Complete OKR + Initiatives Hub

Our North Star

Our Goals

Roadmaps

Operating Pulse

Explore

Getting Started

To see the FREE OKR version of this Hub,
`click here`⁠
.

To unlock THIS template (Complete OKR & Initiative Hub),
`click here to purchase.`⁠
(Organizational sanity for just $125)

Vision combined with organization is power. Welcome to your tool suite.

👋 Hi! Lucy here. After 8+ years leading in a high growth, highly cross-functional startup environment and ultimately rising from 1st PM to VP of Product & Strategic Planning, I’ve learned a thing or 2 about operational leadership.

I’m here to walk you through the tools and principles I use to help our teams stay tightly aligned and loosely coupled (Source:

No Rules Rules⁠

- Netflix). TLDR - Do more, meet less.

First of all, what is Coda? Coda is a connected, collaborative workspace platform that builds off of the fundamental units of data in your business (Ex. Goals, tasks, projects, people, teams, etc.). Coda appeals to me because of its holistic approach: start with the fundamentals. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

By properly setting up your base data tables from the beginning, you give yourself, your team, and your AI(!) the fundamental building blocks to create advanced views with speed and accuracy.

Want a quick rundown?

Watch this 1m video⁠

Need a crash course?

Take Coda 101⁠

Need more help? Talk to

support@coda.com⁠

(they’re lightning fast!) or reach out to me

lucy@level380.com⁠

to schedule a consulting call.

Set up / explore your workspace:

⁠
`Our North Star`⁠
⁠

The Vision, Mission, & Strategy that Guide our Work

Everything we do should be in alignment with our North Star. This is perhaps the most important alignment page for your company. The people whose personal North Star overlaps with the Company’s, will be your beacon. The people who don’t see it will come and go. Clarify your North Star, understand your unique powers, and find your superstars. This is why we work.

⁠
`Our Goals`⁠

Our Company Goals & How We Achieve Them

Optional read:

Intro to OKRs⁠

⁠

Add

Objectives⁠

- easy-to-understand, inspirational goal statements that clearly tie to business or customer value

Add

Goal Horizon⁠

. By default, Company Goals are tied to years (ie. 2024) but you can set any Goal Horizon you want.

Add Company Key Results (

Our Goals⁠

), which roll up to Objectives

Add Team Key Results (

Our Goals⁠

), which roll up to Company Key Results

This is a scalable document meant to track multiple goal cycles - for as long as you want. Add new horizons and goals and easily toggle between horizons to see past goals.

⁠
`Roadmaps`⁠
⁠

Our Team & Strategic Priorities

This section represents different lens from which to view your goals & projects. While you are free to filter your views however you like, I’ve created some examples for you as a jumping off point:

⁠

Company OKR Roadmap⁠

: See Team Key Results & Projects rolling up to a specific Company OKR.

⁠

Big Rock Roadmap⁠

: See how work is progressing on the major strategic initiatives at the company (

What are Big Rocks?⁠

⁠

Team Roadmap⁠

: Track Team Key Results, Projects, and Tasks by Team

⁠

Custom Roadmap Display⁠

: Create Roadmap views that don’t perfectly line up to a Team Filter (ex. a Feature Roadmap, since “Product Team” filter may include non-feature Projects)

Steps based on the views you’d like to use:

Want to use Big Rock Roadmaps? Add

Big Rocks⁠

⁠

Want to use Team Roadmaps?

Add

Departments⁠

(Optional)

Add

Teams⁠

, which roll up to Departments.

Add

People⁠

, which roll up to Teams. Team Key Results will be associated to Teams based on Owner’s Team.

Want to use Custom Roadmap Display?

Select or add new Roadmap Displays when creating a Project. Edit existing options via

Projects⁠

(find the Roadmap Display column and click Edit column).

Add new Roadmap views by copying or duplicating an example Doc (select “Create Connected View” when prompted)

Change the Filter. (

See Visual Steps⁠

)

⁠
`Operating Pulse`⁠

For Operating Leaders to Stay Up-to-Date

This section reflects your core operating rituals (what/how often do we want to come together to review results & performance?). Link to your company’s analytics dashboards.

My general tips for reporting:

Every company’s reporting needs are different. Match your reporting & cadence to learning cycle & target audience. (Ex. If it’s hard to see useful signals week to week, review monthly).

