Luckily, there are ways to combat our lack of telepathy in the workplace—especially when it comes to design concepts that we imagine so vividly in our heads, but have no idea how to recreate IRL.

What’s the solution? Writing detailed and practical design briefs, of course!

Like placing an order at a restaurant, design briefs tell the designer what you want out of a request. It’s how they understand what the project is, what the task requires, and where to start.

The key to a highly effective design brief is to be both clear and concise—which is challenging when you’re dealing with complex tasks or multiple non-negotiable project requirements. But we’re here to help with tips and examples to take your design briefs to the next level.

Whether your design team is looking to standardize your briefs and requests, or you’re part of an agency commissioning a company project, this article has you covered. Read along for a fresh take on writing efficient design briefs including the essential elements, how-to breakdowns, a customizable template, and more! 

What is a Design Brief?

A design brief is a written document that lays the groundwork for a design project with the outlined goals, scope, and approach for the request. Similar to your project roadmap, the design brief is a designer’s guiding light when it comes to the where, what, when, and why of a specific request. 

Design briefs typically pass through many hands before they land on the designer’s to-do list. With approvals from all project managers and stakeholders, the brief should be thorough but to the point, identifying the approved timeline, end product, and budget (if applicable).

On a deeper level, briefs are also a way for the designer to connect and align with the person making the request. In this sense, try to use your brief as a collaborative tool for eliminating the general confusion that comes with additional back-and-forth phone calls, messages, and emails.

But while it’s important to include key details and context to your requests, your design brief should still be, well, brief. You want it to be long enough to describe the project and communicate your request without overwhelming the designer with a multi-page pamphlet that runs margin-to-margin.

How do these ideas come together in a design brief? We’ll show you! 

How to Write a Design Brief (With Examples)

In an exciting turn of events, there’s no set-in-stone format you must stick to when writing an effective design brief.

Your team will find the type of brief that serves your design project management style best in terms of length, detail, and work style. Small requests or smaller-scale projects may not require as hefty of a brief, but there are still key elements that all briefs share. 

Relying on a template, a survey-style request, or a standardized document structure are all great ways to collect the necessary information to build a design brief. The key is to keep it consistent! Here is our step-by-step guide for writing effective design briefs with real-life examples.

Follow these eight steps from top to bottom—or skip to the next section for a free customizable template to make the process even easier!

Step 1: Choose your design brief project management software

Design projects are collaborative by nature and your ideal design project management software will have the features to support that! Powerful design tools will alleviate some of the stress and streamline daily processes involved in your design workflow with the ability to organize, edit, share, and manage projects of any size. 

And since design briefs are commonly formatted in a document, your chosen project management tool will likely include a built-in document editor or integrations to bring all of the right information together across apps. 

Example:

Think of your design brief as a reliable source of truth—a document that you can refer back to at any time for the most accurate information and progress updates. The best example of this? ClickUp Docs.

ClickUp Docs are your destination for all things text-based in your Workspace. In true ClickUp fashion, Docs offer a ton of features like nested pages, Slash Commands, styling options, embedding, and advanced settings to customize the look and functionality of your Doc.

You’ll love how far your can take your design briefs with real-time editing, @mentions in comments, and secure sharing and permissions via a simple link. Plus, Docs can be connected to your workflows so any updates that happen in your document are automatically reflected in related tasks and other areas of your workspace. 

Step 2: The design brief project description

Context is everything and this section of your design brief should give exactly that! 

Give a brief but descriptive overview of what your project is and what it will be used for. This doesn’t have to dig too deep, but a sentence or two that clearly states your request and what you’ll be using it for is a great starting point for the designer.

This section may also include a bit about the company or client commissioning the design. What the company does, its primary services, values, and brand identity are common details to find in this section. 

Example:

Our social media marketing agency is redesigning our website to feature a new home page, blog section, and portfolio. We are a small team of eight members who work with 50 businesses in our area, and all of our work is currently clustered together on our outdated webpage. We have matured as a brand since we created our initial website and grown as a company, and we want our new website to reflect that. 

Step 3: The design brief objective and SMART goals

Describe the problem this project will address and the big-picture idea that you’re hoping to achieve with it. Be direct with the purpose you want the project to serve and use this section to align the design team with the client’s overall vision and objective through SMART goals. 

P.S., SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 

Want to learn more about SMART goals and why they’re so important? Check out our goals resources to write and implement goals across departments! 

Example:

We want our redesigned website to reflect our brand identity better, drive more traffic to our services, and increase email newsletter sign-ups by 25% by the end of our next fiscal quarter. 

Step 4: The design brief’s target audience

The next section of your brief covers the who of it all. Not so much related to who you are as a company requesting a design, but who the project is targeted to.

This is where the client commissioning the project will describe their ideal customer, audience, user personas, and use cases. This design is like your first impression—a way to show customers that you have a solution to a specific problem they are facing and that your project meets their needs.

It is crucial for the designer to understand who you’re trying to reach through this request to meaningfully connect with those customers’ needs. 

Example:

Our target market audiences are female entrepreneurs in the San Diego area in the 25-34 and 35-44 age ranges. These clients want to grow their business by investing in paid ads on social media platforms and want resources to improve and increase their online presence. 

Step 5: Your budget and timeline

Now we’re starting to move into the details and logistics sections of your design brief.

Make sure the timeline provided is realistic and feasible for what the brief is asking. If there are any budgetary or resource constraints, this is the time to lay them down. 

Designers need to know when the project is due for its first round of edits, when they can expect feedback from the client, and any key milestones, task dependencies, or deadlines tied to the request. This will help establish clear communication between the designer and the client so all of their expectations are met, and avoid potential bottlenecks while the project is in progress.

Pro tip: Also note if there is any flexibility with the expected budget and timeline.

Example:

Our ideal timeline from start to finish is six months. We are announcing our new website at an event in March but want to quietly launch the website a month prior. This extra month will give us some wiggle room if there are any setbacks. We would like to approve the mockups and wireframes, and go through two rounds of edits before we launch.

Step 6: The expected deliverables

This section is all about the file details and formatting in which you want to receive the project. If necessary or applicable, specify the size, file type, naming process, and deliverables you’re expecting. AKA, what is your preferred type of video, image, or software to work with and how should they share it with you?

Example:

We will approve initial ideas and designs from our digital whiteboard software and review all wireframes in Figma.

Step 7: Anything else you deem important! 

To make sure that all of the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, add any other relevant information to the end. This may include key contacts to reach out to if the designer has any urgent questions, approval process details, key dates, client mockups, and more!

