The 'Strategy Model'

The Strategy Model is the name given to the structure on which the plans are built within Cascade. The hierarchy of the Strategy Model cannot be modified.

An understanding of the hierarchy of the Strategy Model and the terms used will equip you and your organization to use Cascade to successfully execute your strategy.

For more, check out our Strategy Model video course here.

It’s important to have your Strategy Model structure in place before you start adding content to your strategic plan. 

See The Cascade Glossary to understand what each of these terms mean.

Plans will be built according to a structure consisting of Focus Areas, Objectives, Measures, Actions and Projects (OMAP).

What are Focus areas?

• Focus areas are nothing but the high-level categories to focus on as you strive to your vision, and vary across teams. It lets you to group your key objectives/outcomes to keep them organized.

• In other words, you can think of these as carefully-crafted "categories" of your plans that provide context, and group a set of related objectives.

• These do not have any metrics.

• Its a best practice to define deadlines to the focus areas to effectively manage your strategy planning cycle.

• More you share the focus areas across plans, greater will be the alignment towards the company's goals or vision.

• They are not hidden by privacy settings in a plan and all the focus areas will be available for everyone in the workspace.

• You can name them after anything, such as "Key Responsibility Area or KRA", "Balanced Scorecard", "Departments", "Your team members' names", "High/medium/low priority", or you can literally delete all but one, and call it "Company Goals"...just don't let the concept of "Focus Area" take away from your ability to add your objectives.

• For example, focus areas can be - Expand global recognition, Aggressive growth, Launch new product lines, Zero regulatory issues, and so on. 

• Watch our video on focus areas to learn more.

Read how to add a focus area to your plan here.

What are Objectives?

• Objectives are the most important part of Cascade - they represent 'the impact you’re trying to have' and are the main components of any strategic plan.

• They are high-level and measurable goals outlining what an organization wants to achieve, with a clearly defined deadline.

• Each strategic objective must have at least these three elements: action, detail and deadline.

• Objectives can exist on their own, or they can contain other components (success criteria), such as - nested and contributing objectives, actions, projects and measures.

• An objective's progress and health is determined by the health and progress of its success criteria.

• For example, some objectives may be - Double website traffic by H1, Achieve average NPS 25 in 2023, Reduce churn rate by 20% in the next 3 years, target 2m revenue in Q2, and so on.

• Watch our video on objectives to learn more.

Read how to add objectives to your focus areas here.

What are Success Criteria?

• Success Criteria is the term used in Cascade to describe what defines success for a given Objective - the Measures, Projects, Actions, Nested and Contributing Objectives that need to be completed in order to meet that Objective or outcome. 

• The #1 reason you will immediately get value from Cascade is because it turns “rough” timelines into more meaningful journeys to success. It ALL comes from Success Criteria.

What are Measures?

• A Measure is a quantifiable definition of how your Objective is going to be assessed.

• Think of it as a metric or a KPI (key performance indicator) and are specific numbers we track in order to prove an Objective has been achieved.

• It's one thing to complete a bunch of Actions in trying to achieve the Objective, but how can we prove it's been achieved?

• You can track a measure manually or connect it to a source like Google Sheet and track progress from within Cascade.

• For example, if your objective is "Scale digital advertising", then your measure will be "Increase digital advertising budget by 20% in 2023". Another example, if your objective is "Ensure satisfied customers and long-term customer loyalty", the measure or metric will be "Maintain NPS above 8 in H1, 2023".

• Watch our video on measures to learn more.

Read how to add measures to your objectives here.

What are Projects and Actions?

• Projects are a group of "actions" executed to achieve a desired outcome. These're basically breaking down a large piece of work into small, executionable tasks assigned to different owners.

  • The progress of the project is derived from those of the actions beneath it.

  • For example, if your objective is "Lead to shift towards an electrical and autonomous mobility", the project can be "Research and onboard", and the actions underneath this can be "Hire best-in class talent", "Research for AI advancements", "Form a core team", "Implement technological advancements in electric mobility", and so on.

  • Read how to add projects to your objectives here.

• Actions are the specific and tangible things we're doing to achieve an Objective.

  • They are typically the most relatable "goals" to your everyday employee.

  • Objectives help employees connect what they're doing (Actions) to why they're doing it (Objective). This will contain tasks, which break down a larger action, that will help transform an Objective into a truth about your organization.

  • You can track actions manually, by defining milestones or creating checklist items, or by connecting to a tool like Jira and track progress from within Cascade.

  • For example, if your objective is "Scale digital advertising", then your action will be "Hire a marketing expert to scale the digital world". Another example, if your objective is "Ensure satisfied customers and long-term customer loyalty", the action or task will be "Ensure customer distribution experience".

  • Watch our video on actions to learn more. Read how to add actions to your objectives or projects here.

What are Nested and Contributing objectives?

Be it nested or contributing objectives, basically they're all different types of objectives and are just how each of them are related to a plan and other objectives.

• Nested Objectives are those objectives that are broken down from the complex high level objective and added as a success criteria to the parent objective.

  • They break down the work of a single team within the same plan, while supporting health tracking. This keeps the work visible and self-contained to that specific plan and team.

  • These objectives cannot be shared or linked to any other objectives or plans.

  • Use them when you want to break down your parent objective to more focused and actionable outcomes which can be executed by specific individuals.

  • For example, an objective "Explore usage of AI and ML in operations" can be a nested objective for the parent objective "Use technology advancements to improve operations", irrespective of the plan or focus area it resides in.

  • Read how to add nested objectives here.

• Contributing Objectives are linked objectives that impact the success of the parent objective.

  • They connect the efforts of different plans or teams and establish one-to-many relationships that impact health tracking.

  • Use them when an objective is linked or contributing to the success of another (parent) objective, thereby rolling up the progress and impact health tracking.

  • Or in other words, if its outcomes impact the success of an other objective, then they can be linked, and together make an impact on the success.

  • For example, the objective "Total revenue in sales" in the Sales plan can be contributing to the objective "Achieve ARR of 20m$" in Corporate Plan or Revenue Operations Plan.

  • Read how to add contributing objectives here.

Overall, with this setup:

1. Objectives are simple, clear and have a specific outcome. These are defined by an ambitious outcome linked to future identity.

2. Actions are specific tasks that help you get there, and Measures are quantitative, time-bound metrics.

3. Objectives can only be "Complete" or "realized" if you complete your associated Actions, and you hit your Measure targets.

Let's try understanding the strategy model with an example:

I want to create the best supply chain in the southern hemisphere. My strategy model will be:

Plan Details:

FAQs

Can I rename the parts of the Strategy Model?

Yes. We're providing you with a more flexible strategy model. Check out this article - Flexible Strategy Model for details.

Can I rearrange aspects of the Strategy Model?

Currently, the aspects of the Strategy Model are arranged for the most streamlined strategy building experience and cannot be rearranged.

Is there a way to add fields that I want?

Yes, you can create custom fields and save them as templates which can later be added to plan(s). Data populated in these fields can be pulled into reports to get insights on your outcomes. See Create Templates and Custom Fields and Populate Data against Custom Fields for details.

How many Focus Areas can I have?

Ideally, not more than 4 to 5 focus areas.

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 the colors I see on areas of the Strategy Model?

Currently, the Planner does not support color changes and will come equipped with Cascade’s classic colors (which are pretty nice, let’s be honest).

Are plans time-bound?

No, there's no timelines on a plan. Once created, it'll stay forever in your workspace unless you delete them. Only objectives and its associated success criteria (actions, projects, measures) are time-bound. Even a focus area under which these are defined are not time-bound.