# Katafacts

Free, open-licensed (CC BY 4.0) continuous-improvement katas, playbooks, and resources -- lean fundamentals and their commercial (sales/marketing) translations. Each kata below has a downloadable skill file (guide plus frontmatter, ready to drop into an agent's skills folder).

## MCP server

https://www.katafacts.com/api/mcp -- Streamable HTTP, unauthenticated, read-only. Free, open-licensed continuous-improvement katas, playbooks, and resources -- lean fundamentals and their commercial (sales/marketing) translations. Read-only v1: browse the catalogue, fetch a kata's guide, list a playbook's katas, or fetch a kata's linked resources.

## Orient

- [Lean maturity scorecard](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/lean-maturity-scorecard.md): A fixed set of capability areas scored against the standard 5-stage maturity scale (ad hoc to optimizing), each score backed by real evidence, with any area more than one stage below its own stated target flagged plainly, not smoothed over.
- [Marketing maturity assessment](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/marketing-maturity-assessment.md): The lean maturity scorecard discipline pointed at a revenue/RevOps function's real capabilities: which are genuinely managed, and which — including account intelligence and the governance to grow it — are still ad hoc underneath a healthy-looking pipeline, flagged plainly rather than assumed covered.
- [Eight wastes (DOWNTIME) worksheet](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/eight-wastes-worksheet.md): A structured waste walk against the eight DOWNTIME categories — Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilized talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Extra-processing — tallied by category so the vital few show up, with any category nobody actually looked for named honestly.

## Understand the customer

- [VOC evidence log](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/voc-evidence-log.md): A running log of customer quotes and observations, each tagged with a theme — drafted for you, yours to edit — so you can see at a glance which few things customers are actually telling you, not just a pile of unsorted notes.
- [Affinity diagram](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/affinity-diagram.md): A workshop-style synthesis of curated customer notes into themed clusters — the same clustering discipline as sticky notes on a wall, done in minutes with the tally and vital-few themes computed for you.
- [CTQ tree](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/ctq-tree.md): Translates a customer need into specific, measurable requirements — need, then the drivers that make it satisfied, then a concrete measurable target for each — with any need still missing a real specification named plainly.
- [Customer interview guide](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/customer-interview-guide.md): A topic-by-topic question bank for a general customer-discovery interview — open-ended questions with real follow-up probes, drafted from your research goal and yours to edit before you take it into the room.
- [Gemba interview protocol](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/gemba-interview-protocol.md): A question bank for interviewing someone while watching them do real work — built around what's observed in the moment, not recalled afterward, with reminders for staying out of the way of the work itself.
- [Win-loss interview guide](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/win-loss-interview-guide.md): A question bank for interviewing a buyer after a deal has closed, won or lost — built around the real decision factors and the competitive alternative, not a sanitized recap.
- [VOC collection plan](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/voc-collection-plan.md): Which methods, owned by whom, how often, keep the VOC evidence log fed — a real plan tying interviews, gemba sessions, and other collection activities to the specific questions you want VOC evidence to answer.
- [Value hypothesis](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/value-hypothesis.md): The CTQ tree's need-driver-measure discipline pointed at a deal instead of a product: what the buyer actually needs, why what you sell addresses it, and a specific number that proves the value rather than asserts it — with any need still missing a real proof point named plainly.
- [Message architecture](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/message-architecture.md): The CTQ tree's need-driver-measure discipline pointed at your standing product message instead of a single deal: the buyer need at the top, the message pillar that addresses it, and a specific, already-proven number underneath — with any pillar that isn't proven yet named plainly rather than shipped as a confident-sounding claim.
- [ICP evidence log](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/icp-evidence-log.md): The voice-of-the-customer (VOC) evidence log's theme-clustering discipline pointed at win/loss call notes and discovery excerpts instead of product feedback — turning a scattered set of deal-pattern observations into the vital-few signals that should actually shape the ideal customer profile (ICP) canvas and anti-ICP.