This is a great time to specify anything that you do not want to see from this project and inspo images to give the designer a clear idea of what to work off of. 

Example:

Check our virtual whiteboard for recent work we’ve done with our clients, rough sketches of what we’re imagining for our new website, some research, media, and more!

Our suggestion? ClickUp Whiteboards!

ClickUp Whiteboards are highly visual, collaborative, and productive! What’s more, they’re also the only whiteboard software on the market that can convert any object on your board into a customizable task and connect it to your workflows. 

With tools for drawing, uploading media, embedding, styling, and real-time editing, ClickUp Whiteboards are built to capture your ideas the moment they happen so you can act on them instantly. Seriously, Whiteboards are every designer’s dream.  

Plus, your Whiteboard stays updated at all times, wiping out the need for multiple tabs, constant refreshing, and confusion caused by lengthy text-based descriptions. 

Step 8: Share it with the team

RE: Step 1—design briefs are collaborative! 

You need the ability to quickly share, edit, and update your design briefs via custom permissions and convenient sharing options like a simple link. This will get the entire team quickly get on the same page (literally) and stay on target.

Design Brief Template

Like in a bad game of telephone, inconsistent design briefs gloss over key ideas and eventually lose the main point of the project entirely. But customizable templates are a surefire way to guarantee every detail is clearly stated.

Think of pre-built templates as a springboard for standardizing the way you write your design briefs. They’re created to simplify and streamline the design brief process so everyone involved can focus on what matters most—the project itself. 

The Design Brief Template by ClickUp is your one-stop solution for writing thorough and valuable creative briefs. This template applies a designated List to your Workspace with separate views for managing tasks, timelines, and your overall direction. 

In your design brief List view, you’ll find pre-made customizable tasks for everything from client sessions to gathering assets, and seven custom statuses for total transparency. But the coolest feature of this template is definitely the creative brief Whiteboard with colored sections, sticky notes, and diagrams to solidify your project vision, brand, resources, notes, and more. 

This template also comes with a thorough how-to ClickUp Doc to walk you through every feature to ensure you’re using it to the fullest extent. 

Pro tip: 

The Help Doc in the Design Brief Template shows off a ton of styling and formatting features to use as inspiration when writing your design brief Docs in ClickUp. 

Set banners at the top of your Doc and throughout the page for a clear outline of information, embed videos, add a table of contents, and more. Or, layer another one of ClickUp’s pre-built templates on top of your Doc to keep the process moving along.

Write Your Next Design Brief in ClickUp

There you have it! Not only are you set up for success with the eight essential steps for writing design briefs, but you’ve got a flexible, free, and customizable template to lighten the load. 

The take-home idea though is not just how to write a functional brief, but how to make the most of it. And that’s where ClickUp can help you take your processes to new heights.

ClickUp is the ultimate productivity platform for teams to bring all of their work together into one collaborative space, no matter your use case or work style. Its feature list is loaded with hundreds of time-saving tools to make work management easier and more convenient than ever—with 15 ways to visualize your projects, over 1,000 integrations, in-app chat, and more! 

Access everything you need to write effective design briefs including ClickUp Docs, Whiteboards, 100MB of storage, unlimited tasks, and more at absolutely no cost when you sign up for ClickUp’s Free Forever Plan. 

And when you’re ready to boost your productivity even further, unlock even more advanced features for as little as $5.

The post How to Write a Design Brief (With Templates and Examples) appeared first on ClickUp.

It’s exciting to prepare for a new product launch—especially as you get ready to give your customers something fresh. It’s all about keeping them engaged and boosting sales with something shiny and new. At the same time, you need to ensure the product launch goes smoothly from initial planning to release. 

To help you excel with your successful product launch and product management on the whole, consider using these templates for guidance and tracking milestones as you progress.

What is a Product Launch Template?

A product launch template is a tool to plan your product launch from beginning to end so you cover every step. Working off a template gives you clear guidelines to ensure you don’t miss any aspects as you build your audience, develop promotional plans, and prepare for a successful product launch.

What Makes a Good Product Launch Template?

A good product launch template will be easy to implement and help you develop a complete product launch strategy, enabling you to follow a checklist, build a plan, set milestones, and perform other critical tasks.

There are many templates available, but not all of them are of the same quality or include the same extensive features. Some are more suitable for a complete product launch strategy than others, making it important to select the right product launch plan for your next project.

Also, some templates aren’t shareable or they require you to invite your team to use them, which can be beneficial if you don’t want just anyone to access them.

10 Product Launch Templates to Consider for 2023 and Beyond

If you’re not sure what template to use, there are plenty of options available to meet your needs and get product teams on the same page.

Here you’ll find a list of 10 of our favorite product launch templates that include every type of feature you could ask for. Regardless of what your product launch strategy entails, the following templates will help keep your project consistently smooth from conception to ongoing promotion.

Let’s dive into these options, shall we?

1. ClickUp Product Launch Checklist Template

One of the best product launch templates available is the ClickUp Product Launch Checklist Template, which can serve as your complete product launch planning template. Whether you need a template to help guide a new or existing product launch plan, you’ll find every must-have feature in this fully-loaded template.

This template includes five statuses to help you track the progress of your product launch strategy, including Complete, In Progress, For Review, On Hold, and Pending.

Additionally, this template features two custom fields for further organization: Task Category and Duration. You’ll also benefit from six comprehensive view types, which include Milestones, Gantt, By Category, Timeline, Activities, and a Getting Started Guide.

This product launch plan template uses color coding to help visualize and keep track of every element of your launch process. Ultimately, this all-in-one solution should cover all bases for product marketing teams. 

2. ClickUp Gantt Chart Product Launch Template

The Gantt chart remains one of the most popular project management templates for organizations to follow. This chart format displays activities against timelines to help gauge progress throughout a project.

ClickUp’s Product Launch Checklist Template also includes a Gantt chart template to help you follow along as you plan your next product launch strategy. This Gantt chart template makes it easy to view each activity and task you must complete against a timeline to visualize your project launch plan.

You can view this timeline from start to finish and determine precisely when you need to complete each task. For example, you can see a number of tasks in a Week/Day view that lets you know which tasks you must complete every week, including defining your target audience, surveying customers for feedback, and reviewing your analytical data.

If you want a complete Gantt chart to help you strategize your product launch strategy, ClickUp’s Gantt view will be invaluable to your process.

