Set Up OKRs and Quarterly Planning
Operations · 1–2 days · Beginner
The job
Facilitate a quarterly planning cycle that connects team work to organisational strategy.
What the sponsor gets
Each canvas and map from this playbook — Retrospective Canvas, SWOT Analysis, OKR Canvas, Prioritisation Matrix — exports as a PDF, or as PowerPoint on Pro, straight from the session, and the whole run exports as one PowerPoint for the sponsor. Nothing is redrawn.
The method
Review the previous quarter
Score last quarter's OKRs honestly. For each, note what drove the result and what you learned. This isn't a performance review — it's a learning exercise.
Tip: A 70% hit rate on ambitious OKRs is healthy. If you're hitting 100%, your objectives aren't stretching you.
Run a planning retrospective
Before setting new objectives, reflect on the planning process itself. Did last quarter's OKRs actually drive behaviour, or did people revert to their default priorities?
Tip: If teams can't recall their OKRs without looking them up, the objectives aren't embedded in daily work.
Assess the strategic context
Create a quick SWOT canvas for the quarter ahead. What's changed in your market, organisation, or team since last quarter that should shape priorities?
Tip: Spend 80% of the time on Opportunities and Threats — Strengths and Weaknesses rarely shift quarter to quarter.
Draft quarterly OKRs
Create an OKR canvas with 2–3 objectives for the quarter. Each objective needs 2–4 measurable key results with specific targets. Every key result needs a single owner.
Tip: Write key results as outcomes ("reduce churn to 3%"), not activities ("launch 5 campaigns") — activities can happen without results.
Align resources to objectives
Plot all current and proposed initiatives on a Prioritisation Matrix. Kill or defer anything that doesn't connect to an OKR. This is where planning turns into commitment.
Tip: If you can't defer anything, your OKRs are just a description of what you were already doing — not a prioritisation.
Commit and cascade
Each team lead commits to their OKRs publicly. Schedule weekly check-ins (15 minutes max) and a mid-quarter review. Publish OKRs where everyone can see them.
Tip: The mid-quarter review is when you adjust — waiting until quarter-end to discover you're off track wastes 6 weeks.
The canvases and maps
- Retrospective Canvas
- What went well and what to improve, then start, stop and continue, so reflection ends in actions rather than a list of complaints.
- SWOT Analysis
- Four quadrants split inside from outside and helpful from harmful, so strengths cannot hide threats and every point has to land somewhere.
- OKR Canvas
- One objective, three key results and the initiatives beneath them, so ambition and measurement sit on the same page and no initiative floats free of a result.
- Prioritisation Matrix
- Impact against effort in four quadrants — quick wins, major projects, fill-ins and avoid — so the team trades off instead of calling everything a priority.
What it doesn't do
It doesn't run the room for you or decide for the client. The steps, canvases and duration are a starting point you adapt; the judgement stays yours.