## See the work

- [Value stream mapping — current-state analysis](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/value-stream-map.md): Turn a walked process into computed lead time, flow efficiency, and a ranked list of where the flow is actually choked — with every number showing its calculation.
- [WIP aging report](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/wip-aging-report.md): Which currently-open items are stalled — how long each item has sat in its current stage, each stage's average age, and which specific items are aging well past their peers.
- [Scoping canvas](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/scoping-canvas.md): A one-page, multi-section definition of what an initiative actually covers — problem, goal, in scope, out of scope, team, timeline, assumptions — before anyone starts work on it.
- [ICP canvas](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/icp-canvas.md): The scoping canvas's one-page, multi-section discipline pointed at defining who the ideal customer actually is — firmographics, technographics, buying triggers, buying-committee roles, and pain/use-case fit, grounded in real deal evidence rather than assumption.
- [Anti-ICP](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/anti-icp.md): The scoping canvas's one-page, multi-section discipline pointed at who not to pursue — hard disqualifiers that should end a deal outright, softer red flags worth a specific countermeasure instead of an automatic pass, process red flags, and real churn-pattern evidence, not a mirrored ICP canvas with the polarity flipped.
- [Value proposition canvas](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/value-proposition-canvas.md): Osterwalder's customer-profile/value-map discipline: jobs, pains, and gains on one side; products & services, pain relievers, and gain creators on the other — with any gain creator that isn't actually proven yet visible for what it is, not dressed up as a settled fact.
- [Sales funnel value stream map](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/sales-funnel-map.md): The same value stream discipline applied to a sales pipeline: real stage-to-stage timing from the CRM, computed flow efficiency, and a ranked list of exactly which stage is choking the funnel — stalled deals as WIP, conversion as first-pass yield.
- [Swimlane process map](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/swimlane-process-map.md): An ordered sequence of process steps, each assigned to the role, department, or system responsible — showing exactly where the process hands off from one lane to another, and honestly flagging any step nobody's actually named as owning.
- [Funnel PCE calculator](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/funnel-pce-calculator.md): The single flow-efficiency number for a sales pipeline — process time as a share of total time in the funnel — from a short list of stages, no full value stream map required.
- [Bottleneck analysis](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/bottleneck-analysis.md): Which single stage is capping your funnel's throughput, and which stage deals stall at worst — from a short list of stages, no full value stream map required.
- [Stage conversion analysis](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/stage-conversion-analysis.md): How many deals enter each funnel stage and how many advance — per-stage conversion, rolled yield from first stage to closed-won, and exactly which stage is losing the most deals.
- [Deal aging / WIP report](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/deal-aging-report.md): Which open deals are stalled — how long each deal has sat in its current stage, each stage's average age, and exactly which deals are aging well past their peers.

## Set direction

- [Hoshin Kanri — X-Matrix](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/hoshin-kanri.md): Connect long-term breakthrough objectives to this year's targets, the strategies that will move them, and the metrics that prove it — with a specificity check that pushes back on vague plans instead of formatting them.
- [True north statement](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/true-north-statement.md): The ideal, not-fully-reachable direction behind a Hoshin plan, broken into its real component pillars and checked against whether current work actually traces back to each one — with any pillar nobody's moving toward flagged plainly, not smoothed over.
- [Marketing true north statement](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/marketing-true-north-statement.md): The true north statement discipline pointed at a revenue Hoshin plan's own stated direction: which pillars have real, committed strategies moving them this year, and which — including market reach itself — have nothing tracing to them at all, flagged plainly rather than assumed covered.
- [Revenue Hoshin Kanri — X-Matrix](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/revenue-hoshin-kanri.md): The same X-Matrix discipline connecting long-term revenue direction to this year's targets, the strategies that will move them, and the metrics that prove it — with catchball forcing real negotiated numbers instead of a target set once at an offsite and never pressure-tested.
- [Cascade map](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/cascade-map.md): Shows whether an X-Matrix's annual objectives actually land on someone at the level below — which are genuinely committed, which are still just a proposal, and which nobody has picked up at all.
- [Revenue cascade map](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/revenue-cascade-map.md): Shows whether a revenue X-Matrix's annual objectives actually land on a real pod or function — which are genuinely committed, which are still just proposed, and which nobody has picked up at all.

## Solve problems

- [A3 problem solving](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/a3.md): Structured problem solving on one page: background, a Pareto-driven root cause chain, and a tested countermeasure tracked against a TAGS metric.
- [Deal A3 — win-rate root cause analysis](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/deal-a3.md): The same A3 discipline applied to a losing pattern in the pipeline instead of a shop-floor problem: a Pareto over loss reasons, a root cause chain that survives scrutiny, and countermeasures a sales leader can actually act on.
- [FMEA](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/fmea.md): A structured risk analysis that scores each way a process or product could fail on severity, occurrence, and detection, multiplies them into a risk priority number, and ranks the vital-few risks worth acting on first.
- [Weighted decision matrix](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/decision-matrix.md): Score a handful of options against criteria that matter differently, with your own weights and scores summed into a single composite score and priority/consider/deprioritize tier — never asserted, always computed from what you enter.
- [Fit-criteria scorecard](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/fit-criteria-scorecard.md): The weighted decision matrix discipline pointed at prospect accounts: score each one against firmographic fit, technographic fit, trigger strength, and buying-committee access, and let a computed composite score and tier — not a gut feel — say which account actually deserves the next call.
- [Evidence register](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/evidence-register.md): Whether a claim already circulating is actually backed by real evidence — measured data, direct observation, a documented case — or is still just being asserted, with every claim category that has zero evidence logged flagged plainly, not smoothed over.
- [Proof point inventory](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/proof-point-inventory.md): The evidence register discipline pointed at your standing message pillars: which claims are actually backed by real, checkable proof, and which pillars — or which specific claims — still have none, flagged plainly rather than assumed proven forever.

