on submission).	Under one business day.
Triaged	Reviewed and accepted as actionable; ready for someone to start.	Triage owner.	Up to a few days, depending on backlog.
In Progress	Someone is actively doing the work.	Assignee.	Hours to a week, depending on scope.
Resolved	Work is done and shipped; awaiting verification.	Assignee, after the change is live.	Under one business day before close.
Escalated	Handed to TMXIO support because the issue is not purely product-side.	Triage owner or assignee.	As long as the support case takes; track separately.
Dismissed	Not actionable: duplicate, out of scope, or filed in error.	Triage owner.	Closed in the same triage session it is identified.

Team Guidance

A few patterns matter more than the rest. Build the habit and the queue takes care of itself.

Move statuses deliberately. Statuses are not decorative. If you do not change them, you are leaving information on the floor.
One status per truth. If two people think the same item is in different states, fix the status before continuing. Disagreements live in comments, not in ambiguous state.
Resolved means “verify me,” not “done.” Closed means done.
Dismiss with a reason. Dismissed items are useful history if they explain why. Without a reason, they look identical to lost work.
Escalations do not block other work. When an item is escalated, the assignee can move to the next item; the triage owner tracks the escalation in parallel.

Recovering a Drifting Queue

If your queue has already drifted (lots of items in new, no comments, unclear ownership), the right move is a single concentrated cleanup pass rather than ongoing low-effort triage.

Set a cleanup window. Block 60 to 90 minutes with the triage owner and one decision-maker.
Sort by oldest. Start at the bottom of the queue. The oldest items are the ones least likely to be relevant and most likely to be safely dismissed or resolved.
Make a decision on every item. Triaged, in progress, resolved, escalated, or dismissed. Do not leave anything in new.
Leave a comment on every decision. Even a single line is enough.
Document any new rule the cleanup surfaced. If you keep encountering the same edge case, the workflow needs a small adjustment, not heroics.

What Success Looks Like

Every item in the queue has a status that matches reality.
Items rarely sit in new for more than a working day.
Resolved items are verified and closed within a short window.
Dismissed items have a one-line reason recorded.
The team can read the queue end-to-end in a few minutes without asking for context.

Manage a feedback item

Review and triage feedback

Escalate to support