Using quarters as a checkpoint
Breaking your strategy down into smaller, more manageable chunks can help you make more progress sooner. Some things take a long while to achieve, but smaller goals help us celebrate the wins along the way.
Many organisations use a quarter – a block of 3 months – to do this. And it can be helpful to look back before you look forward, to celebrate the progress you’ve made and work out what to do next.
Every 3 months, we encourage product teams to take the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day and consider the objectives they’re working towards. The quarterly checkpoint is a time to refocus efforts and double-down, change direction or move on to the next objective.
There are 2 stages to using the quarterly checkpoint well:
- Check on your progress
- Plan how to achieve your new objectives
Here are two workshops you can run at each stage, but you can combine them into one workshop if you like. Whatever works.
Check on your progress
First, check on the progress your team has made on your objectives and key results (OKRs). You can do this in a team workshop lasting 30 to 60 minutes.
1. List out the OKRs you’ve been working on (10 to 20 mins)
Run through the OKRs you’ve been working on. Talk about the progress you made on each key result and celebrate the successes – big or small!
2. Think about what’s left to do (20 to 40 mins)
For any OKRs you haven’t completed – where progress on key results isn’t 100% – discuss as a team which initiatives you have left to do to fully achieve the objective. For example, you may need to collect some data, run a test, build a thing or achieve an outcome.
Consider whether you should change your approach, for example, by doing something smaller or using different methods, based on what you’ve learned over the last quarter. It’s OK to stick to the original plan if it’s still the best approach.
Write down what initiatives your team has agreed to do.
Plan how to achieve your new objectives
Next, you’ll need to form a loose plan for how to achieve your new objectives. You can treat unfinished objectives from the previous quarter as a new objective.
Run another workshop lasting 30 to 45 minutes for each objective.
Everyone on the team will need to input on the plan using the outline below. Write it in a doc, a slide deck or on a whiteboard – whatever works. You will probably want to present these plans to the senior management team or service owner at the start of the new quarter.
If it’s easier than starting with a blank page, team leads can fill in the outline and get feedback from the rest of the team. As long as everyone gets a chance to input, it doesn’t matter. It’s OK if you take less than 30 minutes, especially if you already have a plan.
1. Write down and describe the objective
An objective is a bold and qualitative goal that the organisation wants to achieve.
It’s best that they’re ambitious, not super easy to achieve or audacious in nature; they are not sales targets.
Write down the problem you’re solving and who it’s a problem for. Discuss how you’ll know when you’re done. What are the success criteria?
2. Think about risks and unknowns
What might be a challenge? What are the riskiest assumptions or big unknowns to highlight? Do you need to try new techniques? These might form the first initiatives in your plan.
You can frame your assumptions using the hypothesis statement:
Because [of something we think or know]
We believe that [an initiative or task]
Will achieve [desired outcome]
Measured by [metric]
Note down dependencies on other teams, for example, where you may need another team to do something for you.
3. Detail all the initiatives
Write a sentence for all the initiatives – tasks and activities – you’ll need to do to achieve the objective.
Consider research and discovery activities, which can help you gather information to turn unknowns into knowns. Consider alphas, things to prototype, spikes, and experiments that can help you de-risk or validate assumptions. Make sure to remember the development and delivery work too – that’s how we release value to users!
4. What will you measure?
Review your success criteria. Define the metrics that will tell you when you’ve finished or achieved the objective. These should tell you when you’re done and will become your key results.
Remember, metrics should be:
- tangible and quantitative
- specific and measurable
- achievable and realistic
5. Prioritise radically
What would you do differently if you only had half the time? How will you start small and build up? What’s the least amount of work you can do to learn the most?
Use these thoughts to consider any changes to your initiatives. Go back and edit the initiatives if you need to.
Don’t worry about adapting your plans
A core tenet of agile is responding to change over following a plan, so don’t be afraid to change your plans based on new information.
The quarterly checkpoint isn’t the only time you can look back to look forward – that’s why retrospectives are useful. You can use the activities above at any point. The best product teams build these behaviours into their regular practice.
If you’d like help running these workshops or have any questions, get in touch and we’ll set up a chat.