Progress vs last month's goals
Show whether last month's stated priorities were actually hit, missed, or dropped, and why.
Elizabeth Yin (Hustle Fund) points to accountability against stated goals as what separates a real update from a status post.
- Restate last month's top 3 priorities by name
- Mark each done, partial, or missed
- One sentence on why a missed item was missed
- New priorities that weren't on last month's list, presented as if they were
- Silent dropping of a goal without acknowledgment
- Every goal from last month is marked 'done' with no partial or missed items, month after month
- Restating goals so vaguely that anything counts as progress
- Skipping this section in months where the answer is uncomfortable
- · Am I grading myself against what I actually said last month, word for word?
- · If I missed something, did I say why in one honest sentence?
Last month we said we'd [goal 1, 2, 3]. Result: [done/partial/missed] on each, [one line on the miss].
"We made really good progress on most of our goals from last month and are excited about where things are headed."
"Last month's goals: ship usage-based billing (done), close 2 enterprise logos (1 of 2, second pushed to next month on legal review), hire a support lead (missed, pipeline was thin)."
Nimbus Payroll grades itself against its own words, including the miss.
Quick quiz
1. What should this section do with a goal that was missed?
- ○ Leave it out of the update
- ✓ State it was missed and say why in one line
- ○ Reword it so it looks achieved
- ○ Move it to the asks section
Naming the miss and its cause is what makes the accountability section credible.
2. What's a warning sign in this section over several months?
- ○ A mix of done, partial, and missed
- ✓ Every goal marked done every month
- ○ Goals changing slightly month to month
- ○ Goals tied to specific numbers
Real execution rarely goes 100% to plan every single month; an unbroken streak suggests the goals are being set too soft or graded too generously.