Cascade Company OKRs to Team OKRs
Translates company-level OKRs into team-level OKRs that ladder up cleanly. Built for PMs and team leads who need to align their team's work with company priorities.
When to use this prompt
Use this at the start of a quarter after company OKRs are committed but before your team drafts theirs. You will need the company OKRs, your team's scope and capacity, and a sense of which company goals your team actually influences. The prompt avoids the common mistake of teams claiming credit for KRs they cannot directly move. It is especially useful for small teams trying to figure out which of 10 company KRs actually apply to them, and for larger orgs where poor cascade leads to everyone working on the same thing while other goals go unstaffed.
The Prompt
You are a product manager cascading company OKRs down to team OKRs. Your job is to identify which company KRs your team directly influences and propose team-level KRs that ladder up cleanly without double-counting. Company OKRs: {{company_okrs}} Our team: {{team_name}} Our scope: {{team_scope}} Our capacity: {{team_capacity}} Other teams that could also cascade from these OKRs: {{other_teams}} Produce the cascade in this structure: 1. INFLUENCE MAP â For each company KR, mark our team's influence as DIRECT (we own it), PARTIAL (we contribute but do not own), INDIRECT (we affect it through 2+ hops), or NONE (we cannot influence). Explain briefly. 2. OWNED CASCADE â For each company KR where we have DIRECT or PARTIAL influence, propose 1-2 team-level KRs that would measurably move the company KR. Each team KR should be at a lower level of abstraction (e.g., company KR measures retention, team KR measures the specific behavior that drives retention). 3. COVERAGE CHECK â Are any company KRs NOT addressed by any team? If so, flag them as uncovered. Also flag company KRs where multiple teams are likely to cascade, which creates double-counting risk. 4. TEAM OKR DRAFT â Using the cascaded team KRs, propose 2-3 team objectives that group related KRs logically. Each objective must connect to at least one company OKR via the cascade. 5. DELIBERATELY NOT ADDRESSED â Company KRs our team is choosing not to cascade from, with a 1-sentence reason. This is often more valuable than the cascade itself; explicit "not us" decisions prevent misalignment. Rules: - Never cascade a company KR to a team KR that is identical in number. That is double-counting. - Team KRs should be leading indicators of the company KR, not the same metric. - If none of the company KRs apply to the team, say so honestly. The fix is a conversation with leadership, not a forced cascade.
Example Output
Team: Billing Team INFLUENCE MAP - Company KR 1: Improve gross retention from 88 to 92 percent â PARTIAL (billing friction causes ~15 percent of churn). - Company KR 2: Win 15 new mid-market logos â PARTIAL (billing features influence but sales owns). - Company KR 3: Ship AI drafting to GA â NONE (not our scope). - Company KR 4: Reduce support cost by 20 percent â PARTIAL (billing tickets are 30 percent of volume). OWNED CASCADE - For KR 1: Reduce billing-related churn from 4 percent to 2 percent in target accounts. Leading indicator of gross retention. - For KR 2: Close 5 mid-market deals previously stalled on invite/billing friction. Leading indicator of logo wins. - For KR 4: Cut billing support ticket volume from 300/week to 150/week. Leading indicator of support cost. COVERAGE CHECK - KR 3 is uncovered by our team as expected; AI team owns it. - Multiple teams may cascade from KR 4; confirm with support team to avoid overlap in commitments. TEAM OKR DRAFT - Objective 1: Make billing the anti-churn workflow. KR: Reduce billing churn 4 to 2 percent; KR: Cut billing tickets 300 to 150/week. - Objective 2: Unblock mid-market deals. KR: Close 5 stalled deals; KR: Ship bulk invite to GA. DELIBERATELY NOT ADDRESSED - Company KR 3 (AI drafting) is not our scope and we will not cascade from it even though leadership will ask.
Recommended Tools
Airtable is the strongest for cascading across multiple teams because it can render company-to-team relationships as a linked database. Notion and Coda work well when you only need one team's cascade at a time. Use Airtable for company-wide cascade exercises and Notion or Coda for team-level planning. The influence map is particularly legible as a linked-table view in Airtable.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I use this prompt?
Use it immediately after company OKRs are finalized and before your team drafts its own. The cascade output is a strawman you bring to your team OKR workshop, where the team can adjust based on capacity reality and new information. Do not use it if your company does not actually cascade OKRs (many companies write OKRs independently at each level); forcing a cascade where none is expected creates fake alignment. Also skip it for teams whose work is genuinely orthogonal to company OKRs (some platform teams are in this position).
What if my team cannot influence any company KR?
That is a legitimate finding and the honest answer is a conversation with leadership, not a forced cascade. If your team truly cannot influence any committed company outcome, either the team's scope is not important to the company this quarter (in which case rethink priorities), or the company OKRs missed an important area (in which case propose an addition). Either outcome is better than forcing your team to cascade from KRs they cannot move, which produces misleading commitments and erodes trust when the team fails to deliver on goals they never owned in the first place.