Objectives

An objective is an outcome your organisation wants, such as “Increase customer retention”. It answers the question “what should this work achieve?”. Initiatives are aligned to objectives, so you can see at a glance which work is in service of which goal, and which goals have nothing behind them yet.

An objective can also carry measures: the numbers that tell you whether the outcome is being met, such as 90-day retention. Measures track the outcome only. They never decide whether the work aligned to the objective succeeded.

Before you start

• Open Product Management → Objectives in the sidebar.
• Anyone who can open the page can view objectives. The New objective, Edit, delete and measure controls only appear, or can only be changed, if your role lets you make changes.
• If you cannot see this page, your organisation may not use it, or your role may not include it. See Understanding roles.

Understanding the objectives list

Each row is one objective. Select a row to open it.

Statuses

Achieved and Closed objectives are treated as no longer active. They are dimmed in the list and hidden from the default view.

Finding an objective

• Search by name.
• Status: Draft & active (the default), Draft, Active, Achieved, Closed or All. Choose All to include achieved and closed objectives.
• Theme: show only objectives filed under one of your organisation’s strategic themes.
• Owner: choose My objectives only to see just the objectives you own.
• Sort by Name, Status, Theme, Aligned work or Target.

If your filters hide everything, the list shows No objectives match the current filters.

Create an objective

1. Select New objective.

2. Enter a Name, for example “Increase customer retention”. This is the only required field.

3. Optionally fill in the rest:

   Field	What to enter
   Description	What achieving this would mean.
   Strategic theme	One of your organisation’s themes, or No theme.
   Status	Starts as Draft.
   Starts and Target date	When you expect to start and when you aim to achieve it.

4. Select Create objective. The new objective opens.

A timeframe is optional: an objective can stand without one. If the target date is before the start date, you see The target date is before the start date. and cannot save until you fix it.

Understanding an objective’s page

The summary card shows the objective’s status, theme and ID, followed by its name, description, window and Owner. The card is dimmed when the objective is Achieved or Closed.

Below the summary are two sections: Measures and Aligned work.

To change any detail, including the status, select Edit, make your changes and select Save changes.

Add a measure

A measure records how you would know the objective is being met.

1. In the Measures section, select Add a measure.

2. Fill in the new row:

   Field	What to enter
   Measure	What you are measuring, for example “90-day retention”. Required.
   Current	The value today.
   Target	The value you are aiming for.
   Unit	The unit, for example %.
   By	The date you aim to reach the target by.

3. Select Add.

Add stays unavailable until you enter a name. Select Cancel to discard the row.

Update a measure

1. Select the value you want to change, such as Current.
2. Enter the new value.
3. Move to another field or click away. The change saves automatically. There is no Save button.

Good to know when editing measures:

• Clearing a number means “not measured”, not zero.
• A measure must have a name. If you clear the name, the change is ignored.
• Changing a measure never changes the objective’s status. Mark the objective Achieved yourself, with Edit, when you decide the outcome has been met.
• If your role does not let you make changes, the measure fields are shown but cannot be edited.

Remove a measure

1. Select the bin icon (Remove measure) on the measure’s row.
2. Select Remove measure to confirm.

The objective and everything aligned to it are untouched.

See the work aligned to an objective

The Aligned work section lists every initiative aligned to the objective, with a count of initiatives and the total number of features they contain. Each row shows:

• the initiative’s name, which opens the initiative
• how many features it contains
• the initiative owner’s avatar
• the rationale recorded for the alignment, or No rationale recorded for this alignment.

You cannot align work from the objective’s page. Alignment is set from an initiative, so the reason it supports the objective is recorded alongside it. If nothing is aligned yet, select Go to initiatives, open an initiative and use Align to an objective. See Initiatives.

Delete an objective

1. On the objective’s page, select the bin icon.
2. Select Delete objective to confirm.

The initiatives aligned to it are kept. They simply stop being aligned, and their rationale is removed with the link.

What happens next

• Align initiatives to the objective from each initiative’s page.
• Group a roadmap by Strategic objective to see the work for each objective over time. See Roadmaps.
• Update the measures as new results come in.

Good to know

• An initiative can be aligned to several objectives, and an objective can have many initiatives aligned to it.
• Achieved and Closed objectives cannot be chosen for new alignments, but existing alignments are kept and shown as no longer active on the initiative.
• If an objective cannot be opened, you see Couldn’t load this objective. Select Back to objectives and try again.

Related pages

• Product Management
• Initiatives
• Roadmaps
• Strategy (Governance → Planning)