How to build an effective planning process in 3 steps
An effective planning process is paramount for achieving your strategic goals. Learn how to build a process that works for your team.
The Coda Team
How to build an effective planning process in 3 steps
By The Coda Team
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More planning time doesn’t always lead to better plans. In fact, it often leads to analysis paralysis. Questions like “Should we do this or that?” can lead to both this and that being added as key results—then you’re doing double the work. In fact, we had this issue at Coda. In the past, we spent the first two weeks of every quarter planning. It felt rushed, and some teams requested that we add a third week. Surprisingly, we decided to go in the other direction. We reduced planning down to a single week, prompting anxiety that it would result in lower-quality plans. After a trial, we asked teams to give feedback, and it turns out that they rated the shorter process as more effective while also yielding higher-quality results. By the end of the quarter, KR completion rates were noticeably increased, confirming that our instinct to streamline planning was the right one. From our own experience—as well as the hundreds of Coda customers we’ve chatted with—we’ve learned that an efficient strategic planning process is paramount for hitting key bets. In this article, we’ll walk through the three steps that lead to effective planning: defining your output, optimizing your process, and integrating into execution. You can read more of our planning insights in the Ultimate Coda Handbook for Planning and OKRs.
1. Define the output: Understand what you’re planning.
The first step to planning successfully is identifying the structure and dimensions of your plan: the what. Will you have OKRs? Big Rocks? Resource maps? The best output for your team will depend on what works in your organization, as each output reflects a different set of priorities. It would be best if you decided what is right for you based on the size and priorities of your organization and the strengths and weaknesses of your team. You will need to revisit the structure of your planning regularly, as your needs will change over time. In addition to the structure, you also need to define the dimensions of the output. We recommend you:- Decide on the altitude of your plan.
- Set the key attributes to focus your team.
- Determine how dependencies are managed.
- Establish the right views of the plan for each team and situation.
2. Optimize the process: Make a plan for how you plan.
We’ve found that the most successful teams follow the Golden Rule of Planning: spend only 10% of your time on planning, giving you 90% of your time for execution. Time spent on planning should be minimized to maximize time for execution. To effectively implement the 10% planning rule, teams often need to adopt other best practices throughout the year. For example, teams tend to focus on collecting feature requests and evaluating top issues only during the planning phase. However, if you continuously gather data and customer feedback throughout the year, you’ll be primed for the next period’s planning process. Another strategy to enhance efficiency is to utilize M-shaped planning. This involves a bottom-up and top-down information flow, which combines the clarity gained from top-down decision-making with the innovative ideas generated by the collective.3. Integrate planning into execution: When efficiency and effectiveness meet.
Once your planning process is wrapped, take these steps to switch into execution mode. Clarify responsibilities so everyone knows their role. Before you get to the execution period, capture which team(s) are responsible for jointly accomplishing each key result. Every key result should have a single DRI (directly responsible individual) or a driver who is accountable for moving the goal forward until it’s achieved. Bring plans and execution together to stay on track. A view of your OKRs should live in almost all of your docs, whether that’s a leadership meeting, a 1:1 doc with direct reports/skip levels, or a strategy writeup. When your OKRs live in the same tool as your daily work, you can easily monitor what’s next, track progress, and identify blockers for each initiative. Track progress and confidence so you know what to expect. Set goals that the team believes it can hit and deem success as achieving 100% of the intended result. This leads to more trust among teams, and the ability to predict what will actually get done.Plan more effectively in Coda with a free, step-by-step tutorial.
Planning can be a smooth, low-stress process once you’ve dialed in a system that works for your team. Be clear about defining your output, optimize the process for your unique team, and integrate planning into your team’s daily work. Most complications tend to arise when planning is isolated from the team’s daily work––and that’s where Coda comes in. Coda joins strategy and execution into one place so drivers can easily update their progress from where they’re getting their work done. This gives collaborators and leaders visibility into where they can offer support, and where they’re ahead of target. Learn more about how to build a more effective planning process with the Coda Tutorial for Planning & OKRs.Related posts
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