Don’t mix reporting and triage. Cadence reporting is for creating a pulse for learning and recap. If something is urgent, escalate to the right people - asap.

Use async to prime sync. IRL meetings are expensive and can easily go off the rails.

For core working group meetings, use a clear meeting agenda & pre-read materials to guide discussion.

For info sharing / status check-in meetings, require owners to add and review updates in advance. Reserve verbal shares for the most important callouts/learnings/takeaways.

⁠
`Meetings`⁠

A Simple, but Comprehensive Template for Meetings

My template gives you a single portal and best practices to support multiple meeting series. (If you want a dedicated meeting series page, create a separate dupe page and

use Filters⁠

instead of a Dropdown)

To create a new meeting series, simply add one from the meeting series dropdown.

Once a meeting series is selected, any topics you add to the Rolling Agenda will be associated with that meeting series

Any follow-ups will show up in the Follow-Ups section and also in Individual Tasks

My Dashboard⁠

(remember? Building blocks. 🤓)

At the end of the meeting, write or generate a discussion summary via AI! All summaries will be readily available under the Decision/Meeting Log.

I highly recommend a rolling agenda of topics as opposed to “Meeting xx/yy/zz” as this will make follow-ups more clear and create continuity of focus (especially if a topic ends up rolling over for multiple meetings)

⁠
`My Dashboard`⁠

Your individual home base. Shows Goals, Projects & Tasks for the current user.

⁠
`All Projects`⁠

Clean view to see and filter across all projects (without a default filter view). This a simplified view for easy visibility. To edit projects in bulk, use the base table

Projects⁠

⁠

Helpful Resources

Intro to OKRs

OKRs stand for Objectives & Key Results, which help companies align top line objectives with team goals at scale.

Objectives are the “Whats” and define what we are seeking to achieve. They are:

Aggressive & inspirational, yet realistic

Easy to understand

Clearly tie to business value

Ex. We want to dominate the XYZ business.

Key Results are the “Hows” by which we measure our progress within a set timeframe. They:

Express measurable milestones & timeframes which, if achieved, will advance Objective(s) in a meaningful way

Good: “Improve daily sign-ups by 25 percent by May 1.”

Bad: “Improve sign-ups”

Must describe clear outcomes/outputs, not activities (we need to be able to score success)

Good: “Publish average and tail latency measurements from six Colossus cells by March 7.”

Bad: “Assess latency”

Should ideally tie back to clear value - avoid “Who Cares” KRs

Good: “Launch Foo 4.1 to improve sign-ups by 25 percent”

Bad: “Launch Foo 4.1” - internal terms, unclear why Foo is important

Be reasonably attributable back to one’s efforts

Try to limit to 3-5 Key Results max per Objective to create focus

Together, Objectives & Key Results help teams unify and align work to company objectives, while creating a common definition of success. Ex. We want to dominate the XYZ business “as measured by A, B, C”.

What are Big Rocks?

Big Rocks are the few key strategic initiatives (major investments, typically 3mo+) that we have committed to make meaningful progress on. What we must do, if nothing else. Keep Big Rocks to less than 6 per year, making up 30-40% of total resources (Read more:

Coda CEO Shishir shares his thoughts on this guidance⁠

). Big Rocks typically span multiple OKRs and require cross-functional leaders to lean in to succeed.

Watch this video to learn more:

⁠

Want to do a big bet exercise amongst your team? Try this template:

⁠

https://clients.intenthq.com/@shishir/rituals-for-hypergrowth-an-inside-look-at-how-youtube-scaled/big-rock-100-prioritization-23⁠

⁠

Do yourself a favor and watch this video from Config 2024 where Shishir (CEO of Coda) and Yuhki (CPO of Figma) break down planning.

⁠

Creating New Filter Views

Watch

Coda Filters 101⁠

Coda Official Filters 201⁠

⁠

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.

Getting Started

To see the FREE OKR version of this Hub, click here⁠.

To unlock THIS template (Complete OKR & Initiative Hub), click here to purchase.⁠ (Organizational sanity for just $125)

Vision combined with organization is power. Welcome to your tool suite.

Set up / explore your workspace:

⁠Our North Star⁠⁠

⁠Our Goals⁠

⁠Roadmaps⁠⁠

⁠Operating Pulse⁠

⁠Meetings⁠

⁠My Dashboard⁠

⁠All Projects⁠