## Run the day

- [Discovery call standard work](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/discovery-standard-work.md): The work instruction shape pointed at a sales discovery call: major steps, each with a key point for the technique that surfaces real information and the reason it matters — so the compelling event and real decision process get found regardless of which rep is on the call.
- [Performance board](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/performance-board.md): A Plan vs. Actual matrix for the vital few KPIs that matter to a function, period by period, computed red or green from real numbers, not asserted — closing the loop into an abnormality/root-cause log and a countermeasure register, and honestly distinguishing a real sustained problem from a single isolated miss.
- [Visibility board](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/visibility-board.md): The performance board discipline pointed at a commercial function: bookings, pipeline quality, service velocity, team productivity — Plan vs. Actual, period by period, computed red or green from real numbers, closing the loop into a gemba-grounded root-cause log and a countermeasure register, and honestly telling a real sustained problem apart from a single isolated miss.
- [Qualification standard work](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/qualification-standard-work.md): The work instruction shape pointed at qualifying a lead against the ideal customer profile: major steps — firmographic fit, a real trigger, anti-ICP disqualifiers, budget-authority path — each with a key point for the technique and the reason it matters, so qualification depends on the same checks regardless of which rep is running them.
- [Pipeline management board](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/pipeline-management-board.md): The same tiered huddle cascade — what each level reviews, and the concrete condition that escalates a deal or a pattern to the level above — pointed at a sales pipeline instead of a shop floor.
- [Work instruction](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/work-instruction.md): Major steps, each with a key point for how to do it right and the reason it matters — the classic job-instruction shape, so a routing rule or a new process actually works the same way no matter who's running it.
- [ILUO training matrix](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/iluo-training-matrix.md): Who's actually trained on what — a skill × person grid flagging any skill where nobody can work it unsupervised yet, so a single absence doesn't stop the work.
- [KPI tree](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/kpi-tree.md): Goals, the driver metrics that actually move them, and a checkable target with a review cadence for each — a huddle board's metric tree, honestly flagging any goal with no real target yet.
- [Marketing KPI tree](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/marketing-kpi-tree.md): The KPI tree discipline pointed at a marketing function: goals, the driver metrics that actually move them, and a checkable target with a review cadence for each — honestly flagging any goal, including channel attribution, with no real driver metric yet.
- [Leader standard work](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/leader-standard-work.md): A leader's own daily routine, in the same steps/key-points/reasons shape as a work instruction — what keeps a KPI tree, a training matrix, and a kaizen event's gains from quietly decaying once the excitement wears off.
- [Daily accountability sheet](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/daily-accountability-sheet.md): Who committed to what, by when — a flat commitment log for a daily huddle, honestly flagging anything open past its due date.
- [Escalation matrix](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/escalation-matrix.md): A severity-by-severity response plan — definition, response target, escalation trigger, and a named first responder — honestly flagging any severity nobody's actually assigned to yet.
- [Shift handover](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/shift-handover.md): What happened this shift and what's still open — a real item log with a current status and an honest flag for what the next shift actually needs to watch.
- [Visual board design guide](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/visual-board-design-guide.md): What a visual board should show, how often, and who keeps it current — a worksheet specifying content and ownership, not a rendered board layout.
- [Tiered huddle board](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/tiered-huddle-board.md): A cascading structure of standing huddles — what each tier reviews, and the concrete condition that escalates something to the tier above — honestly flagging any tier nobody's actually named to run yet.
- [Go-see protocol](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/go-see-protocol.md): A structured walk to verify what a visual board and training matrix claim is actually true on the floor — major steps, each with a key point for how to observe well and the reason it matters.
- [Marketing go-see protocol](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/marketing-go-see-protocol.md): The go-see protocol's structured walk pointed at commercial data — verifying that a visibility board or marketing KPI tree's numbers are actually true at the source systems (the CRM, the ERP), not just true on the dashboard built from them.
- [Andon / signal definition worksheet](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/andon-signal-definition.md): What each visual signal means, what response it triggers, and who's watching for it — the escalation matrix's exact shape applied to a signal system.
- [Standard work audit](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/standard-work-audit.md): Whether a work instruction is actually being followed weeks after it was written — the sustainment audit's shape, applied to standard work instead of a kaizen event.
- [Visual management audit](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/visual-management-audit.md): Whether a visual board's zones are actually staying current weeks after it was designed — the sustainment audit's shape, applied to a visual board instead of a kaizen event.
- [Consistency audit](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/consistency-audit.md): Whether a message architecture's pillars are actually being said the same way across reps and channels weeks after it was written — the sustainment audit's shape, applied to messaging instead of a kaizen event.

