How do I create a Quarterly Priority?

Quarterly Priorities are an essential part of creating an effective plan with clear ownership to execute on the goals you have set.

When do I create Quarterly Priorities?

You can set up priorities in Metronome at any time, but typically, the Quarterly Priority cycle will start in the last few weeks of the prior quarter. Best practice is always to have your plan set and ready to go before a quarter is underway!

What makes a good Priority?

A good priority is a non-numerical goal that defines what needs to be accomplished within the quarter. It should align with the company or team's strategic objectives and be written as a SMART priority. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). Priorities focus on actions or key milestones rather than numbers.

For example, a priority might involve completing a specific project or launching a new initiative. Unlike Metrics, Priorities are measured by progress toward defined milestones, making them ideal for driving accountability and focus on critical outcomes.

13-Week Sprintlanes

When creating a Quarterly Priority, we suggest breaking it down into a 13-week sprint to track progress. This allows you to compare the Actual percentage completed to the Target Pace.

The reason there are 13-Weeks is that if you are doing Quarterly planning in the last few weeks of the prior quarter, there should always be at least 1 week before the quarter starts that can still be used to hit your goals!

 

Creating a Quarterly Priority with a 13-week sprint also allows for better visibility into how you are actually going to meet your goal.

• For example, in a Meeting you can expand the 13-weeks to see where a quarterly priority may need support to keep it on track.

Setting up a Quarterly Priority

1. First, go to the Quarterly Priorities page
2. In the top right, click Add Priority
3. Choose your settings:
   1. Auto Set Status: Check this box to automatically set the status color
   2. Company Priority: Check this box if it's a Company priority (explained further below)
   3. Accountability: Who owns the priority
   4. Start Date: When the priority starts
   5. Due Date: When the priority is due by
   6. Progress Type: How you will track progress
      
      1. We suggest using Roll-up Sub-Priorities 
   7. Tags: Add tags to categorize or further define a priority
   8. Description: Enter any details that give further context to the priority

What's the difference between Company vs Individual Priorities?

Company priorities are the priorities that are most important for a Company to achieve over the next quarter. These might involve multiple members of a team to complete but can also be owned by just one person. As a team, everyone must align on the Company priorities, and their order of importance.

Individual priorities are priorities that may only relate to one function or department but are not key to the success of the whole Company. They do not need to be tracked at the Company level or be visible on the Daily Dashboard or One Page Plan.

 

After setting up your Quarterly Priority, click + Add Sub-Priorities and select Add 13 Weekly Sub-Priorities from the drop-down.

 

Note: Depending on when you set up this priority, the system will automatically calculate how many weeks there are ahead of you.

• For example, if you are already tw0 weeks into a quarter, the option presented will be 'Add 10 Weekly Sub-Priorities

• To view and edit each week’s sub-priority, expand the Quarterly Priority by clicking the chevron on the left.

 

For each week, you can break down at a high level what needs to be done to achieve this Quarterly Priority over the next 13 weeks.

1. Select the first Sub-Priority to bring up the properties.
2. Edit the Title to describe what's being completed that week.
3. Edit the Start Date and Due Date
4. For each Sub-priority, decide how you want to track Progress. In this example we are using a Percentage Based type.
5. Repeat for each week.

• If there are extra weeks at the end, they can be removed by selecting More in the upper right corner and from the drop-down menu, select Delete Priority.

• As you work through the Quarterly Priority, you can easily track your Actual against your Target Pace based on the average of what has been done to date for the Roll-up Sub-Priorities.
• If you selected the Auto Set Status option, the color automatically updates based on your pacing!

 

If you have any questions about setting up Quarterly priorities, reach out to us at support@metronomegrowthsystems.com