Create an objective

15Five's Objectives feature enables teams to record, measure, and align their goals. This article walks through how to create an objective and select appropriate objective settings. If you're uploading a large number of OKRs, check out our "Bulk import objectives" article for steps on how to upload OKRs in bulk.

In this article, you will learn...

• How to create an objective
• What additional resources exist for you to utilize 15Five's Objectives feature

Are you more of a visual learner? Check out this video ⬇️

Create an objective 

Objectives are what an organization, team, or individual wants to accomplish, and are typically qualitative and time-bound. Follow the steps below to create an objective. If you'd like to bulk import OKRs, check out our "Bulk import objectives" article.

1. Click on Objectives in 15Five's main, left-hand navigation.
   
2. You will land on the 'All objectives' page. From here, click Create a new objective.
3. Give your objective a name. The name should concisely and accurately describe the goal of the objective.
4. Choose who the owner of the objective should be. The person selected here should be the main stakeholder responsible for the objective's completion. Please note that the names that appear in this dropdown menu will vary based on your company's set permissions for Objectives.
   
5. Decide whether the objective is for: A person, A group, or The whole company. The options that appear in this section may vary depending on objective settings, and you may only see the option to create objectives for some of these options.
   
   If you select "A group"...

   and your company has objective creation for group types enabled, you will be asked to select what group type the objective is for. By default, the only objective type that appears in this list is "Groups," meaning that you can only assign objectives to groups that have the group-type "Group." If you'd like to have the ability to assign objectives to groups in other group types, an account admin can configure what types of objectives your company can create on the 'Configure Objective types' page (in-app link only accessible to account admins).
   
   After selecting the appropriate group type, select the group you want to assign the objective to from the dropdown menu.

6. If aligned objectives are enabled for your company in objective settings, you will see the option to align this objective with a parent objective. Read more about aligned objectives in our "Align an objective with a parent objective" Help Center article.
   If aligned, decide whether or not you want the objective to impact the progress of the parent objective.
   
7. If Objectives tags are enabled in your company's settings for Objectives, you will see the option to add a tag(s) to your objective. If you are unsure what tag(s) to use for your objective, it's best to leave this field blank and add the tag(s) by editing the objective at a later date.
   
8. Now's the time to create key results to measure your objective.
9. Choose a name for the key result. If you do not name the key result, the objective will not save.
10. Select how to want to measure the key result. Measurement options are: percentage, currency, number, or completed/not completed. For currency values other than $, click ... > Other currency, and use the drop-down to choose the currency that applies.
11. If your company has the Jira integration enabled, you can link your key result(s) to Jira issues using the 'Link to' option at the bottom right of your key result field.
12. Add in the objective's start and end dates. If the objective is aligned to a parent objective and set up to impact the parent objective's progress, the dates set here must be the same as or fall within the parent objective's dates. 

    

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    Note

    Account admins can customize your company's business calendar and update frequency for objectives under "Scheduling details" on the Objectives settings page.

13. If the "Who has the permission to update and edit my objectives?" option is enabled in your objectives permissions settings, you will see a question titled "Who can update and edit this objective?" This section allows you to add groups or people as editors for the objective. Adding people or groups here will allow those selected to edit, manage, update, and delete the objective.
    If you are allowing people to update and edit this objective, they will be automatically added as viewers of the objective, even if 15Five permissions or Specific people is selected. Use cases for this option: team objectives being worked on by a group, objectives being worked on cross-collaboratively, and objectives managed by two teammates. 
    
14. Select the appropriate privacy setting for your objective: Public, 15Five permissions (meaning that anyone who can see your Check-ins can see the objective), or Specific people (you and your direct manager always, and anyone else you choose to include). For more information on these settings, refer to our "Visibility settings for objectives" Help Center article.

    

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    Tip

    If you'd like for the objective to be private to only you and your direct manager, select "Specific people." Your name and your direct manager's name will be auto-populated; simply don't add anyone else's name in the field. 

15. Click the Create objective button, and you're done! The objective can now be seen on the Objectives dashboard.
    

FAQs