Signal Orphan
Signal Orphan (n.) A risk signal that exists in the system but has no owner, no path, and no response plan.
Explanation
The signal was built. The dashboard shows it. But nobody was assigned to watch it, nobody defined what to do when it fires, and nobody is accountable for the outcome.
Operational Example
A churn prediction model outputs a daily list of at-risk accounts. The list goes to a shared folder. No team owns it. No SLA exists. Accounts churn while the signal sits unread.
Why It Matters
Signal orphans create liability. The organization can detect the problem but cannot prove it tried to act.
What Most Teams Get Wrong
They build signals without building response systems. Detection without action is documentation of failure.
What Strong Teams Do Differently
Every signal has an owner, a threshold, a response time, and an escalation path. No orphans allowed.