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Understand Progress Calculation in Lattice

Anna
  • Updated

Understand how OKRs work, how overall %s are calculated with cascading goals, and how to adjust for unequally weighted key results

In Lattice, users can create goals following the OKR format. When creating an OKR:

  • Objectives are considered qualitative goals and will inherit the progress of their quantitative child/supporting goals 
  • Key results are considered quantitative goals and will roll up progress to their objectives.
  • Binary key results are considered quantitative and will inherit the progress of their child/supporting goals

Weighing key results equally

In Lattice, each key result is equally weighted by default. For example, if there are 3 key results, each one will be worth 33% of the total objective.

Example

  • Dollar KR 1: 100% complete
  • Dollar KR 2: 0% complete
  • Dollar KR 3: 0% complete

The overall objective is now 33% complete since each key result is worth 1/3rd of the total.

Example goal. Parent goal/objective is titled 'Dollar Objective'. Three key results can be seen. Dollar KR1 is shown with 100% completion.

Weighing key results unequally

Sometimes there may be key results or child objectives that should not be weighted equally causing the % calculated for the overall objective may look strange. This can be solved by setting the objective to something other than binary and manually updating it. 

In the example above, we may not want to view the goal as 33% complete since the key results should not have equal weight in the overall objective.

Learn more about custom weighting in Set Custom Weighted Goals..

Example

  • Dollar KR1: 0% weight
  • Dollar KR2: 50% weight
  • Dollar K3: 50% weight 

Updating Dollar KR 1 to be 100 will not cause the overall objective to progress because the key result is weighted at 0%. 

Example goal open to the Edit weights modal. Three key results can be seen. Dollar KR2 and Dollar KR3 are set to 50%

Cascading goals

Cascading goals, if enabled, allows users to align child objectives to parent objectives. In these cases, the progress will work as follows:

Example 1: Objective 1 > Objective 2 > Key result 1

Example goal cascade. Eng KR 1 flows into Dept Eng Obj. Dept Eng flows into Company Obj 1.

  • Key results automatically add progress to objectives.
  • Key result 1 (Eng KR 1) will flow into Objective 2 (Dept Eng Obj).
  • Objective 2 (Dept Eng Obj) will flow into Objective 1 (Company Obj 1).

Example 2: Objective 1 > Objective 2 > Key result 1 > Key result 2

Example goal cascade. Eng Sub KR flows into Eng KR1. Eng KR1 flows into Dept Eng Obj. Dept Eng Obj flows into Company Obj 1.

  • The parent key result needs to be set to binary to accept the flow of the child key result, therefore, Key result 1 (Eng KR1) will need to be set to binary.
  • Key result 2 (Eng Sub KR)will flow to Key result 1 (Eng KR1) if Key result 1 is binary. 
  • Key results automatically add progress to objectives.
  • Key result 1 (Eng KR1) will flow into Objective 2 (Dept Eng Obj).
  • Objective 2 (Dept Eng Obj) will flow into Objective 1 (Company Obj 1).

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