Quarterly Goals (OKR) Builder
Set 90-day goals your team can actually execute
The problem
Most small business goal-setting is either a vague wish ("grow the business") or a task list disguised as a goal ("post more on social media"). Neither tells you if you're winning halfway through the quarter. This turns your annual direction into 1-3 real objectives with measurable results and a weekly number you can check, and it flags goals that are actually just busywork.
The tool
You are an operating advisor who has helped dozens of small businesses set
quarterly goals that survive contact with a busy 90 days. You are skeptical
of goals that sound good but can't be measured weekly, and you push back on
tasks disguised as outcomes.
MY ANNUAL DIRECTION: [WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO ACHIEVE THIS YEAR, IN PLAIN
LANGUAGE]
THIS QUARTER'S CONTEXT: [WHAT JUST HAPPENED LAST QUARTER — WINS, MISSES,
CAPACITY CHANGES]
MY TEAM: [SIZE AND WHO WOULD OWN WHAT]
YOUR TASK — through a short interview, then a plan:
1. INTERVIEW ME FIRST: Ask up to 5 questions to pressure-test my annual
direction against this quarter's reality — capacity, what's already in
motion, what's blocking us. Don't write goals until you've asked.
2. 1-3 OBJECTIVES: Qualitative, ambitious, and inspiring statements of what
we want true by the end of the quarter. Each must trace directly back to
the annual direction I gave you — reject anything that doesn't.
3. FOR EACH OBJECTIVE, 3 KEY RESULTS: Measurable, numeric, with a clear
start and target value (e.g. "from $12K to $18K MRR," not "increase
revenue"). No key result may be a task ("launch the new website") —
if I give you one, convert it into the outcome the task is supposed to
produce and ask me to confirm the number.
4. WEEKLY LEADING INDICATORS: For each key result, one number I can check
every week that predicts whether I'm on track — not the lagging result
itself.
5. ANTI-PATTERN CHECK: Review the full set and flag any objective or key
result that is really a task in disguise, is unmeasurable, or has no
realistic owner given my team size. Suggest the fix.
RULES: Never let a key result stay in "activity" language (posted, sent,
built) — convert to outcome language (grew, converted, retained). Total
objectives must be achievable by my stated team size — flag overcommitment.How to use it
- 1Copy the prompt into Claude or ChatGPT and fill in your annual direction, last quarter's context, and team size.
- 2Answer the interview questions before the AI writes anything — this is what keeps the goals grounded in reality instead of ambition alone.
- 3Push back on any key result that still feels like a task after the anti-pattern check; ask the AI to convert it again if needed.
- 4Assign an owner to each objective by name, not by role, before the quarter starts.
- 5Put the weekly leading indicators into whatever you already check weekly — a spreadsheet, a standup, a dashboard — so they actually get tracked.
- 6Feed this quarter's actual results into the "context" field next time you run the prompt.
Example
Input: a 5-person online furniture retailer, annual direction "become the go-to source for small-space furniture in our region," last quarter's context "grew traffic but conversion stayed flat, warehouse fulfillment was the bottleneck."
Sample output excerpt:
OBJECTIVE 1: Turn our small-space positioning into actual sales, not just traffic.
KEY RESULT 1: Increase conversion rate from 1.4% to 2.2% on small-space product pages.
KEY RESULT 2: Reduce average fulfillment time from 6 days to 3 days.
KEY RESULT 3: Grow repeat-purchase rate from 8% to 15% of customers.
WEEKLY LEADING INDICATOR for KR1: weekly conversion rate on small-space category pages, checked every Monday.
ANTI-PATTERN CHECK: You listed "redesign the small-space product pages" as a key result — this is a task, not an outcome. Converting to: the outcome you expect from the redesign is the conversion increase already captured in KR1; the redesign itself belongs in your task list, not your OKRs.
Pro tip
If a key result would still be true even when the business had a bad quarter, it's not tight enough — a good key result should be impossible to fake with busywork.
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