Overview
Sometimes a Key Result requires contributions from many people or teams. Cascaded Key Results help you:
Break down a metric so each group or region owns its part of the outcome
Align on shared fate by giving multiple contributors the same metric to drive collective success
Push a result down multiple layers when achieving it requires alignment across levels of the organization
A Cascade KR is a top-down approach: you know the overall target and delegate parts of it to contributors. This is different from a bottom-up approach using Rollups, where existing Key Results combine to determine a parent’s progress.
Create a Cascaded Key Result
You can create a Cascaded Key Result from a new or existing Key Result. The first thing to do is to access the Key Results edit pane. There are a few ways to do this:
When adding a new Key Result within the OKR setup flow, click “More options”
From anywhere you see the Key Result, click the 3-dot menu and click “edit”
Once in the Key Result edit pane:
Select Change Measurement Type
Choose Cascade Result to Multiple People
Defining Your top Level Cascade Key Result
Fill out the Cascade parent fields (Start Value, Target Value, Update Cadence etc.) according to your top level Key Result. You will also need to define how your top level result (parent cascade) will be aggregated on the child results. Your options will be:
Total of Actuals
Use this when the child results should add together.
Example: 50 deals generated from 6 regions; You'll have an overall result for 50 deals, and unique key results for each of the 6 regions with a specific target for them.
Average of Actuals
Use this when the child results are similar and should be averaged.
Example: Average response time across multiple product offerings.
Average Progress % (most common for mixed measurements for the children)
Use this when each child might have different targets or even measure progress differently, but you still want overall progress to be aggregated from child results.
Example: Parent KR: Launch AI GTM readiness across the org
Child Cascades:
Sales Enablement: 85% of reps pass AI training (60% so far → 60/85 = 71%)
PMM / Sales: Build 20 AI demo flows (12 done → 12/20 = 60%)
CS / Product: Onboard 10 beta customers (7 onboarded → 7/10 = 70%)
Create Cascade Children
Click “Cascade this Key Result”. This will open a dialogue box where you can add one child Cascaded result at a time. Here you can add:
the Owner for each child KR
the Start Value and Target Value
the Update Cadence
Once you have added all the Cascade children, click “Save” and all the Key Results (parent and children) will create the full tree of results.
Anyone assigned a cascaded key result will be notified, they can decide if they need to make adjustment, change the result data source, or re-cascade the key result further.
Note: While you can modify a select set of Cascade child attributes during the initial setup, you can modify every attribute after they are created.
Manage & Modifying Cascaded Key Results
Permissioned team members (managers, co-managers, and team admins) can edit any Cascaded Key Result created under the team’s objectives — including any key result in the cascade tree.
Additionally, as an owner or co-owner of a parent cascaded key results (a result with child result), you will always have edit/delete rights over the first-level cascaded children.
To make modifications to a cascaded key result, click on the pencil icon from the specific's results page.
Note: Cascaded Key Results inherit the time period from the parent KR and do not allow a separate time period.
Receiving a Cascade
The assigned owners of the Cascade child Key Result will receive a notification when the Cascade is created. The owner can set up the Key Result the same way they would set up any other Key Result, so they have total flexibility in how they get the data that flows upward. They can:
Update the Key Result manually
Re-assign the Key Result to someone else
Re-cascade it into still more Key Results
Roll-up already existing Key Results to calculate an overall achievement
Set it to pull data from external systems via Key Result data connectors
How the new enhancements Impact Previously Created Cascades
Any previously “pending” Cascade requests will now appear as fully created Key Results assigned to the requested user (no acceptance step).
All existing Cascade trees will remain intact (no changes to structure or relationships or mathematical calculations).
Existing Cascaded Key Results automatically upgrade to the new Cascade experience — no action required.
Ownership, sources, and values stay the same (start/target, progress, updates, etc.).
New & improved editing permissions apply to all previously Cascades results.