3. ClickUp Product Launch Timeline Template

Using the same ClickUp product checklist template, you’ll also gain access to view the Product Launch Timeline. This will help ensure you’re able to stay on track with your project to meet your objectives and achieve key results. 

The Timeline view in our template allows you to easily see how far you’ve come along in your project and how much farther you need to go. You can see where you’re at during each stage of your product launch strategy with a Task Category column that groups task according to the project phase. You can then see which tasks you must complete for each category and the duration of each task.

For example, in a Market Analysis category, you might want to analyze your existing customer data in the first week, followed by defining your target audience in the second. You can cover tasks in the Target Audience category, which could include conducting interviews and surveys so you document all your customer pain points.

4. ClickUp Product Launch Milestones Template

In the same Clickup product checklist template, you’ll find a Milestones view that establishes key steps in your project as you progress. Throughout your product launch plan, you’ll likely have specific project milestones to reach based on the goals you’ve set and the timeline you’ve built.

This particular product management tool will help you visualize each of those milestones and their progress toward your product launch event. With the Milestones template, you can clearly see a list of all tasks you must complete and their corresponding status to keep teams on the same page.

You can also see the specific start and due dates for each task, with the due dates of overdue projects highlighted in red to indicate urgency. Easily view time tracked, assignees, and categories for each task.

The five statuses for your product launch tasks include Pending, In Progress, For Review, On Hold, and Complete. Color coding also helps indicate task status. This template is a great complement to your product launch plan timeline to help prevent you from falling behind.

5. ClickUp Product Launch Categories Template

When you implement the Product Launch Checklist Template from ClickUp, you also have access to a By Category view that organizes all tasks according to their respective categories. 

Categorizing your product launch tasks is key to tracking each phase of the project from start to finish in your product roadmap. And the Product Launch Categories Template keeps this project plan process simple. You can see which tasks in each category are still pending and omit the ones you’ve already completed, giving you a clear window into what to expect for the remainder of your project.

Each category contains a list of tasks below. For instance, you might have a Pricing category that includes tasks such as “Estimate costs” and “Outline business goals.” You can see the start and end dates for each project and flag various tasks (or subtasks) to help with prioritization for a successful product launch.

6. ClickUp Product Launch Board Template

Another view you get with the ClickUp product checklist template is the Board view. This view displays all tasks according to status.

Similar to the By Category view, the Board view shows all tasks in lists under their corresponding status categories. The different statuses include Pending, In Progress, For Review, On Hold, and Complete. Again, like the Category view, you can see information for each task, including the task name, start and end dates and times, and any subtasks beneath them. 

As you complete different tasks, they’ll be removed from the corresponding task list, letting you know precisely what you need to complete as you go along. 

As an example, you might have a Pending list of tasks that includes all tasks that have yet to get started. Once an assignee begins a project, it will go into the In Progress category. This helps you keep track of workflows for effective product management.

7. ClickUp New Product Development Template

If your plan involves an entirely new product, you can supplement another product launch plan template with the help of ClickUp’s New Product Development Template. This template allows project managers to track the progress of each project based on specific milestones and deliverables.

This product launch plan template comes with plenty of features like our product checklist template. For instance, you can track progress based on four different statuses for various tasks, including Blocked, Complete, In Progress, and To Do.

Additionally, you can use several custom fields to gain more transparency into product management KPIs and metrics, including Duration (Days), Task Complexity, Impact Level, Team, Phase, and Task Effort. You also benefit from five different view types, which include Project Summary, Process Board, Timeline, Gantt Chart, and a Getting Started Guide.

Using all these features, the New Product Development Template can help successfully release a new product that impresses your new and existing customers.

8. ClickUp Product Strategy Template

If you need a complete template to cover your entire product launch plan, ClickUp’s Product Strategy Template can help you both plan and visualize your entire strategy, from development to the release management process.

This product launch template centralizes all of the details about your product strategy with in-depth visualizations. As a result, the template works as a critical piece to help decision-makers determine which steps to take and what to modify to perfect their strategy. 

The Product Strategy template allows you to see several different statuses for various phases and tasks. These statuses include Open, Complete, In Review, In Progress, On Hold, In Review, To Do, and Needs Revision. You can also set custom fields when creating tasks for automation, and you can view the included Getting Started Guide to make full use of this template.

For an all-in-one product strategy solution, use this template in combination with our Product Launch Checklist and other templates.

9. Microsoft Word Product Launch Template

Whether you have Microsoft Word or any other type of word processor, you can use Microsoft’s free MS Word Product Launch Plan Template to help simplify your product launch. You can use these project roadmap templates when launching your next product, enabling you to edit and customize the template based on your unique requirements.

You can easily organize your product launch plan from beginning to end with this exhaustive template. Include a cover page, table of contents for simple navigation, and various sections such as revision reports, goals and objectives, and more based on your project’s needs. 

This product launch template is also downloadable in a variety of formats depending on the program you use, including MS Word, Google Docs, Apple Pages, an editable PDF, or a browser version.

10. Excel Product Launch Template

Another helpful product release management tool that can fuel your product launch’s success is the Excel Product Launch Template. It offers the perfect way to visualize your product strategy at every step, with the ability to see each task on your project timeline. You can also color code the project to keep track of each task and time period along the timeline.

Like the MS Word Product Launch Plan Template, this product launch template is available in nearly any format you need. You can use it in Microsoft Excel, MS Word, PowerPoint, Apple Pages, Apple Keynote, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Slides. You can also download it in an editable PDF format.

Successfully Launch Your Next Product With the Right Templates for You

With the help of the right template behind your product launch, you’ll ensure all systems are good to go and ready for launch at every step. You’ll ensure no part of your strategy remains overlooked or undercooked. 

The right product launch templates will cover every aspect of your launch and make it easy to follow along as you prepare for a new release. They’ll also streamline the process in the long term with each new product or re-release you plan going forward.

If you need a high-quality product management solution for your business, ClickUp is here to give you what you need with dynamic product management software that can take your product launch capabilities to the next level.

You’ll find plenty of templates to help you plan every part of your product’s lifecycle along with thousands of integrations, unlimited members and tasks, and much more at no cost to you.

The post 10 Free Product Launch Templates in Excel, Word, and ClickUp appeared first on ClickUp.

Approximately 70% of the businesses that managed to survive for five years follow a strategic plan. And as for those at their starting stage, businesses with a business plan have a 7% higher likeliness of high growth than those without a developed plan.

Similar to business plans, business proposals are essential when it comes to the sustainability of a business. Strong business proposals can help you win clients, partners, business deals, and more.

