--- name: escalation-matrix description: "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. Use when: A process handles issues of genuinely different urgency and you want a real, checkable plan for each level, not an ad hoc judgment call every time. You want to catch a severity with nobody actually assigned before it matters, not during a real incident. You want response targets and escalation triggers specific enough to actually check against, not vague aspirations. Not for: Every issue in this process is genuinely the same urgency — a matrix with one row adds process without adding clarity. You don't have a real person to name yet — that's fine, the matrix will honestly show the gap; don't invent a name to make it look complete." --- # Escalation matrix 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. Family: Daily management · Format: .xlsx · Domain: core ## What it is An escalation matrix answers, for each severity level, three questions before something goes wrong: what qualifies as this severity, how fast should it be acknowledged, and when does it escalate further? Describe the severities this process needs, and a real matrix gets drafted — but who specifically responds is never guessed. Every row starts unassigned until you name a real person. ## When to use it Use it when: - A process handles issues of genuinely different urgency and you want a real, checkable plan for each level, not an ad hoc judgment call every time. - You want to catch a severity with nobody actually assigned before it matters, not during a real incident. - You want response targets and escalation triggers specific enough to actually check against, not vague aspirations. Not when: - Every issue in this process is genuinely the same urgency — a matrix with one row adds process without adding clarity. - You don't have a real person to name yet — that's fine, the matrix will honestly show the gap; don't invent a name to make it look complete. ## How to fill it in - **rows** — Drafted from your severities — assign a real, named first responder to each row. - **narrative** — Drafted from the matrix actually built. ## What good looks like The example below is the renewal-risk support process's own escalation matrix. Three of four severities have a named first responder — Critical and High route to specific people, Low routes to the standing rotation — and Medium is honestly left unassigned rather than padded with a placeholder name. Full worked example, on-screen and as a downloadable .xlsx: https://www.katafacts.com/katas/escalation-matrix ## Common mistakes - **Writing a response target like 'quickly' or 'as soon as possible.'** — An unchecked target can't actually be checked — a real matrix needs a real number, even a rough one, or it can't tell you when something's slipping. - **Naming a placeholder responder just to make every row look assigned.** — A matrix with a fake name is worse than an honestly unassigned row — it hides exactly the gap the matrix exists to surface. - **Building the matrix once and never checking it against how issues are actually handled.** — An escalation matrix nobody follows in practice isn't a real plan — revisit it when the real pattern of issues doesn't match what's on paper. ## What it connects to Upstream: - **Leader standard work** (`leader-standard-work`) — Walking the queue against the escalation matrix — not just gut feel — is a natural leader standard work step. ## Where AI helps Judgement — stays with you: - Deciding who's actually the right first responder for a given severity - Deciding whether a drafted response target is realistic given real team capacity Analysis — AI helps: - Drafting a specific severity definition, response target, and escalation trigger from a rough description - Drafting the narrative from the matrix actually built Drudgery — automated: - Counting how many severities have a named responder - Identifying which severities are still unassigned - Exporting to xlsx in the house format --- Escalation matrix is licensed [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attribution: Katafacts (katafacts.com). ## Using this skill Apply this method as part of whatever broader task, instructions, or deliverable you're already working on -- it's a method to use, not a standalone conversation to start. There is no generation tool for this catalogue yet, so draft the artifact's actual content yourself, following the fields above, the same way a person filling this out by hand would. The canonical guide page and a downloadable worked example (.xlsx) are at https://www.katafacts.com/katas/escalation-matrix.