Strategic Goals
Aligning your portfolio to strategy
Strategic goals are company-level objectives that your projects work towards. Linking projects to goals answers the portfolio manager's core question: which projects are actually moving the needle on what matters?
What goals are for
Goals sit above projects. A goal like 'Grow revenue 30% by Q4' might have five projects contributing to it - an expanded product line, a new sales territory, a partnership integration. Without goals, each project is evaluated in isolation. With goals, you can see which parts of the portfolio are pulling weight and which aren't.
Creating a goal
Go to Goals in the sidebar. Click Add goal. Fill in the fields:
| Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Title | A clear, outcome-oriented statement. E.g. "Expand to 3 new markets by H2". | Yes |
| Description | More context on what success looks like or why this goal exists. | No |
| Target date | When this goal should be achieved. Used to calculate days remaining and flag overdue goals. | No |
| Status | Current health of the goal. See statuses below. | Yes |
| Progress | Manual 0-100% slider. Set this as often as you review the goal. | Yes |
Goal statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| On Track | Progress is where it should be given the time elapsed. Default for new goals. |
| At Risk | Progress is falling behind or a key dependency is uncertain. Warrants attention. |
| Behind | Significantly behind schedule. Escalation or replanning likely needed. |
| Achieved | The goal has been met. Achieved goals are excluded from the portfolio share view to keep it focused on active objectives. |
Linking projects to goals
A project can serve multiple goals, and a goal can have multiple projects. The relationship is many-to-many.
From the Goals page
Click the expand arrow on any goal card to open the linked projects panel. Click Link a project, choose from the dropdown, and the link is created immediately. Unlink at any time using the unlink icon next to a project.
From the project detail page
Open any project. Find the Goals section in the right sidebar. Click Link to a goal, choose from the dropdown, and the link is saved. All goals currently linked to this project are listed with their status and progress at a glance.
Tracking goal progress
Progress is manually set - drag the slider when editing a goal. There is no automatic rollup from project completion, milestone counts, or task completion. This is intentional: a project delivering on time does not automatically mean the business outcome was achieved.
| Does this change goal progress? | Answer |
|---|---|
| A linked project moves to Complete | No - you update the goal manually |
| All milestones in a linked project are ticked off | No - milestones and goal progress are separate |
| All tasks in a linked project are marked Done | No - tasks feed nothing upward automatically |
| You drag the progress slider on the goal | Yes - this is the only way progress changes |
BEST PRACTICE
Dashboard summary strip
The main dashboard shows a compact goals strip below the portfolio stats. It shows how many goals are on track, at risk, behind, and achieved, plus the average progress across all goals. Click it to go directly to the Goals page.
Portfolio share view
When you share your portfolio publicly via a share link, active goals (all except Achieved) are shown to stakeholders above the project grid. This gives executives and board members strategic context alongside project-level health data without requiring them to log in.
Permissions
| Role | View goals | Create / edit / delete goals | Link / unlink projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| DASHMASTER | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DASHKEEPER | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| OBSERVER | Yes | No | No |
Activity log
Creating, updating, and deleting goals is recorded in the company activity log. Goal events appear in the project detail activity feed when a project is linked or unlinked from a goal.