So if you’re looking to level up your business, read on to learn more about business proposals, their benefits, and tools and templates to help you bring your business idea to life!

What is a Business Proposal?

A business proposal is a formal document where you present information related to your business that is relevant to your prospective client. It’s essentially a document that includes standard information, such as timelines, budgets, and project scope, to give prospective clients and business partners a detailed outline of your proposal.

There are many different domains where you can use an effective business proposal to achieve your goals and start great collaborations. Well-constructed proposals can help you win important deals that can take your business to the next level and open up new opportunities. 

For example, you can use a business proposal if you have a marketing or design agency and want to share your services or are simply looking for a job in any domain. You can also use a business proposal for project management purposes such as presenting a new project idea or proposed solution to a problem to the stakeholders and clients.

Before we move forward, it’s important to know that a business proposal is not the same as a business plan. Take a look at the image below to understand the difference between the two:

Types of Business Proposals

There are two types of business proposals:

1. Solicited business proposals

A prospective client requests a solicited business proposal to help them decide if they want to do business with you or not. With this type of business proposal, you can offer solutions to their problems or needs.

This is the easiest way to convert them into customers because they are already interested in your product or services.

2. Unsolicited business proposals

An unsolicited business proposal is like a cold email or marketing flyer. When writing unsolicited proposals, you may not know anything about the clients or their requirements. In this case, you should conduct research to identify how to approach each unique client and personalize the business proposal.

Benefits of Business Proposal Templates

The main benefits of templates are to help save you time, create consistency across your business, and ensure all important details are covered in your business proposals.

Moreover, using templates can give you more time to focus on the content and quality of your proposal and create professional business proposals that impress and win your clients and business partners.

10 of the Best Business Proposal Templates to Use in 2023

Now, let’s take a look at 10 different business proposal templates that you can use to help you impress your stakeholders and win prospective clients!

1. ClickUp Business Proposal Template

The first one on the list is the Business Proposal Template by ClickUp.

This template not only comes with pre-built List views of business proposal steps and priorities with key Custom Fields to help you build your own business proposal, but it also offers email templates in ClickUp Docs to help you streamline and perfect your outreach messages.

And if you need more guidance getting started, you may refer to the Getting Started Guide that’s included with the template. Needless to say, this business proposal template is packed well and ready for you to use to win more business.

2. ClickUp Commercial Proposal Template

The Commercial Proposal Template by ClickUp can help you create a strong business overview to show clients exactly what makes you and your team the best choice to handle the project. 

This business proposal template is available in ClickUp Docs where you’ll find dedicated sections for your team, business proposal ideas with solutions, profit forecast, and more.

With this free business proposal template, you’ll be able to create a complete and easy-to-read document of your proposal, protect your Doc from unwanted changes, and share it easily with your clients via a public or private link.

3. ClickUp Creative Agency Proposal

Because ClickUp is a project management tool at heart, it offers functional and effective ways to plan, track, and manage your projects and keep you organized while writing the proposal.

Use the Creative Agency Proposal Template by ClickUp to get pre-defined lists of subtasks and checklists to guide you as you put your proposal together.

By using this business proposal template in ClickUp, you’ll have an organized view of the steps you need to take from the planning phase to pitch rehearsal and even post-presentation.

4. ClickUp Project Proposal Whiteboard Template

If you want to customize your project proposal and present it in a creative way, then the Project Proposal Whiteboard by ClickUp is for you.

This business proposal template comes with a colorful and organized visual of your proposal in ClickUp Whiteboards that you can edit to fit your needs. Add your ideas by drawing, using shapes, sticky notes, mind maps, and other creative ways to express how you want to implement the project.

You can also use other Whiteboard templates for flow charts, concept maps, retrospectives, and many others to present your ideas in a way that is easy to understand and leads to further discussions with the potential customer.

5. ClickUp Grant Proposal Template

This type of business proposal is a document that justifies the funding request and the strategy of your proposal. 

The Grand Proposal Template by ClickUp comes with a pre-built List and Board view with Custom Statuses to help organize your tasks accordingly. It also comes with a Calendar view of your project schedule to keep your important due dates easily visible.

These unique views you let keep track of the general tasks, problem definition, objectives, key milestones, and budget and share them with your potential clients.

6. ClickUp Campaign Proposal Template

Establish a strong framework for your entire campaign with the Campaign Proposal Cover Template by ClickUp.

It includes a customizable proposal cover and a detailed Doc where you can share your campaign summary, objectives, target audience, timelines, and resources with your stakeholders and to provide useful information to your team.

This free business proposal template can surely keep you organized and well-prepared for your presentation day and beyond.

7. Flipsnack Design Services Business Proposal Template

The Design Service Business Proposal template is a flipbook that allows readers to flip through the pages and better engage with the content.

If you’re looking for a way to present your design skills and make a good impression when sending a business proposal for a design project then this template can help with that. It has a simple design that can be customized and the option to add videos, links and product tags, brand elements, and statistics about performance.

This business proposal template is beneficial to designers because they can create beautiful visual proposals instantly for architecture projects or other types of design work. Simply use images and texts from the template or replace them with their own images while keeping the business proposal style. You may also add a welcome message, and details about the company to personalize the experience.

8. Flipsnack Digital Marketing Proposal Template

Marketing is one of the domains where a business proposal would do wonders with your campaigns. These proposals are a great opportunity to present how you can make a difference for them and what great results you can bring by showing social proof and case studies. 

This editable digital marketing proposal template can help you explain your services in detail and share your project framework. Use it for your email marketing proposal, social media marketing proposal, and other digital marketing proposal. You may also customize the template by adding videos, links, product tags, brand elements, and more to make it attractive and engaging for your clients.

9. Flipsnack Professional Job Proposal Template

The proposal design is a little different that the other ones, and also the purpose of this type of proposal.

This professional job proposal template can be used by companies that want to hire someone to present the compensation package and other details about the role.

You can use a flipbook-making app like Flipsnack to create engaging business proposals that can easily attract the readers’ attention and also find various templates to choose from.

10. Qwilr Project Management Proposal Template

The project management proposal template can help you create a visually appealling and organized business proposal. Embed forms, timelines, spreadsheets, calendars, images, videos, and more into the proposal to catch your client’s attention and present quality work.

And with the user indentification feature, you’ll be able to set time and view limits, and get notifcations when your client has opened your business proposal.

Start Creating Business Proposals That Bring You Closer to Your Goals

The right templates can help you land your next big projects. There are many business proposal templates you can choose from. The key is to choose what works best for your products and services, as well as your clients.

