Getting started with strategic planning and goal-setting

A guide for aligning strategic planning with newsroom mission and values for product teams

Presented by Rebekah Monson

Strategic planning and goal-setting are organizational frameworks that give our work context, which makes these activities among the most important for any team. Our strategic plans are living documents that explain why we exist and what we're trying to achieve. For newsroom product teams, a strategic plan that is aligned with our organization’s mission helps us define team goals, determine how we will meet them, and identify who is responsible for the work. When everyone on the team has access to the strategic plan, it becomes easier to understand how their individual work fits into the team's mission, values, and goals.

This guide is a starting point for strategic planning and goal-setting for newsroom product teams that can be implemented at any time. In this guide, we focus on mission and values to establish short- and long-term goals, and we use the OKR framework to ensure goals are aligned over time and across teams. 

The OKR framework is a simple, effective, and popular process for establishing, measuring and tracking business priorities throughout an organization. OKR stands for “objective” and “key results.” An objective is an ambitious qualitative goal, and key results are measurable metrics that help us understand our progress. OKRs are set first at the macro level — five years, three years or one year, for example — and then broken down into smaller, more manageable OKRs for shorter time frames — quarters, months or sprints. The book Radical Focus, in the resources section, is a primer on how OKRs can work for your team.

(Source: Canva)

IN PRACTICE

Use the tips and concepts in this section to cultivate a product culture in your newsroom

Align on mission and values

Get started by bringing your team together to define your mission and values — the most important part of a strategic plan. Mission describes your team’s driving purpose, or why your team exists. Your mission statement should be big and bold, easily understood, inclusive of the team, and about impact rather than profit. Values are your team's guiding principles. Value statements are usually three to five key words or phrases that define your team culture and how it behaves. The book Traction, in the resources list below, provides guidance on how to define mission (or core purpose) and values with your team.

A Lean Canvas from Strategyzer. (Source: strategyzer.com)

Kick off goal-setting with a Lean Canvas

After your team is aligned on mission and values, collaboratively completing a Lean Canvas can help align the team on basic product and business strategy. Lean Canvas is a visual model that helps your team look more closely at a problem you are trying to solve, a proposed solution, the metrics you’ll need to measure, who your users are, how you'll reach users, what advantages you have, what resources you need, and how you will generate revenue. The Introduction to Lean Canvas post in the resources section explains the activity.

Start big, then break it down

Now you’re ready to move into strategic planning. Build your strategic plan from the long-term to the short-term in five-, three- and one-year increments, but don't worry about working ahead too much. Work with your team to set one-year OKRs, and then break them down into quarterly, monthly, and even sprint-length OKRs. Working incrementally will help your team adapt as business conditions change. You'll revisit goal-setting on a regular cadence. Remember, your plan keeps everyone focused and aligned and helps the team adapt without straying from your mission, values and goals.

A SMARTIE goal worksheet. (Source: Engineer Inclusion)

Use SMARTIE goals for KRs

Key result (KR) alignment is easier when they are written as SMARTIE goals — strategic, measurable, ambitious, realistic, time-bound, inclusive, and equitable. Here are some questions to help you evaluate your KRs:

• Strategic: How does the KR connect to our priorities?

• Measurable: How will we know the KR is met?

• Ambitious: How does the KR push our organization or product to the next level?

• Realistic: Is the KR feasible, given our resources?

• Time-bound: By when will we meet this KR?

• Inclusive: How will this KR share power with traditionally marginalized people?

• Equitable: How will the KR address systemic injustice, inequality or oppression?

Aim for one person, one goal

Accountability is critical to achieving our mission. One of the best ways to help teams stay on track is to assign accountability for each KR to one person and to ensure that goal is their core focus for the timeframe. Each person should have a single goal within a given work period (for example: one annual KR, one quarterly KR, one monthly KR, etc.) so that they can prioritize their work and stay focused. 

Establish a rhythm

Your strategic plan is a living document to use and keep up-to-date. Team members should report on OKR progress on a regular cadence and in a transparent, accessible format. This will help you spot challenges early, shift resources when necessary, and iterate on plans to maintain progress toward objectives. Track OKRs in your project management software or a spreadsheet that everyone can see and update. At the end of a time period for your OKRs, hold a retrospective with the team to report out final progress, identify challenges to address, and define your next set of OKRs together. 

TERMS

Definitions for product terms referenced in this guide are sourced from NPA’s crowd-sourced product glossary

Project Manager

The person who plays the lead role in planning, executing, and overseeing a project from development to launch and completion. This person often coordinates multiple teams and creates clear, attainable objectives with a roadmap to completion.

Retrospective

An organized, collaborative look back at how a project went. Common questions answered by the team during a retrospective include: what went well, what didn’t go so well, and what should do differently next time?

Sprint

A defined period of time when a team works to complete a set amount of work; common in agile development styles.

RELATED READINGS

Traction - EOS Entrepreneurial Operating System

Radical Focus - Christina Wodtke (Bookshop.org)

Introduction to Lean Canvas - Steve Mullen (Medium)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rebekah Monson

Rebekah Monson is the cofounder of WhereByUs Media, which publishes five newsletters in the U.S., and COO of Letterhead, a software platform to help creators make, manage and monetize email newsletters. Follow her on Twitter at @rsm, or set up a chat during her office hours at rebekahmonson.com.

Puedes leer la guía traducida y adaptada al español por nuestros aliados de SembraMedia aquí: Introducción a la planificación y fijación de objetivos estratégicos

Você pode ler o guia traduzido e adaptado para português por nossos aliados da AJOR aqui: Introdução ao planejamento estratégico e definição de metas: Um guia para alinhar o planejamento estratégico com a missão e os valores da redação para equipes de produto