Intro to Goal Maps

What’s a goal map?

Goal maps are visualizations of your team's strategy that show how tactics, strategies, metrics, goals, and visions ladder.

These maps facilitate cohesive strategies where everything is connected and build to something great. They're also convenient ways to visualize your entire roadmap.

How to create and use goal maps

• Go from goal --> tactic. (And not the other way around.) Goal maps should be developed top to bottom, i.e. you start with the vision, then explicate goals, then metrics, then strategies, and eventually tactics. This ensures that all your projects align to your vision.

• Everything needs to fit. By putting everything on a map, you're forced to show the relationship between projects (tactics) and your overall team vision. If something doesn't fit on the map, it's probably something you shouldn't be doing. One way to ensure this: Use strategy statements as "how might we" prompts for brainstorming.

• Make the vision enduring and tactics flexible. The highest rows on the map (vision, goals) should be enduring and persist through the quarters or even users. The lowest rows (tactics, strategies) should be malleable and change periodically. This ensures that each half / quarter builds on the last as you come closer to your north star, while making the actual work you do build on previous tactics and responsive to new information.