The fastest approvals share a pattern: the decision, the evidence and the consequence, in one message.
Put the decision first
“Refund $49.00 to Jamie Alvarez?” beats “Workflow refund-flow is waiting for input.”
Attach the evidence
Include the two or three facts the approver would otherwise look up: the charges, the policy, the agent’s confidence.
Make the timeout visible
An expiry time turns a request from something to do later into something to do now. Median response dropped from 41 minutes to 4 when we added it.