## Improve continuously

- [Business case](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/business-case.md): The cost of the status quo, what the fix actually costs, and the quantified value it returns — with payback period and 3-year ROI computed from those numbers, not asserted, and every value driver's basis and confidence named plainly.
- [Business case builder](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/business-case-builder.md): The business case discipline pointed at a deal instead of an internal investment: the cost of the status quo, what the deal costs, and the quantified value it returns — with payback period and 3-year ROI computed, not asserted, and every value driver's basis and confidence named so a champion can defend it without you in the room.
- [Implementation plan](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/implementation-plan.md): Milestones toward a real completion date, each owned by your own team, an outside party, or both — with days remaining, overdue and unowned milestones, and a mutuality check computed, not asserted: a plan where every milestone belongs to your own side isn't actually cross-functional.
- [Mutual action plan](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/mutual-action-plan.md): The implementation-plan discipline pointed at a deal instead of an internal rollout: milestones toward the target close date, each owned by you, the buyer, or jointly — with days remaining, overdue and unowned milestones, and a mutuality check computed, not asserted, so a one-sided plan can't quietly pass as a real mutual commitment.
- [Stakeholder coverage map](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/stakeholder-coverage-map.md): How much of the population you actually need to reach is even tracked, and, within what's tracked, how completely each unit's required roles have a real named contact — both computed, not asserted, with dark units and systemically-missing roles flagged plainly.
- [TAM coverage map](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/tam-coverage-map.md): How much of your total addressable market is even tracked as a target account, and, within what's tracked, how completely each account's buying-group roles have a real named contact — both computed, not asserted, with dark accounts and systemically-missing roles flagged plainly.
- [Learning log](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/learning-log.md): Whether a hypothesis already circulating has actually been tested, or is still just an assumption — a fixed set of hypotheses, a flat list of real tests run against them, and every hypothesis nobody's tested yet flagged plainly, alongside every test that recommends revising or killing the idea.
- [Message testing log](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/message-testing-log.md): The learning log discipline pointed at your standing message pillars: which ones actually resonate with a broader buyer audience, tested and recorded honestly, rather than assumed proven everywhere just because they worked in one deal.
- [Metric definition sheet](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/metric-definition-sheet.md): One owned formula, data source, and owner per metric name — closing the exact gap that lets two teams each compute 'the same' metric differently and both be technically right, and honestly flagging any metric that's still unresolved rather than picking a winner on its own.
- [Marketing metric definition sheet](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/marketing-metric-definition-sheet.md): The metric definition sheet discipline pointed at commercial metrics: one owned formula, data source, and owner per metric name — including honestly naming a channel-attribution model nobody actually chose, rather than letting it pass as validated.
- [Attribution reality check](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/attribution-reality-check.md): How much credit for an outcome shifts depending purely on which honest model you pick — first-attributed, last-attributed, or an even split — computed across every real contributor, with the ones most sensitive to model choice flagged plainly rather than settled by whichever one looks most convenient.
- [Marketing attribution reality check](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/marketing-attribution-reality-check.md): The attribution reality check discipline pointed at real deal journeys: how much channel credit shifts depending purely on which honest model you pick, computed across every real touchpoint — including the sharp swing a CRM's unvalidated first-touch default has never actually been checked against.
- [Kaizen funnel](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/kaizen-funnel.md): A portfolio-level view of every improvement idea moving toward becoming a scheduled kaizen event — which stage each one is in, which are going stale, and honestly flagging any idea nobody's actually championing yet.
- [Kaizen event charter](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/kaizen-charter.md): The opportunity, the objective, who's on the team, and whether you're actually ready to start — one document, not three you'd have to keep in sync, with a readiness checklist you check off before the event begins.
- [Marketing operating system charter](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/marketing-operating-system-charter.md): The one document that launches a standing revenue/RevOps governance rhythm: who owns which recurring decision, and an honest readiness checklist for whether the cadence is actually running — not a kaizen event charter, a charter for the operating system itself.
- [Sustainment audit](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/sustainment-audit.md): Whether a kaizen event's commitments actually held after it closed — a checklist against the specific practices it was supposed to leave behind, honestly naming which are at risk of lapsing.

## Sustain

- [First-pass yield tracker](https://www.katafacts.com/skills/first-pass-yield-tracker.md): Stage-by-stage conversion through a process — how many units entered each stage, how many advanced without rework or rejection, and the rolled yield across every stage combined.