How to Run a Quarterly Planning Meeting

As a team leader, it's important to keep your team organized and on track to hit their quarterly goals. One way to do this is to hold a quarterly planning meeting (also called a "quarterly OKR meeting" or a "quarterly business review meeting").

Why Run This Meeting?

A quarterly planning meeting is a great way to get everyone on the same page and make sure that everyone is aware of what needs to be done in order to hit the team's goals. Planning meetings might take time from the team, however if done well, they prevent people from wasting their time on projects that don't move the needle against stated goals.

How Long, How Often, and Who's Invited?

This meeting should last about 90 minutes, and it should be held quarterly (although many teams have done it on an annual basis). Everyone on the team should be invited to this meeting.

What to talk about in a Quarterly Planning Meeting:

1. Retro on last quarter:

A retro is a brief discussion about what went well and what didn't go well in the previous quarter. This is a good way to ensure that nothing is lost between quarters.

2. Laundry list brainstorm: With unlimited time and budget, what would you do to move the needle next quarter?

This is an important step in the process. A brainstorm is a great way to get everyone's ideas out on the table. Think about prompting question to help guide your team's brainstorm. Examples:

• What metrics do you feel need improvement on the team?
• If you had unlimited time and money, what would you do?
• How could you make our team's work more visible to the rest of the organization?
• What do you want to be known for by the end of the next quarter?

3. What of the above will have a direct impact on our goals? How?:

This discussion will help you prioritize the items on the laundry list and figure out which ones are most important to the team's success.

Think about using the following strategies to narrow your list:

4. What is happening throughout the quarter (events, absences, org. changes) that we need to factor into our planning?:

This discussion will help you anticipate any obstacles that might come up in the next quarter.

5. What obstacles could arise in the next quarter that would prevent us from achieving our goals?:

This discussion will help you plan for any potential problems that could arise. Examples of obstacles include:

• [Company] is hiring for a senior role, which means that we'll have to make sure that the work of the senior person is covered by someone else on the team.
• Joe is going to have a baby this quarter, which means that he'll likely need to take paternity leave. This could affect his ability to work on project X as expected.

Once your team goals are determined, plan more strategically around projects, tasks and responsibilities for your team using this meeting agenda.