--- title: "The Goals module" description: "The Goals module lets your organisation set objectives, measure them with key results, and follow progress in the List, Hierarchy and Timeline views." category: goals-analytics section: goals-and-okrs type: Reference lastUpdated: 2026-08-26 locale: en canonical: https://support.talkspirit.com/en/goals-analytics/goals-overview --- # The Goals module ## The Goals module The Goals module is where your organisation sets objectives, measures them with key results, and keeps teams working towards the same outcomes. Every goal carries an owner, a time period and a category, and its progress is calculated from its key results, its sub-goals, or both. You follow that progress in three views: List, Hierarchy and Timeline. --- ## What is a goal? A goal is an outcome someone commits to reaching within a time period. It combines two things: - **The objective**: the goal's title and description, saying what you want to achieve - **Key results**: the measurable indicators that move the goal's progress Each goal also has an **owner**, which can be a member, a circle or a role, plus a **time period**, a **category** and a **privacy** setting. Tasks and projects can be linked to a key result to show which work supports it. Those links are informational: they never change the key result's progress. **Example:** - **Objective:** Launch the new customer onboarding experience - **Key result 1:** Reduce time to first value from 14 days to 5 days - **Key result 2:** Reach a 90% onboarding completion rate - **Key result 3:** Reach an NPS of 50 ![A goal page in Talkspirit: the title "Increase NPS by 25%" with an Active badge, an Overall progress bar at 31% with Key results contribution and Sub-goals contribution dials, a General block listing owner, time period and category, then the Key results, Parent goal and Sub-goals sections.](/images/goals-analytics/goals-overview/02-goal-page.png) --- ## How are goals categorised? Every goal belongs to one of three categories, which describe how far its scope reaches: | Category | Scope | Example | |---|---|---| | **Company** | The whole organisation | "Become the reference for employee engagement" | | **Team** | A circle or department | "Increase product adoption in the EMEA region" | | **Individual** | One person's contribution | "Complete the advanced data analysis certification" | The category is a label, not a permission. Anyone allowed to create goals in your organisation can pick any of the three. **Note:** Administrators define the time periods goals can be attached to, and read the organisation's goal statistics, under **Goal settings** at the bottom of the Goals panel. --- ## How do key results work? A key result is one measurable indicator of a goal's progress. A goal can have several, each with its own progress and its own weight. There are two types: | Type | How it works | Example | |---|---|---| | **Quantitative / Percentage** | Tracks a number or a percentage from a starting value to a target | Revenue from 1M to 2M | | **Milestone / Binary** | Tracks simple completion, done or not done | "New website launched" | Choose the type when you create the key result. It cannot be changed afterwards. A quantitative key result can carry a **unit**, chosen from a fixed list of 27: symbols such as **%**, **$**, **€** and **#**, counts such as **users**, **count** and **pts**, durations such as **days**, **months** and **years**, and business measures such as **NPS**, **CSAT**, **churn %** and **market share**. Leave it on **None** when no unit applies. A key result can also be taken out of the calculation with **Exclude this from contributing**. It stays visible and keeps its own progress, but it stops counting towards the goal. --- ## How do I update progress? Progress moves through **check-ins**. On the goal, select the plus icon beside a key result to open **Update Progress**, then record: 1. The **New Value** for the key result 2. A **Confidence Level**: High, Medium or Low 3. An optional **Comment** about the update Select **Save Check-in**. The dialog shows the previous value, the progress towards target and the change since the last check-in, and every check-in is kept in **Progress History**. ![The Update Progress dialog: Previous Value, New Value marked required, a Progress Towards Target summary reading 31%, a Confidence Level list set to "Medium - On track with some concerns", an optional Comment box, and Cancel and Save Check-in buttons.](/images/goals-analytics/goals-overview/03-update-progress-modal.png) A **Key Results to update** section appears in the Goals panel when one of your key results is waiting for a check-in. A key result lands there when its goal is active, its time period covers today, you own or contribute to the goal, and no progress has been recorded since that period started. When nothing is waiting, the section is hidden rather than empty. Goals also surface on your **Cockpit**, under **Requires attention**, with a Goals tab and a note telling you how long a goal has gone without an update. ![The Requires attention block on the Cockpit, with All, Tasks, Goals and Tensions tabs, showing one goal card labelled GOAL: "Reach 4.5/5 average onboarding satisfaction", the note "Review needed: no progress recorded in 20 days", 0% progress and an At risk badge.](/images/goals-analytics/goals-overview/07-cockpit-goals.png) --- ## How is progress