OKRs & Goals

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Friday check-in runs fridays · 3pm and keeps the The quarter dashboard fresh. Friday afternoon — asks once about the key results nobody has mentioned this week, and redraws the board.
• Quarter roll-up runs the 1st of jan, apr, jul and oct · 9am. The first day of a new quarter — scores the one just ended from its numbers, and drafts the next as a document to change.
• What is captured lands in the Objectives dataset, which lives at Data/Objectives in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Key results dataset, which lives at Data/Key Results in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Check-in log dataset, which lives at Data/OKR Check-ins in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Initiatives dataset, which lives at Data/Initiatives in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The The quarter dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: check in on the key results · where the key results stand · days left in the quarter · key results on the register · where each objective stands · key results at risk · confidence, month by month — the average of every check-in · whose check-ins are in this week · objectives by team · the objectives · the key results · the initiatives · where the initiatives stand · how this board reads.

The wiring, in one breath: Aspen holds Objectives & key results · Aspen holds Check-in capture · Aspen holds Initiatives under a key result · Aspen holds Figures from your records · Objectives & key results writes to Objectives · Objectives & key results writes to Key results · Check-in capture writes to Key results · Check-in capture writes to Check-in log · Objectives & key results writes to Check-in log · Initiatives under a key result writes to Initiatives · Objectives shown by The quarter · Key results shown by The quarter · Check-in log shown by The quarter · Initiatives shown by The quarter · The quarter kept fresh by Friday check-in · Aspen runs Quarter roll-up.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Set the quarter the day you install — the frame, two to four objectives, and the key results under each with the figure now and the target — and give Aspen a first confidence for every key result, even a rough one. The objectives table, the key results table and the ring fill from that first sitting; the confidence line needs a second month.
• Say a figure the way you'd say it in stand-up — "signups hit 4,200", "I'm at 55% on conversion now" — whenever you happen to know it, and Check-in capture files a check-in with the figure and the confidence as given. With two key results that could fit, name which; if you don't, Aspen asks rather than guessing.
• Answer the Friday card the same day, or say a figure hasn't moved. It asks only about the key results nobody has mentioned that week, so a Friday with no card is the good kind — and the key results it does name are the ones the board is guessing about. Or press Check in on the key results at the top of the board instead of typing: it goes through the open key results one at a time with the last figure and your confidence already filled in, so a key result that has not moved is two taps, and a line says why if you want one. Each is saved to the check-in log as you go. The confidence line and the check-ins update at once; the ring and the key results table catch up when Aspen next carries the check-ins across, which it does whenever you talk to it about the quarter and at the Friday run.
• Read Where each objective stands on Friday afternoon, after the check-in has run, and Key results at risk beside it: the band is the owner's own confidence through fixed arithmetic, said once, and the line under each says the figure, the target and when it was last checked. A key result at risk is a conversation to have, not a person to chase.
• Read Confidence, month by month as a pulse, not a score: it is the average of every check-in that month, so a quiet month with one gloomy check-in dips honestly. If it drops, ask Aspen what the check-ins said that month — the reason is in the note on each one.
• On the first day of the new quarter, open the roll-up note under OKRs/ before the planning meeting: each key result scored from its own numbers with the arithmetic shown, what the check-ins said, and a next-quarter draft to argue with. A 0.6 is a normal score in OKR practice; the draft is a proposal, and nothing on the registers changes until you say so.
• Give each key result an owner and the board counts whose check-ins are in this week, so a Friday with three out of four is one name to ask, not a hunt. Say who it is when you set the key result; with no name, Aspen writes the objective's owner and says so.
• If more than one team is working to the quarter, say which team an objective belongs to and which objective it supports: "Support, supporting Grow self-serve signups". Objectives by team counts them, and Where each objective stands says what each one supports. With one team, say nothing and nothing changes.
• Say what is being done to move a key result, "Bob is building the macro library for first replies", and Initiatives under a key result keeps it under that key result, with who has it and a date only if you gave one. Finishing an initiative moves no figure, and a key result reaching its target marks no initiative done: those stay your words. The roll-up lists them in its note.
• When a figure lives in another Kit's record, the support queue or the pipeline, tell Aspen where when you set the key result, and say "read the figures" when you want it read. Figures from your records looks the record up, shows where the figure came from and as of when, and logs nothing until you say yes. Where no Kit holds the figure it says so and asks you for the number; nothing here connects to a system outside 1Presence.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, datasets and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• What you call each objective and key result — the wording on the register is what Aspen uses back, and the unit is your word too.
• When the Friday ask lands — three on Friday afternoon is the default — or which owners are never asked, or whether the ask happens at all.
• The quarter itself: the label, the end date, and whether it runs by the calendar or a fiscal year — said once, remembered for every objective; the roll-up runs on the first of January, April, July and October by default, and a fiscal year retimes it.
• The targets, baselines and owners are yours to move mid-quarter, and the status follows the confidence; only the bands are fixed, and they are on the board.
• Whether the roll-up leaves a card, and where its notes go — OKRs/ in your vault is the default.
• Whether you use teams and what an objective supports at all: leave them out and nothing changes.
• Where each figure comes from: a place named on a key result is only a note about where to look, and you can change or clear it any time.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Installing ends with "Meet Aspen" and a short conversation, not a form. Before it asks you anything, Aspen looks at what you have already told 1Presence and at any OKR document, planning sheet or quarterly review in your vault, and offers what it finds for you to confirm, so you only fill the gaps. It opens with the frame — which quarter this is, in your own words, and when it ends — then each objective in turn: the outcome as you'd say it in a planning meeting, who owns it, why in a line. Each goes on the register as you say it; past five, Aspen pushes back once.
2. Then under each objective the key results: the measure, the figure now, the target, the unit, whether up or down is better, where the quarter started if you know, who owns it, and a first confidence from 0 to 100 — the owner's own guess, written as given. Aspen says the bands once: on track from 70, at risk from 40, off track below. Nothing in that conversation reads a system — there is no connector to grant, now or later. If Goals & Coaching is installed, a personal goal stays with Hazel; if Projects & Deadlines is installed, a key result can point at a project by name rather than copying its milestones.
3. Skip the conversation, or stop part-way, and the door quietly stays open. What is still missing waits on the kit page, the board and Aspen's chat, each with a way back to Aspen: an objective with no end date for the quarter, a key result with no figure or target, a key result with no owner or confidence. Aspen offers it once the next time you talk and asks only for the gaps. Tell it a part does not apply, or that you have finished setting up, and it stops asking. Until an objective is on the register, the Friday check-in leaves one card inviting you in rather than checking on nothing.
4. From the first Friday at three, the check-in carries anything you did on the board onto the key results, reads every check-in on the log, asks you once — in one card, pointing at Check in on the key results — only about the key results with no fresh check-in that week, and redraws the board: where each objective stands, what is at risk, whose check-ins are in, the days left. On the first day of a new quarter the roll-up scores the one just ended from the numbers, writes the note under OKRs/ with the working shown, and drafts the next quarter for you to change. Nothing here grades a person or sends anything anywhere.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

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