To make a great impression and a detailed proposal, you can use tools like ClickUp and Flipsnack to create a business proposal that matches your needs and help you stand out. A proposal maker like Flipsnack is a software that allows proposal creation with different designs, while an all-in-one project management tool like ClickUp can provide you with a library of customizable templates for various use cases and the key features you need to manage your projects, track progress, and more.

ClickUp is free to try—start using the templates by ClickUp to level up your business proposals and win more clients today!

Guest Writer:

Isabela Boncila is a marketing specialist at Flipsnack, a publishing platform that can transform a PDF into an interactive flipbook. She is passionate about Marketing, writing, and technology.

The post 10 Best Business Proposal Templates for 2023 appeared first on ClickUp.

If you’re a project manager, chances are that you might be familiar with both of those tools.

After all, both the Gantt chart and timeline help you get a detailed project overview.

However, since they’re rather similar, they’re mistaken for one another.

Like how people get confused between tortoises and turtles. One lives on the land, and the other loves the water. But we’re not here to talk about reptiles…

So, what exactly is the difference between a Gantt chart and a Timeline?

The main difference between a timeline and a Gantt chart is that a timeline contains events visualized on a single line while a Gantt chart is a 2-dimensional chart of a sequence of tasks and their dependencies.

Timelines give stakeholders a high-level overview of a project’s start, end, and important milestones.

Gantt charts allow project managers to control project progress and delegate responsibility of individual tasks.

In this Gantt vs timeline comparison article, we’ll cover what a Gantt chart and timeline are and why you need them. We’ll also explain in more detail how they differ from each other and how they also differ from a project calendar.

Finally, we’ll show you how these tools can improve your company’s project management processes.

Let’s get started.

What Is a Gantt Chart?

A Gantt chart is a graphical representation of your project’s progress over time. 

Not only do Gantt charts reveal your project progress, but they also give a clear overview of:

• The entire project schedule
• Time estimates
• Assigned project team members
• Task priorities
• Task dependency

They also resemble a horizontal bar chart if you think about it:

Let’s now take a closer look at the benefits of using such a chart:

Why Is a Gantt Chart Important?

A Gantt chart is a powerful, analytical tool that offers you a birds-eye view of your entire project. 

Here are some of the reasons why project managers love Gantt charts:

• It gives you a clear picture of your project’s progress
• It helps you understand the project schedule
• It clearly maps every task dependency

Now, let’s go over the details:

1. Visualizes your project’s progress

Remember the time Neo was able to ‘see through the Matrix?’

A Gantt chart gives you that kind of power for your projects.

While you might not be able to dodge bullets like Neo, you can get a clear picture of what’s going on within the entire project.

In just one glimpse, you’re able to view each task’s progress, project completion rate, schedule, progress percentage, and much much more.

2. Helps in understanding your project schedule

A Gantt chart is an upgraded version of a project timeline and project calendar. It can do everything they can do, plus a whole lot more.

For example, with a Gantt chart timeline, you can easily find openings in your project schedule for additional work.

Gantt charts also provide you with the time estimates for multiple tasks. 

This is critical for meeting your project deadline. 

How?

Let’s say you’re falling behind on your project schedule. 

In order to meet your deadlines, you’ll need to manually reschedule your tasks fast.

A modern Gantt chart simplifies this by automatically rescheduling your tasks when you make adjustments to your project schedule. This way, you’ll never lose sight of your project deadline.

3. Clearly maps out task dependencies

Dependent tasks are items that you can initiate only after a preceding task has been completed.

For example, editing a blog post is a dependent task with respect to writing. You can’t edit it before you finish writing. Similarly, you can’t put your tux on before your shirt, right?

I mean, you could, but you’re not going to be getting on any “best-dressed” lists!

Similarly, in project management, your entire team must have a clear view of the project task dependencies to prevent a w̶a̶r̶d̶r̶o̶b̶e̶ project malfunction. 

A modern Gantt chart maps out every individual task and its dependencies so that your team knows exactly how their work impacts other team members. 

Bonus: Learn about Pert Charts vs Gantt Charts or get started with Gantt Chart Templates

This prevents your team from facing a project faux pas in the future!

What Is a Project Management Timeline?

A timeline is a simple visual chart that lets you display your project events in chronological order. By using a project timeline, you can visualize your project roadmap faster than you can say ‘progress!’

But how does it work? 

Let’s dissect a project timeline and find out:

What are the elements of a timeline?

The project timeline is made up of three components that make your project tick. All your tasks are spread out in chronological order, based on their start date and due date.

Here’s a list of key timeline items:

• All your project tasks
• The task start date and end dates
• The task duration

Bonus: Create a timeline in Microsoft Word!

Now, let’s see why managers use a project timeline.

Why Is the Project Timeline Important?

Some people are scared of ghosts, while others are scared of heights, but what are project managers afraid of?

(The answer isn’t zombies, although they’re a close second.)

According to a survey, 46% of team leaders fear that meeting project deadlines are their biggest problem.

Fortunately, a project timeline is their knight in shining armor.

A project timeline is not just simple and easy to use; it also helps project managers keep track of important upcoming dates and deadlines with ease.

Now, let’s take a look at the benefits of a project timeline:

1. Reveals what’s coming next

What does project management and a thriller movie have in common?

Everyone is eagerly waiting to see what happens next. 

A project timeline contains a task list of all the upcoming tasks and important events. This way, your project team can get ready for what’s about to come.

Luckily, unlike thriller movies, spoilers aren’t frowned upon in project management. In fact, knowing how the project will end is actually necessary. 

You wouldn’t want the project to drag on forever, do you?

2. Maps the project milestones

A project timeline gives you the room to map out important project milestones.

This is important as milestones help you with:

• Tracking your project progress
• Maintaining your stakeholder’s confidence 
• Having a clear map of the project deliverables

Keep track of all the important project-related events to gauge your progress and power through to the finish line.

3. Gives a quick overview of the project

Racecar drivers aren’t the only ones who have a need for speed; project managers have it too!

Project managers don’t want to spend hours looking at charts to get an overview of the project situation. 

Sometimes, they just want a quick update or notification.

With an actual timeline, they get a bird’s eye view of the entire project without going into the specifics.

Gantt Chart vs. Timeline vs. Calendar

Let’s settle this debate once and for all.

What is the difference between a Gantt chart and a timeline?

A Gantt chart is a 2-dimensional chart of a sequence of tasks and their dependencies while a timeline is a simpler visualization of events on a single line.

