Create Your Plan

Getting a plan built in Cascade is quick and painless. You can add a plan from anywhere inside the workspace. 

• Click from the top-right of any of the pages, and select Add plan.
• From Plans and Teams > All plans, and click Create new plan.
• You can also create a plan for your team - Navigate to Plans and teams > All teams page, and select your Team, and in the Teams Home Page, click Add new plan. 

• (Mandatory) Enter the Plan name.
• If this is the first plan that you're creating or do not want this plan to be aligned to any other plan, you need not choose any data here! But, if you already have a plan under which this new plan needs to be aligned, then choose that Parent plan from the list.
• (Mandatory, and available only for Enterprise tiers)Type - You'll just see No type in the list, if you have not created any! Create types to define the category of your work from Admin > Strategy Model. See Add Goal Types: Advance Strategy Model Customization for details. If types are created for plans, you can choose them from the list at the time of adding a new plan or later from the Plan settings!
• Click Add team if you wish to add your team
• (Available only for Enterprise tiers) Add a Custom field template from the list if you need the plan to have custom fields that you've defined. You'll see a list of those only when you've already added them. You can add custom fields from Admin > Custom fields. See Create Templates and Custom Fields.

If you click the Add new plan from the Teams Home page, then in the Add new plan window, your 'Team Name' would be auto-displayed.

Click Save, and your plan is now created! In the Planner page, you can start strategizing!!

For a free comprehensive course on building a strategic plan in Cascade, click here.

Your Strategy Model structures the Planner in the perfect way to start strategizing, so you can get started right away and just focus on the substance of your plan.

	You can edit the Plan Name by clicking into the text box. Click the star icon to mark it as favorite. If you did not assign the plan to a team while its creation, you can do so now by clicking Assign to Team. Click View alignment to view the plan's alignment in the organization from the Alignment page. You'll see this plan highlighted! If you did not choose a parent plan, then this plan will be displayed unaligned. Click Plan settings to edit the plan (name/parent plan/team). Please note that you cannot view/edit the plan date or its owner. In case of Enterprise tiers, you can also add types and apply templates with custom fields to the entities defined in this plan. Click Delete to delete the plan. Only the plan owners, admins, and those with edit permissions can delete! Click Share to share the plan. Type the mail addresses, and give them view-edit access. By default, admins inherit the edit access and the viewers inherit the view access! See Access and Permissions for more information!
	If you did not assign the plan to a team while its creation, you can do so now by clicking Assign to Team.
Plan Details Area
	Click Add focus area to either add a new focus area or choose to add an existing focus area from the library.
	Enter the name of the focus area. If you want to change it later, click Edit from the three dots against it.
	Click Add objective to add the objectives, the outcome you wish for. Once you add an objective, you can click the + (plus) icon, and select the relevant entity to add Projects, Actions, Measures, and Contributing Objectives. You just enter the names for Projects, Actions and Measures and add those inline. However, when you click Add Contributing Objectives, you need to search for an already existing objective, and add them!
	Click the three dots to explore them from the Plans and teams > All focus areas page, or remove the focus area from the plan. Note that if this has objectives under it, then only after deleting those, can the focus area be removed from the plan. You can expand or collapse the focus areas.

Now that you've decided on all the needed information for creating a plan, you can now go ahead in creating the success criteria, tracking mechanism, and so on. Go through the articles in this section to learn those in detail.

FAQs

Where can I enter the mission statement and values?

Earlier, we had a Plan Principles area in the Planner page where the vision, mission, and the values were defined. However, you can add these now in the Teams pages for your whole company. Navigate to Plans and Teams > Teams page, and add the vision, mission and values! 

Can I customize or rename the different constituents of the plan?

Yes, if you've admin permissions and are on a premium tier, you can customize the names of the constituents of the plan. For example, you can rename Objectives as Outcomes and see the change reflect across the workspace! For more details, see Flexible Strategy Model.

Why should we assign a parent plan?

Assigning a parent plan is important as it gives a clear visibility on how the plans and teams are aligned and how do they contribute towards the company's vision!

Where can I get a quick view on the items assigned to me?

The work that's assigned to you via actions or measures, and are due shortly are displayed under the My upcoming work section in your Home page!

Can I rename a plan?

Yes, if you're an admin or someone with edit permissions, you can rename the plan from the Plan settings accessed from the three dots against the plan name in the Planner page.

What is a parent plan and can plans be separate and not linked to a parent plan?

A top-level plan in your workspace is the parent plan. Yes, plans can be separate and cannot be under a parent plan. If they do not have a parent plan assigned, these plans would show up as unaligned in the Alignment page!

Can two teams have a same plan?

No, plans cannot be shared between teams. However, you can add different team members as owners and collaborators across any number of entities in different plans!

How do I export a plan?

You cannot export plans at this point in time.

Can I share plans with persons outside of my workspace?

Not at this point! You can only share your plan with the members in your workspace. You'll need to have admin privileges or edit permissions on a plan to share them!