Goals & Anti-Goals

Identify and prioritize key product, business, project, and/or consulting engagement goals and anti-goals (non-goals)

Phases

Kickoff Inception Remote

Suggested Time

45-60 min

Participants

Core team, stakeholders

Why do it?

Goals help the team decide where to focus their time and efforts. By developing them hand-in-hand with stakeholders, we can align ourselves around shared goals and avoid any unnecessary or unwanted surprises down the road.

When to do it?

We do this as early as possible during a project, usually defining them during Kickoff and revisiting them at Inception.

What supplies are needed?

Whiteboard or digital version like Miro
Dry erase markers
Sticky notes
Sharpies
Painter’s tape (optional)

How to use this method remotely?

There is currently a remote template available in Miro. Here you will find step instructions on how to conduct this practice remotely including general tips and info.

1. Open Miro. In the side menu, select 'Templates'

2. Search for "Tanzu" to see all, or 2. Search for "Tanzu" to see all, or click here to use this template

How to Use this Method

Sample Agenda & Prompts

Draw 4 columns on the whiteboard, one for each type of goal. Put anti-goal column off to the side to introduce it later.
Write out goal types on board along with prompts:
- Product goals - “What impact do we want to have on our product space?”
- Business goals - “What does success look like from a business perspective? Are there any important dates that we need to consider?”
- Project / Consulting engagement goals - “As a team, what do we want to accomplish during our time together?”
- Anti-goals - “What do we want to accomplish someday that would distract the team today?”
Give 7 minutes of brainstorming time. Ask everyone to write as many ideas as possible, 1 per sticky note.
In 2 minutes, have each person pick their top 8 goals for each category and rip up everything else. Remember to mention that this is okay!
Go around the room and have everyone share out the 8 goals they selected. Have a co-facilitator put the sticky notes on the board in the right columns.
As each person shares out, ask other people if they have a duplicate. Group these similar goals together.
When everyone has shared, hand out 6 dots per person and have everyone dot vote on their top 2 product, business, and project/consulting engagement goals (there’s no need to vote on the anti-goals). Circle the top 2 goals that emerge.
Confirm with key stakeholder(s) if there’s anything else really important that we’ve missed. If so, circle those as well or write them down.

Success/Expected Outcomes

Success is when the core team and stakeholders have a clear and shared understanding of the top product, business, project/consulting engagement, and anti-goals.

Facilitator Notes & Tips

If you have a lot of people in your Kickoff (e.g. 15+), consider asking everyone to organize themselves into groups of 3-4 people. This will simplify the process of sharing out and affinity mapping the generated goals.