A Gantt chart offers you a microscopic view of every detail of your project like current task progress, task priorities, milestones, time estimates, etc. Use it for a detailed breakdown of how your project is progressing and whether you need to reschedule things.

A timeline gives you a quick visual overview of parameters like task names, task assignees, task duration, and task dependencies. Generally, the timeline is used to visualize the project roadmap, completed tasks, and future events.

How are they different from a calendar?

A calendar offers you a minimalistic overview of your project tasks scheduled over various dates. It doesn’t offer any detail on task dependencies, product roadmap, task priorities, etc. 

If you just want a quick look at the important project dates, then the calendar is your go-to option.

What’s the Best Way to Use Them All for Your Project?

While the Gantt chart might have a lot of functionality, you can’t completely manage projects with it. A project timeline and calendar bring something to the table too.

That’s why you’ll need to use each one from time to time.

Wait, you’ll have to use all three?

It sounds like a lot of work!

Nope, not with ClickUp.

ClickUp is the world’s highest-rated project management software. All you need is one click, and you’ll quickly switch between the Calendar view, Timeline view, or the Gantt view.

Super-convenient, isn’t it?

1. When and how should you use the project timeline?

The project timeline is a great option when you want to create a detailed product roadmap for your software development projects.

How to create a project timeline?

There are a few ways of creating a project timeline-like drawing it on a piece of paper, or building it from scratch, or using a Microsoft Excel or PowerPoint template. However, none of these are time-efficient.

I mean, why go through all the trouble and waste time building and updating a timeline when a project management tool can do that for you automatically?!

Using a timeline on a project management tool like ClickUp is not just super-convenient, it’s also packed with this much power:

Ouch.

Here’s how to easily visualize your project’s roadmap with ClickUp’s Timeline view:

• Visualize the number of tasks (workload) of every project team members by grouping every individual task by assignees
• Identify overlapping tasks that need to be shifted by grouping the task names by their priorities
• Zoom in to individual days or zoom out to weeks and even months on the project management timeline

That’s a pretty state-of-the-art Timeline chart, right?

2. When and how should you use the Gantt chart?

Need to manage a complex project? Gantt charts have got you covered. 

A Gantt chart timeline is the ultimate tool when you want to create a project plan. 

And its list of uses doesn’t stop there. You can also use it to track project progress and manage every dependent task.

This is perfect for complex construction projects that need tasks broken into several phases.

Check out these construction project management terms & construction management templates!

How to create a Gantt chart?

While you can use Gantt chart templates to create one, they’re a total eye-sore. 

Almost every Excel Gantt chart template looks like an artifact from an alien spaceship. Additionally, they’re equally hard to use.

Fortunately, ClickUp’s interactive Gantt chart view blows any Gantt chart template or Gantt chart tool out of the water.

ClickUp’s Gantt charts are dynamic, visually pleasing, and super-fun to work with.

Don’t take our word for it; here’s ClickUp’s Gantt chart example:

The best part is they’re both handsome and powerful, just like Superman!

(Looks like Lois Lane wrote a bit of this article.)

Here’s what the Gantt chart view can do:

• Automatically calculate project completion percentage
• Readjust individual tasks automatically after you alter the project schedule
• Calculate the critical path when you need to meet a tight project deadline

But wait, a project management software like ClickUp isn’t just limited to the Gantt chart view.

What if you need even project progress metrics?

ClickUp has you covered with its Agile Dashboards.

ClickUp’s Dashboard gives you high-level analytical overviews of your entire project in one neat space.

Using customizable sprint widgets, you can add multiple charts on your Dashboard, like:

• Velocity Charts: reveals the completion rate for multiple tasks
• Burndown Charts: forecasts the amount of work remaining in the project 
• Burnup Charts: displays the amount of work already completed in a project 
• Cumulative Flow Charts: highlights the task progress over time 

3. When and how should you use the project calendar?

Use a project calendar when you need a very simple overview of your scheduled project tasks and deadlines (and nothing else). 

How to create a calendar?

Okay…but what’s the best way to use a calendar?

Paper calendars are dinosaurs in 2021; they’re almost extinct and gathering dust. 

Now, powerful project management software applications like ClickUp have taken their place.

All you need to do is click on the Calendar view, and all your important task dates and deadlines are automatically mapped.

For better functionality, you can further adjust your calendar’s time frame based on your preferences. 

Here are your choices:

• Day: see scheduled tasks for any specific day
• 4-Days: displays all individual tasks over a rolling four day period 
• Week: visualize a whole week and easily move specific tasks around from day to day when needed 
• Month: get a view of the whole month

Did we mention that you can just simply drop a project task onto a date in your Calendar view to schedule it?

Yep. We just did that.

We’re still not done yet.

As we mentioned, ClickUp isn’t just a timeline or online Gantt chart software; it’s a complete project management tool.

Here are some tools that help you manage projects like a pro:

• Goals: split any large project Goal into smaller, quantifiable Targets
• Task, Subtask, and Checklists: Break down your complex project into tasks, subtasks, and checklists for better project planning and task management
• Multiple views: view your project workspace as it suits you; choose from List view, Kanban-style Board view, Calendar view, Box view, and Me Mode
• Team Reporting: get detailed reports of your in-house or remote team’s productivity

Conclusion

Let’s get down to it:

When it comes to Gantt vs Timeline, which is better?

Well, they’re both winners in their own special way.

(And we don’t mean that in an ‘everyone’s a winner and deserves a participation medal’ kind of way!)

You should use them according to the situation and your project needs. 

Want a super-quick overview of your schedule? Use a Calendar.

Want a view of what’s to come? Use a Timeline view.

Want a comprehensive look at your project’s progress? Use a Gantt chart.

And with ClickUp, all these tools are just within arms reach. ClickUp integrates with all these tools together to give you the flexibility of using anything whenever you need to.

From project planning to tracking your team’s productivity, managing projects with ClickUp is a breeze. 

So get ClickUp today for free and start managing your projects like a pro.

The post Gantt Chart vs. Timeline: What Are They and How to Use Them appeared first on ClickUp.

From leadership pressure to meet targets and goals to mentoring your team, balancing the different expectations can be a challenging act. And as a leader, running meetings are required to help you delegate tasks, get status updates, brainstorm strategies, and so on.

Any meeting, no matter what type, needs a clear purpose, goal, use case, and agenda. Creating an agenda, setting expectations, and keeping track of the conversation are all important steps in ensuring that the meeting remains on track and productive.

