- Created by Robert Reiner, last modified on 29. Oct 2018
projectdoc Toolbox
Publish an objective to share with your colleagues.
- ID
objective- Suite
Objectives should inspire and point to things to achieve in the far future. They are tied to be worked with a sense of urgency in the short term by metrics defined in the form of key results.
Define your objectives for significant goals. Do not define a wish list, your day-to-day routine, or issues you would deal with anyway.
Define an objective to pursue during the specified period. An OKR cycle typically runs within three months. For this period of time the ideal number may range between three and 5. But all depends on your organization and context. You define your objectives to keep focused. Therefore keep in mind that for goal setting less is more.
There is a specific section to describe your objective more thoroughly if you need to. Keep in mind that a precise and short description is king, so the short description may be enough. There is also room for further details in additional sections on motivation, people involved, desired impact, and deliverables. Use them if you need to make your case easier to understand by adding additional information.
Objectives are typically attached to strategic themes. They may be categorizes, especially by objective type. You should see this categorization tools as an option if you find it useful to create alternative views. If they do no good, simply do not use them.
Properties
The document type objective provides the following properties:
Please note that only information about specific properties is provided here. Common document property used by all document types are documented by Document Properties.
Type
Specify the type of the objective to organize them.
Use the objective type to define types of objectives.
Theme
Relate the objective to a theme.
Typically the objective is added to a theme as child document. In this case the reference to the theme is automatically rendered.
Supports
List other objectives this objective supports. The objectives listed here will be rendered in the Supporting Objectives section.
Owner
List stakeholder that own the objective. Consult these people when there are questions or you are looking for support when pushing objectives related to this objective.
Start
The start date when the pursuing of this objective begins.
Typically the objective is added to a theme as child document. In this case the start date is automatically rendered.
Note that the Start property is hidden and rendered as part of the Cycle property.
End
The end date when this objective ended.
Typically the objective is added to a theme as child document. In this case the end date is automatically rendered.
Note that the End property is hidden and rendered as part of the Cycle property.
Cycle
For brevity and to save space the start and end date are rendered with the Cycle property as a period.
Deadline
Log the date the objective is planned to be solved.
The deadline allows to order objectives and provide a more fine-grained structuring within the defined cycle.
If you need to prioritize the objectives, then use the Sort Key property.
OKR Priority
Reference a priority to related this objective's importance to other objectives.
Score
Log the value scored by the end of the period. The format of the value is a decimal value between .01 (or .05) and 1.
Sections
Description
In case the short description is not enough, the description section provides room for more detailed information about the objective.
Motivation
Describe why this objective is useful for your business. State the problem to be solved.
You may run the 5-whys to dig deeper.
Key Results
List key results to measure the level of success in accomplish the objective. The completion of all key results must result in the achievement of the objective.
Check to pair key results to aim at quality and quantity to make sustainable progress.
Key results added as child documents are automatically listed.
If you need to merge the child documents with manually added documents in a single list then use the Table Merger Macro and the Tour Macro.
Make sure that the render style – e.g. table or definition list – is the same for all listings within the Table Merger Macro.
Check-ins
Provide a check-in for each interval within a cycle.
Check-ins added as child documents are automatically listed.
Supporting Objectives
List all objectives that support this objective.
All objectives that declare this objective as their logical parent are automatically listed.
Related Objectives
List objectives that are related to get in touch with the owners to solve problems or discuss opportunities.
All objectives of the same type are automatically listed.
Previous Objectives
Add a reference to an objective this objective extends or continues with. This makes it easier to access related information.
The list of previous objectives is automatically rendered.
This is one way of keeping track of objectives from the past that will be worked on in this cycle. Another option is to delegate to a previous objective. Both techniques can be combined.
Subordinate Objectives
In case you need to organize objectives in a hierarchy then add additional objectives as children to this objective. Subordinate objectives will then be automatically listed.
Since objectives are typically short lived, there is probably no need to organize them for one OKR cycle in this way.
Details
Hierarchical Objectives
You may organize objectives in a hierarchy to signal which objectives are supporting parent objectives directly. These will be automatically listed in the section Supporting Objectives.
Note that a hierarchy is very strict since there is only one parent to an objective. This technique can help to structure a high-level objective to make it even more tangible by objectives that are aspects of that objective.
An objective's parent may be another objective (probably defined at a higher level), a strategic theme (if there is no objective on a higher level to connect to), or a key result (if a key result at a higher level inspires the team to define a new objective). In case the connection to objectives, themes, or key results of another level is made, you probably need to replace the Parent Property Macro with a link to the respective instance this objective is connected to.
Parent Property Macro
The Parent Property Macro is installed per default so that users adding objectives have an automatic link to the corresponding objective or theme. In case of a key result this is merely informative since you would not typically add objective documents as children to key result documents. The parent relationship is a logical, not a physical one.
Related Doctypes
- Objective Type
Type-specific category for objectives.
- Check-in
Document the result of a OKR check-in.
- Key Result
Publish key results to achieve in order to pursue an objective to share with your colleagues.
- Strategic Theme
Publish a strategic theme to group objectives and to share them with your colleagues.
- Wrap-up
Track what you have achieved and the reasons why. Check what you have learned and find areas where you can improve.
