cascade

name	cascade
description	This skill should be used when the user asks to "cascade these OKRs," "break this down to team level," or has objectives/KRs at one level that need to flow down with a genuine contribution check, a capacity sanity check, and a check for goals that work against each other across teams.
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob
metadata	{"version":"0.3.0","owner":"okr practice","review_cadence":"quarterly","work_shape":"structured-aggregation","permission_tier":"advisory","output_class":"draft-for-review","sourcing_policy":"volatile-facts-must-be-sourced"}

Cascade

When to use

OKR cycle owners cascading objectives/KRs down levels — with contribution, capacity, alignment, and cross-team conflict checks naive cascades skip.

What this skill does not do

• Does not draft objectives — route to /okr:draft-objectives.
• Does not write KRs — route to /okr:write-key-results.
• Does not set targets — route to /okr:set-targets.

Preconditions

Input	If missing
Parent objectives/KRs to cascade	Ask user to provide
Practice profile (cascade levels, ceilings)	Proceed with defaults (3–5 objectives, 2–5 KRs); flag [review]
Child-level draft objectives/KRs	Ask user to provide or offer to draft via other skills

Provisional mode

Without org structure data: fan-out/capacity check labeled [review]; cross-team conflict check still runs on provided KRs.

Trust spine

• Confidence bands (structured-aggregation):
  • High: MECE cascade coverage, contribution tests complete, conflicts named.
  • Medium: Some restatements or coverage gaps flagged.
  • Low: Parent KRs missing or child set incomplete — scaffold only.
• Failure modes:
  • Strategic advice vs. support: Flags restatements and conflicts; does not resolve ownership disputes.
  • Client confidentiality: OKR content may be internal-only — CONFIDENTIAL header.
  • Accountability gap: Cross-team conflicts surfaced for conversation, not silently merged.
  • Analytical Rigor: Contribution test MECE; orphans and uncovered parents listed.
  • Incentive Gaming: Catches cross-team KR pairs that game one metric at another's expense.
• Escalation triggers: Overloaded fan-out on single parent KR — flag parent KR too broad.

Workflow

1. Read the practice profile for cascade levels and objectives/KR ceilings.
2. Run contribution test on every cascaded objective — does achieving it move the parent KR?
3. Run restatement check — contribution vs. same goal with different owner.
4. Run alignment/coverage check — orphaned KRs and uncovered parent KRs.
5. Run fan-out/capacity check — too many children on one parent KR.
6. Run cross-team conflict check — sibling KRs that improve one team at another's expense.
7. Completeness check before output.

Output format

CONFIDENCE: [defensible recommendation | structured first pass]
PARENT: [objective/KR]

  → [Child objective, owner] — Contribution: [genuine / restatement — explain]
  → [Child objective, owner] — Contribution: ...

FAN-OUT CHECK: [parent]: [N] children — [within plausible capacity / overloaded, explain]

ALIGNMENT CHECK:
  Orphaned KRs (no upward contribution): [...]
  Uncovered parent KRs (no cascaded contribution): [...]

CROSS-TEAM CONFLICT CHECK:
  [Team A's KR] vs. [Team B's KR]: [nature of the conflict, or "none found"]

Worked example

Input: Parent KR "Reduce enterprise churn to 8%." Child A: "Ship onboarding v2"; Child B: "Slow release cadence for QA depth."

Expected output (excerpt):

PARENT: Reduce enterprise churn to 8%
  → Ship onboarding v2 (Product) — Contribution: restatement — output-shaped, not churn-linked [review]
  → Improve 90-day retention cohort by 5pts (Product) — Contribution: genuine

CROSS-TEAM CONFLICT CHECK:
  Product release-cadence KR vs. Platform stability KR: speed vs. quality tension on shared customers [review]

Quality checks before delivering

• Contribution test on every child objective
• Orphans and uncovered parents listed
• Fan-out/capacity assessed
• Cross-team conflict check run across siblings
• Output does not read as approved cascade

Propose profile update

When a stable convention surfaces during this run (thresholds, naming, tone, output format, or recurring corrections), propose a profile update: show the exact diff against ~/.claude/plugins/config/claude-for-strategy/okr/CLAUDE.md (org-wide facts go to org-profile.md), ask for confirmation, and write only on yes. Only /okr:practice-setup auto-applies a full profile write.

Outputs

Follows plugin CLAUDE.md § Outputs. Next: revise children via draft-objectives/write-key-results, or escalate conflicts to leadership.