So if you want to become a stronger team leader and end pointless meetings for good, this blog is for you. We’ve outlined nine types of meetings you need to know about and how to conduct them properly.

As a bonus, we’ve included a few free templates to help you make the most of your next meeting!

Why It’s Important to Plan the Right Meeting Type

Knowing the types of meetings a manager can host will help set your team up for success. Effective meeting management can help increase engagement and collaboration across the team.

Instead of being a draining recurring activity, an effective meeting can be a unique opportunity to gather ideas, provide input, entice professional growth, and move organizational objectives forward. 

Additionally, from a budgeting perspective, ineffective meetings are expensive! Effective meeting management considers the cost of ineffective meetings to become more intentional with meeting productivity. 

Before discussing the different types of meetings below, it’s important to note that an effective meeting will generally have a clear purpose communicated to the relevant stakeholders before the meeting. Then, a meeting agenda outlining discussion topics should be shared with the meeting participants to prepare the conversation.

Finally, the discussion during an effective meeting should move different questions and topics forward, all while documenting important details in a meeting note.

Now, let’s dive into the types of meetings you need to know about and how to run them properly with the right tools and techniques!

9 of the Most Common Types of Meetings 

Here are nine types of meetings, tips on conducting each successfully, and free, ready-to-use templates to help get you started! 

1. Onboarding meetings 

Onboarding meetings are the first meeting between employees and their managers once they join the organization. This type of kick-off meeting signifies the start of their training and is necessary to have as the employee onboarding period lays the groundwork for the success of a new team member as it’s their first deep dive into the company’s processes and systems.

These meetings should help managers get to know their employees and build relationships. Asking ice breaker questions, such as, what are your hobbies, what is your favorite dish, or other interpersonal questions, like, how do you prefer to receive feedback, or what motivates you, are best practices for these meetings.

The onboarding meetings should also outline their training program and the relevant resources, who their team members are, and a checklist of action items to complete on their first week. Try Clickup’s employee onboarding checklist to support your new hires and help them ease into their new workflows. 

2. One-on-one meetings 

A one-on-one meeting is between two people, generally a manager and their direct report. They are one of the most effective ways for managers to build relationships and trust with their direct reports.

There are various types of one-on-one meetings, and the kind of one-on-one you are hosting will reflect the content of the agenda. For example, the first one-on-one a manager has with a direct report will be very different from a bi-weekly one-on-one check-in.

At Fellow, managers hold one-on-one meetings with their direct reports to get to know them better and get a temperature check on how they’re doing. They ask relationship-building questions while setting expectations and action items to help set the employee up for success.

Topics are oriented toward checking project progress and current blockers while having career-building conversations. Regardless of the one-on-one meeting cadence, the meeting should always include the following: 

• Rapport-building questions to check in on each other’s well-being and personal life 
• A discussion of specific or essential business items 
• Clear action items and next steps leaving the meeting 

The importance of a one-on-one meeting lies in its power to foster trust and a meaningful bond between an employee and their manager. An important component to ensure these types of meetings are effective includes asking your direct report to own the agenda preparation for the meeting.

Using a one-on-one meeting tool to document the conversation and prompt feedback is also a helpful strategy to increase the meeting’s effectiveness. You can also take advantage of ClickUp’s 1:1 Meeting Template to facilitate an organized meeting that builds trust and rapport. 

3. Check-in meetings

Check-in meetings—also referred to as status update meetings—are discussions where teams collaborate and share progress on a specific topic or project. The objective is to ensure alignment in the team and project while raising blockers inhibiting progress. 

Although check-in or status update meetings are not always a team favorite, they’re a valuable mechanism to solve problems and stay updated on a project’s progress.

The length of a check-in meeting can vary based on the status and size of the project. The sales team will often have short daily sales stand-up meetings to check in on deal progress and updates that are 10 to 15 minutes long.

Another alternative would be a leadership check-in during a crisis where each department shares an update. Longer project check-in meetings are also possible, where you need to discuss updates and review past action items and the progress made.

Check-in meetings can have a casual or formal tone, depending on the context and your workplace. All in all, successful check-in should promote open communication lines between each team member and keep everyone involved in the loop.

This can be facilitated through a round table of updates where each team member must add talking points relating to their projects. It also lets you address any blockers so the team can act quickly and accordingly. 

To help you run a productive meeting, ensure you’re prepared with a list of check-in questions to ask your team. You can also set them up for success by creating a feedback loop to capture updates, concerns, and other important notes.

One way to do this is to set up a standup meeting document that your team can fill out before the meeting! Use the Daily Standup Meeting Template by ClickUp and customize it to fit your team’s needs.

4. Brainstorming meetings

A brainstorming meeting is when a team meets to generate ideas on a specific topic. Brainstorming sessions can happen synchronously or asynchronously. In an async context, you’ll need to ensure remote team communication and collaboration tools are available to your meeting participants.

A successful brainstorming will be exciting! Everyone gathers to get their creative juices following and generate ideas. The sky should be the limit, and there are no bad ideas.

The suggestions generated can be very simple, but they can be complex, and it’s important to stress as the meeting organizer that there are no bad ideas. All meeting attendees are expected to participate in the conversation, so you should ensure your meeting format fits extroverted and introverted attendees. 

Brainstorming meetings are fun and engaging sessions but can be mentally draining for the team, especially when there isn’t a system for keeping track of ideas. It can be beneficial to schedule a follow-up meeting to narrow down and distill specific ideas later to maximize efficiency. 

Try Clickup’s mindmap feature to capture ideas and add organization to your brainstorming session. 

5. All-hands meetings 

All-hands meeting implies that all levels of the organization will join the meeting, including individual contributors, team leads, department heads, and c-suite executives. The goal is to sync the entire company with relevant updates, such as department-specific updates or changes in company policies. 

Every company has a different cadence and talking points for their all-hands meetings. An effective all-hands meeting will generally be hosted by the CEO or leader of the company, and talking points will include leadership or department updates, introductions to new employees, and more. 

On the Supermanagers podcast, Matt Martin, the CEO of Clockwise, shared that their all-hands meeting includes many different aspects, including department updates, presentations, and a talking point where funny moments from the week are shared.  These meetings generally last one hour. 

Try ClickUp’s All Hands Meeting Template for an engaging and organized weekly all-hands meeting. 

6. Decision-making meetings

A decision-making meeting is when a team meetings to formalize a decision and iterate the next steps. These meetings will generally be used for significant decision-making that requires a commitment and potentially a new direction.

