Kaizen events
Kaizen event charter
Kaizen event charter is licensed CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com).
Customise with AISkill file ↓1 · What it is
What it is
A kaizen event charter is the one document a team lead fills out before an event starts: what opportunity or problem it addresses, a specific measurable objective, what's in and out of scope, who's on the team and their RACI role, and a readiness checklist so nobody discovers mid-event that the data was never pulled. State the opportunity, objective, scope, and team roughly — a real charter gets drafted, including a checklist tailored to what you've actually described, and a check that exactly one person is Accountable.
2 · When to use it
When to use it — and when not to
Use it when
- You're about to run a focused improvement event (a few days to a week) and want one document the whole team can point to.
- You want to know honestly whether you're ready to start — which readiness items are actually done and which aren't.
- You want the RACI assignment checked, not just recorded — exactly one Accountable owner, not zero or several.
Not when
- You're still exploring whether there's a real opportunity here at all — that's a problem statement or a gemba walk, not a charter yet.
- The event is genuinely informal and doesn't need a roster or a readiness gate — a charter for a five-minute fix is overhead, not help.
- The objective would just restate the opportunity with no real number — sharpen it first, or the charter will be as vague as the input.
3 · How to fill it in
How to fill it in
- Opportunity
- What opportunity or problem does this event address?
- Objective
- What specific, measurable target is this event aiming at? Give a real number if you have one — a vague goal gets named as vague, not dressed up.
- Scope — in
- What's explicitly in scope for this event?
- Scope — out
- What's explicitly out of scope, to prevent scope creep during the event.
- Roster & RACI
- Who's on the team, and what's their RACI role? Entered directly, not AI-assigned — who's accountable is your call, and exactly one person should be Accountable.
- Readiness checklist
- Drafted from your scope and team — concrete, checkable items. Check off what's actually ready before the event starts.
- Narrative
- Drafted from the roster and readiness checklist.
4 · What good looks like
What good looks like
The example below charters a real event against a finding from this catalogue's own VOC work — the onboarding support ticket spike the customer interview guide's worked example set out to understand. Four of six readiness items are confirmed and two are honestly left open, and the roster has exactly one Accountable owner.
Same example, as a downloadable xlsx workbook.
Download .xlsxKaizen event charter
Reduce onboarding support ticket resolution time
Sponsor: Alex Romero, VP Product · Facilitator: Priya Nair, Customer Success
2026-09-14 to 2026-09-18
Opportunity
Support ticket volume spikes in the first two weeks after signup, and resolution time for these tickets runs well above the team's overall average. Customer interviews point to unclear setup steps, not product defects, as the likely driver — this hasn't been tested against a week of focused, cross-functional attention yet.
Objective
Cut median resolution time for first-two-weeks onboarding tickets (tagged 'setup' or 'SSO') from 6.2 hours to under 3 hours by the end of the event week, without increasing the reopened-ticket rate.
Scope — in
Onboarding tickets tagged 'setup' or 'SSO' opened within the first 14 days of a new account. This week covers the triage process, the top 3 setup docs, and the initial-response macro library.
Scope — out
Product code changes, pricing or contract questions, and tickets from accounts older than 14 days.
Roster & RACI
| Name | Role | RACI |
|---|---|---|
| Priya Nair | Facilitator | R |
| Alex Romero | Sponsor | A |
| Marcus Lee | Support lead | R |
| Dana Whitfield | Product | C |
| Support team | Frontline agents | I |
Readiness checklist
4 of 6 ready (67%)
- ✓Two weeks of ticket data pulled and tagged by setup/SSO category
- ✓Top 3 setup docs identified with current view/bounce data
- ✓Baseline median resolution time confirmed (6.2 hours)
- ✓Sponsor briefed on objective and event dates
- ○Support team notified of event week and coverage plan
- ○Workspace booked for daily standups
Not ready yet: Support team notified of event week and coverage plan, Workspace booked for daily standups
Narrative
Four of six readiness items are confirmed — ticket data is pulled and tagged, the top docs are identified, the baseline is captured, and the sponsor is briefed. Two are still open: the support team hasn't been notified of the event week yet, and no workspace is booked for daily standups. Both are quick to close before the event starts. The roster has exactly one accountable owner, with Priya and Marcus responsible for running the event day to day.
5 · Common mistakes
Common mistakes
Writing an objective that just restates the opportunity with no real number.
"Reduce onboarding friction" isn't a target — a charter without a measurable objective can't tell the team whether the event actually worked.
Assigning more than one person as Accountable, or nobody at all.
RACI's whole point is a single accountable owner — two blurs responsibility when something goes wrong, and zero means nobody actually owns the outcome.
Marking readiness items ready before they actually are, to make the checklist look complete.
The checklist exists to catch a real gap before the event starts, not after — an honestly incomplete checklist is more useful than a dishonestly complete one.
6 · What it connects to
What it connects to
upstream
VOC evidence log
A real opportunity statement is often grounded in something the evidence log already surfaced — this charter's worked example charters an event against exactly that kind of finding.
downstream
Sustainment audit
Once the event closes, the sustainment audit checks whether this charter's commitments actually held.
7 · Where AI helps
Where AI helps
Judgement — stays yours
- Deciding who's actually Accountable versus Responsible
- Deciding whether a drafted objective's target is realistic given real team capacity
Analysis — AI helps
- Drafting a specific, measurable objective from a rough goal — and naming it as still vague if the input doesn't support a real target
- Drafting a readiness checklist tailored to the stated scope and team, not a generic list
Drudgery — automated
- Tallying the readiness checklist and flagging what's not ready yet
- Checking the roster for a missing or duplicated Accountable owner
- Exporting to xlsx in the house format
8 · Resources
Resources
File
Kaizen Charter
Comprehensive 5-day Kaizen Event Charter and execution tracking workbook designed according to industry standard lean business system specifications.
19.1 KB
Download ↗
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