What is a goal list?¶

A goal list puts your key numbers against the targets they should reach, grouped into sections, so a team can read straight down it. Every goal comes out as on target, at risk or missed, and a summary at the top says how many of each and which ones need attention.

What it represents¶

A goal list is a KPI review, written down. A dashboard shows numbers; a goal list judges them. It's the page for the weekly meeting: the same goals, in the same order, each with a verdict, so the conversation goes to the ones that slipped.

A goal is one number and a rule:

A rule reads at least, at most, more than, less than, exactly or between. With a target of at most 300 ms and an at-risk line of less than 800 ms, 250 is on target, 500 is at risk and 900 is missed.

The number comes from a metric, or from a saved single stat card. The goal list adds only the target, so the metric stays the one definition of the number wherever it's used.

How it's set up¶

Goals → Goal lists → New goal list:

1. Name it, and choose the period its goals are judged over. Previous week suits a weekly meeting.
2. Choose Personal or Shared. A team's list should be shared; it can then hold only shared metrics.
3. Add a section (Reliability, Traffic, Support) and add goals to it.
4. For each goal, pick the metric and set the target. A metric whose colour rules include a success rule fills the target in for you.
5. Order them by dragging, or with ↑ and ↓. The order is the order the meeting reads them in.

A goal can also carry its own label, a note (who owns it, say) and its own period.

You can add a goal from the other direction too: Add to goals is on a metric's page, in the metrics list, and on single stat cards.

How to use it¶

• Read it in the meeting. Change the period with the links above the summary. Present hides the site's menus and makes everything larger for a shared screen.
• Open what slipped. Click a name under Needs attention to jump to that goal, and click its value to see the rows behind it.
• See the direction. Each goal shows its last six periods as small bars, coloured by how each did; the outlined one is the period still running. It says when the finished ones are on a run: Missed 3 weeks running.
• Check what a goal means. Hover its name to see its metric's description.
• Look back. Weeks shows any past week as it was, and week over week in a grid. History does the same at other rhythms.
• Take it with you. Print makes a document of what's on screen.
• Show it elsewhere. A Goals card puts the list's summary on a dashboard, and a playlist can show it as a slide.

Good to know¶

• Goals with no number are left out of the count. "6 of 8 on target" means six of the eight that have a number.
• A count of nothing is zero, so failed jobs reads as on target when no job ran at all. An average with no rows has no number.
• This week is still running. A number that only goes up looks on target early in the week. Read Last week in a meeting.
• Sharing the list doesn't share its data. Someone who can't read a metric's dataset sees no number for that goal.
• Deleting a metric removes its goals from the lists you can edit, and the confirmation tells you how many.