Escalation Playbook
When to use
Use this skill for escalation playbook when you need to define when and how a support case escalates. The expected result is an escalation matrix with handoff requirements.
Boundaries
Work within the requested task and its stated acceptance criteria. Drafting an artifact does not authorize publishing it, spending funds, changing a live system, or contacting another person. Identify any such action separately before taking it.
Inputs
Inspect issue types, severity, owners, handoff channels, and response targets. Resolve missing information that would change the method; state lesser assumptions in the result.
Method
- Diagnose. Read the customer's account history, exact failure, environment, urgency, policy, and prior promises.
- Decide. Set triggers and minimum evidence for each escalation route.
- Produce. Build an escalation matrix with handoff requirements from the inspected material; keep assumptions distinguishable from observed facts.
Decision rules
- Distinguish what support can resolve now from what needs escalation. Do not promise dates without an owner.
- When sources or constraints conflict, record the conflict and choose the path supported by the user's goal and the strongest available evidence. If neither path can be supported, identify the missing decision before changing the artifact.
Domain rules
- Acknowledge the customer's actual issue and state the next owned action.
- Avoid promising a resolution or timeline that has not been verified.
Verification
Walk a sample case through the playbook. Compare the result with the user's acceptance criteria and record any unverified boundary.
Provide the customer-facing response, internal case note, next action, and confirmation needed to close the case.
Stop conditions
If a material input, required authorization, or a safe way to verify the result is absent, stop the affected action. Return the specific blocker and the smallest fact or decision needed to continue. Do not report an unrun check as passed.
Output
Provide an escalation matrix with handoff requirements. Include the decisive evidence and actual verification result. Name any artifact location and unresolved issue that affects its use.