calculated? Goal progress is calculated automatically. Open the goal's **More actions** menu and select **Progress driver** to choose what it is calculated from: | Progress driver | What it uses | |---|---| | **Key result** | The progress of the goal's key results only | | **Sub-goals** | The progress of the goal's sub-goals only | | **Both** | Both pools, split by a percentage you set | On the **Both** tab, set **Key result weight** and **Sub-goals weight**. They must add up to 100%, and they start at 50/50. Inside each pool, every key result and every sub-goal carries its own weight: **None**, **0.25x**, **0.5x**, **1x**, **2x**, **3x** or **4x**. A key result at 2x counts twice as much as one at 1x. New items start at 1x, so a goal nobody has weighted treats them all equally. ![The Progress driver dialog on the Both tab: a Weighting block with Key result weight and Sub-goals weight both at 50%, then a Key Results list and a Sub-goals list, each item showing its progress and a weight selector set to 1x.](/images/goals-analytics/goals-overview/04-progress-driver-modal.png) --- ## How does the goal hierarchy work? Any goal can become the **sub-goal** of another, so a broad objective can be broken into the goals that deliver it. A sub-goal's progress feeds its parent whenever the parent's progress driver includes sub-goals. From a goal you can: - Add a **sub-goal**, either by linking an existing goal or by creating a new one - Add a **parent goal**, which puts this goal one level down - **Unlink** a sub-goal or a parent, which breaks the link and leaves both goals in place The only structural rule is that a goal cannot be linked to one of its own ancestors or descendants. Categories do not constrain the shape: a team goal can sit under another team goal. ![The Hierarchy view: goal cards laid out on a canvas, each showing its category, status, time period, progress and owner, with a connector running from "Acquire 10 new customers" down to its sub-goal, and zoom and layout controls in the lower right.](/images/goals-analytics/goals-overview/05-hierarchy-view.png) --- ## What views are available? The Goals module has three views. Your choice is remembered for your next visit. ### List A sortable table: **Name**, **Status**, **Progress**, **Time period**, **Owner** and **Category**. A goal with sub-goals shows a chevron that expands them inline. ![The Goals List view: a "7 goals" count, the view switcher, and Filter, Sort and Group controls above a table with Name, Status, Progress, Time period, Owner and Category columns. The Goals panel on the left lists All Goals and My goals.](/images/goals-analytics/goals-overview/01-goals-list-view.png) ### Hierarchy An interactive map of parent and sub-goal relationships. Expand and collapse branches, drag cards, switch the layout direction, and zoom in and out. When a filter is active, matching goals stay bright and the rest dim. ### Timeline A Gantt chart placing goals across their time periods, each bar coloured by status. Use **Zoom in** and **Zoom out** to move between five scales, from a single year down to weeks and days, and **Previous**, **Today** and **Next** to move along the chart. Only goals with a time period appear here. ![The Goals Timeline view: quarter and month headers across the top, three goal rows drawn as bars with their progress percentages, and Previous, Today, Next and zoom controls above the chart.](/images/goals-analytics/goals-overview/06-timeline-view.png) --- ## What do the statuses mean? A goal carries two indicators. **Status** is the health signal you set yourself, from the goal's progress block or from the List view: | Status | Meaning | |---|---| | **On track** | Progress is where it should be | | **At risk** | Progress is behind or under threat | | **Blocked** | Progress has stopped | | **Not set** | Nobody has set a status yet | Beside the goal's title, a badge shows where the goal is in its life: **Draft**, **Active**, **Closed** or **Archived**. Archiving keeps a goal readable but takes it out of the default lists, and the **Archived** quick filter brings it back. --- ## Who can see a goal? Open **Share** from the goal's **More actions** menu. **Access settings** decides who can reach the goal: | Privacy | Who can access | |---|---| | **Everyone in the organisation (Public)** | Every member | | **Only invited people (Private)** | The owner and the people invited | | **Custom access (Custom)** | The members, roles and circles you choose | For each person, role or circle you invite, choose **View only**, **Update progress** or **Full access**. The owner always keeps full access and cannot be removed. --- ## How do I find a goal? Above the list, the toolbar gives you: - **Quick filters**: My Goals, On Track, At Risk, Blocked and Archived - **Filter**: build conditions on Category, Time period, Owner and Status - **Sort**: by any column, including Last modified - **Group**: by Time period, Category, Status or Owner, in the List and Timeline views - **Search**: type a name and the list narrows as you type --- ## What's Next? - [How do I add, edit, or delete a Goal?](/en/goals-analytics/how-to-add-edit-or-delete-a-goal) - [How do I implement Goals in Talkspirit?](/en/goals-analytics/how-to-implement-goals) - [How do weighted objectives work?](/en/goals-analytics/weighted-objective) - [What are the different Goal views?](/en/goals-analytics/the-different-goals-views)