Escalations are inevitable, but we ensure recurring escalations are reduced/eliminated altogether
Expectations / Description
Escalations are necessary, but expensive.
- Expensive because of the negative impact on Experience of CareerPlug’s client-facing teams
- Anytime a client/partner-facing rep cannot answer a question, resolve a problem, or make a change that enhances the value of our offering to the client/partner in question, it reduces the overall experience.
- Expensive because escalations are unplanned work for those that could be otherwise improving the system
- Every moment that is spent NOT making improvements to the system by someone with the skill, access, and knowledge to make enhancements is less than ideal.
The One Number we are accountable for
- Quarter over quarter reduction in known escalations - there will always be new escalation needs popping up, but we shouldn’t let the same ones linger for months.
Supporting / leading indicators we pay attention to
- Observability
- Stakeholders strongly agree or agree when asked “I know what the escalation trends are, and understand what we are doing to reduce them (so that we don’t have the same ones that are bugging us today be the same ones we are bugged by 6 months from now)”.
- Outcomes
- If the above is true, then we can/will have a quarter-over-quarter reduction in known escalations (as defined by any escalation type that occurs more than once per month for at least 3 contiguous months and/or takes more than a day of any tier-3+ agent).
- There will always be new escalation-needs being added, such is the physics of creating software. The purpose of this goal is that the known escalation-needs are consistently being eliminated.
- Client/Partner-facing team members strongly agree or agree when asked “I am continuously given ever-improving tools, knowledge, or skills from the Empower Squad and/or the other product squads that help me serve customers directly without needing to ask for help”.
- If the above is true, then we can/will have a quarter-over-quarter reduction in known escalations (as defined by any escalation type that occurs more than once per month for at least 3 contiguous months and/or takes more than a day of any tier-3+ agent).
Escalation Engineers who take on the Escalation Mitigator assignment have their pulse on the escalation trends happening from T1 up. They share this knowledge across the product organization to help build feedback loops between other teams and the squads. They work with Platform Squad PO to prioritize and shape mitigations to resolve the most common escalations - allowing our users and teammates to self-serve and resolve their issues faster and with less friction
Requirements
- Escalation Mitigator's must have a position with the reach of 1.1 or higher
- Escalation Mitigator's must be milestone 3+,Prioritization Strategy (Sense and Respond)
- Escalation Mitigator's must be milestone 3+,Product Knowledge
- Escalation Mitigator's must be milestone 2+,Data analysis / synthesis
- Escalation Mitigator's must be milestone 2+,Business Knowledge
- Escalation Mitigator's must be milestone 2+,Product Discovery
Configuration Health
- ✅ Has 5 Abilities
- ✅ Is a part of 9 Positions
- ✅ Has been referenced in 1 piece of public recognition
- ℹ️ No one has reacted to this Assignment
- ℹ️ Fewer than five people (1) have an official rating on this Assignment. To ensure anonymity, analysis will only appear after at least five people have ratings.
- ⛔️ Last updated: over 2 years ago
- ℹ️ Last conversed about: over 3 years ago
Examples / Observations
Observation created about 2 years agohttps://careerplug.slack.com/archives/C02T0CYA8GZ/p1691507297298429
Sometimes when mitigating escalations, the right thing to do is:
- Wait until you see a pattern that makes the cost/benefit worth exploring
- Build a thing that makes the need go away
- Build a thing that empowers an earlier tier to meet the need
- Update documentation (internal or external) that addresses the need
But, sometimes, especially in hi-trust environments, the thing to do is to empower and train earlier tiers. This is the hardest of the options, but an amazing one if you can get it done.
CW has been reporting on the fact that IP Address allow-listing has been the top escalation for a long while.... BY FAR.
She investigated multiple ways to mitigate this escalation, but apparently came to the conclusion that it would be best to empower and train T2 to be able to handle these requests. Therefore making the turn around time that much faster, clients that much happier, and removing that much bureaucracy from the CP universe.
Well done!
Official Escalation Mitigators
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