StartConsole for Cluster Leads

A cluster lead oversees a group of squads within a cluster. In StartConsole, they are responsible for tracking delivery health across all squads in their cluster, surfacing cross-squad blockers, and representing their cluster in portfolio governance. They also appear in the Signals bottleneck view — StartConsole tracks their accountability across every deliverable in their cluster's squads.

Your starting point

Navigate to Capacity and click on your cluster. This is your primary view. It shows:

• Every squad in your cluster and their current capacity
• Allocation levels across all squads — how much of each squad's capacity is committed to active initiatives
• Which initiatives each squad is contributing to

Use this view before every cluster touchpoint and any conversation with initiative owners or PMO.

Weekly actions

Review allocation across your squads. Open the Capacity view for your cluster. Check that no squad is over-allocated. If a squad's cumulative allocation across all active deliverables exceeds 100%, that squad is at risk of delivery delays. Raise this with the relevant initiative owners before it becomes a blocker.

Check initiative status across the cluster. Go to Portfolio › Initiatives and filter by your cluster. Review the RAG status of every initiative your cluster is contributing to. For any initiative showing At Risk or Red, open it and check the deliverables your squads own.

Check the Signals view. Go to Signals and look at the Assignees tab. Your name appears here as cluster lead, with a summary of deliverable health across your cluster's squads. This is what portfolio governance sees when assessing your cluster's accountability.

Run your cluster touchpoint. Open the Initiatives view filtered to your cluster. Walk through each active initiative with your squad leads — current deliverable status, any blockers, allocation changes needed. See the Running Your Cluster Touchpoint chapter for the full meeting guide.

Escalating blockers

When a squad in your cluster is blocked by something outside its control, escalate through the initiative rather than a side conversation:

1. Open the relevant initiative in Portfolio › Initiatives.
2. Click Edit.
3. Set the status to At Risk if it is not already.
4. In Status note, describe the blocker clearly: what it is, which squad is affected, and what decision or action is needed.
5. Click Save.
6. Notify the initiative owner directly so they can escalate further if needed.

This creates a visible record in the portfolio and ensures the issue surfaces in the next governance review.