05 Quarterly Milestones

Scope

Objective

The Quarterly Milestones check the quarter against the plan, so group management sees the trends, the finances and which milestones are on track.

At a glance
  • When 2nd Thursday of April, July, October and January, in place of the Monthly Group Review
  • Where In person, place decided for each meeting
  • Duration Half day (4 hours)
  • Dashboard Open dashboard
  • Lead Founder
  • Attendees
    • Finance Manager
    • Marketing Manager

Preparation

Sr Task When By
1 Plan the meeting and invite all attendees: date, time, place 2 weeks before Founder
2 Check last meeting's actions: done, or updated 1 week before Founder
3 Update the dashboard: latest data, slides in the agreed order. Data owners submit their data before. 1 week before Marketing Manager
4 Prepare own slides: result, analysis, actions 1 week before All presenters
5 Remind all attendees of the time and their slides 1 day before Founder

Agenda

Goal: results are visible, every result has an owner, and we keep a finger on the pulse.

How: short and simple. One slide at a time, in dashboard order. Every slide is a mini presentation by the role in its top right corner, and is discussed before the next slide:

  1. Result: key metric first, then its sub-metrics. How much, on target or not, up or down from last period.
  2. Analysis: cause, root cause or insight.
  3. Actions: how we improve, keep or avoid this result.
  4. Discuss: questions and decisions on this slide, now.

Rules and tips: Effective meetings.

Sr Item Time By
1 Check last quarter's actions on the action log slide: done or not, and why 15 min Founder
2 Present the trend slides: sales, operations, clients over the quarter 40 min Founder
3 Present the finance slides: group PnL and cash against plan 40 min Finance Manager
4 Present the marketing slides: results and plan 30 min Marketing Manager
5 Present the milestone slides: done, late or at risk 40 min Founder
6 Set next quarter's milestones 40 min Founder
7 Repeat all action points: who, what, by when 15 min Founder
8 Present the requirements slide: people, budget, items, resources, support, meetings, interventions 20 min Founder
Total 240 min

Follow-up

  • Record: Actions on the action log slide of the dashboard (who, what, by when, done), plus who did not attend
  • Shared with: All attendees, through the dashboard, the same day
  • Goes to: Yearly Plan, for issues this meeting cannot solve, that keep coming back, or that are critical