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 Objectives 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 record, 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 record, 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 record, which lives at Data/OKR Check-ins in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Objectives dashboard reads from the record and shows, at a glance: where each objective stands · days left in the quarter · key results on the register · where the key results stand · confidence, month by month — the average of every check-in · key results at risk · the objectives · the key results · every check-in · how this board reads.

The wiring, in one breath: Aspen holds Objectives & key results · Aspen holds Check-in capture · 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 shown by Objectives · Key results shown by Objectives · Check-in log shown by Objectives · Objectives 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.
• 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, read the check-in notes on the rail — that is where the reason was written.
• 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.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, records 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.

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. 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, 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 and the door quietly stays open: until an objective is on the register, the kit page, the board and Aspen's chat keep the offer ready, and the Friday check-in leaves one card inviting you in rather than checking on nothing. The first objective, however it arrives, closes it.
4. From the first Friday at three, the check-in reads every check-in on the log, asks you once — in one card — only about the key results with no fresh check-in that week, and redraws the board: where each objective stands, what is at risk, 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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