These meetings are standard across different teams: board meetings or project meetings can include decision-making. Important decisions should be documented in your meeting minutes so the team can remember the rationale behind the decision.

Questions to answer during these meetings include: 

• Given our current circumstances and resources, what is the best option moving forward? 
• Who is responsible for the next steps? Why? 

For example, a decision-making meeting could be held with a social media marketing manager and a social media marketing coordinator to shift the direction of an unsuccessful marketing campaign. If the team needs to evaluate whether they approach a campaign from the proper perspective and tone, they could meet to assess the engagement and conversion results and choose a new direction.

During the meeting, they will list why they need to shift the focus and document why the new direction seems beneficial. Therefore, this type of meeting aims to decide and document a decision to move a project or initiative forward. 

7. Problem-solving meetings

Problem-solving meetings will generally be held between someone facing a challenge and a manager or leader. Depending on the nature of the problem, this meeting can include a representative of different departments, such as a representative from HR or the legal team. The goal of a problem-solving meeting is to either find a solution to an obstacle or explore next-step possibilities. 

Problem-solving meetings can benefit any employee regardless of the nature of the issue. During these meetings, you should first analyze a situation and its causes, assess what direction to take, and then create an action plan to resolve the problem.

Keep in mind, each step should be documented in your meeting notes and shared with the people involved in the conversation.

8. Quarterly planning meetings 

Quarterly planning is the strategic implementation of a year plan broken into four quarters. Every quarter, a revised goal is set for the following three months. These updated goals can be communicated in a quarterly planning meeting where there is a discuss strategic plans and a celebration of the past 90-day achievements. 

These meetings are an opportunity to press, give or receive feedback and apt for the following months. Each quarterly planning session should also include time to reflect on the past 90 days, review completed and in-flight tasks, and prepare for what’s to come in the next quarter.

The goal of the meeting is to help set your team up for success in achieving their short-term goals and the company’s long-term goals.

The key to an effective quarterly planning meeting is to be organized. Talking points should be clear and goals leaving the meeting should be assigned. Additionally, resurfacing learnings from past quarters during the planning conversation helps consider what goals are appropriate and relevant.   

Don’t forget to track your goals in ClickUp Goals to ensure you have clear timelines and measurable targets. 

9. Board meetings 

A board meeting is a formal meeting with the entire board of directors of a given organization. These formal meetings are held at various intervals, such as quarterly or yearly, to discuss reoccurring and significant issues, such as policy issues, legal business or KPI reporting, or miscellaneous issues.

The chair of a board, also known as the meeting leader, presides over the meeting. And more specifically, the goal of a board meeting is to set policy and strategy, review the strategic plans, and come to an agreement on a given issue.

During this meeting, meeting minutes are recorded to form a legal document that will then be published in conformity with the board’s operations. Publishing the meeting minutes is critical as it is a communication strategy between the organization, the board, and various external stakeholders. 

Make Your Meetings More Productive With an Agenda and the Right Tools

There are many different types of meetings with different purposes. Navigating which meeting should be used in which circumstance can be challenging for managers.

By implementing effective meeting management strategies and leveraging the right tech stack like ClickUp to help you manage your work, schedules, team, and more, you can avoid unproductive meetings and start running collaborative sessions that energize and motivate your team to achieve their goals. 

Guest Writer:

Fellow.app is the top-rated meeting management software that helps managers and their teams build effective meeting habits through collaborative agendas, action item tracking, and a library of expert-approved meeting templates.

The post 9 Types of Business Meetings You Need to Know About (and Why They Matter) appeared first on ClickUp.

As much as we all hate to admit it, accidents happen.

And when it comes down to it, accountability and honesty are always the best policies—but that’s a blog for another time! No matter how severe the incident was or even if something major was just narrowly missed, you must record and report the situation.

It sounds a little scary, but it doesn’t have to be.

Incident reporting doesn’t just keep track of your HR department’s top KPI, it ensures that history doesn’t repeat itself and keeps your team operating efficiently, and most importantly, safely.

Your safety is every company’s top priority, so there’s a lot riding on incident reports to tell the entire story including key details, dates, parties involved, circumstances, and follow-ups.

Plus, many companies report to even bigger companies to prove how they’re following safety protocols across the board when it comes to security, first aid, exposure, or damage.

An incident report form or template makes this process significantly easier. These tools can ease your mind in stressful situations by making sure every incident report is filled out providing ways to improve your worklife going forward.

And to find your next incident report form or template, you’ve come to the right place.

We’ll guide you through the top incident reporting FAQs, top template features to look for, and provide 10 free examples for ClickUp, Word, Excel, and more.

What is an Incident Report Template?

Let’s say your team nearly misses a major accident at work. Luckily, no one was hurt—but you’re all a bit shaken and the incident could’ve been avoided altogether.

After everyone’s nerves are settled and cups of water have been distributed, your manager will fill out an incident report detailing exactly what happened.

Instead of opening a blank document, incident management software and a customizable report template will guide you through the next steps.

An incident report form or template is a pre-built and formatted document for managers to record incidents including damage, injuries, workplace safety, close calls, and more. These templates are typically followed from top to bottom and cover the situation’s who, what, where, when, why, and how.

These documents are often stored and tracked using designated HR software to keep monitor HR KPIs over time or even shared with other companies that oversee workplace safety.

What Makes for a Good Incident Report Template?

All incident reports must include a lot of key details, but no two templates look alike. The same goes for their formatting! Your incident reporting process may revolve around documents, spreadsheets, or forms to gather the necessary information.

Still, there are a few essential features to look for in your next incident report form or template to make sure safety stays at the forefront of your business:

• Rich formatting and styling to support multiple sections, nested pages, tables, or embedded media in the report.
• Collaboration features like live editing with multiple team members, comments within the template to communicate approvals, and @mentions.
• Security, permissions, and sharing to make sure sensitive information stays between the right people.
• Integrations to extend the functionality of your template, bring in additional context through embedding, and keep your reports secure and organized among the rest of your work.

10 Incident Report Templates

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s put your newfound knowledge to the test!

Knowing the qualities of top incident report templates and their role in company safety, comb through some of the best templates on the market today—and access them all directly from this article!

Here are the top 10 free incident report templates to improve safety and security at work for ClickUp, Word, and Excel.

1. ClickUp Employee Incident Report Template

An Employee Incident Report is an important document to file for any incident or incident-related activity involving a current or former employee at a business. It’s commonly completed by the company’s Human Resources (HR) department.

Typically these reports are used to record relevant details such as the date, time, incident type, incident location, parties involved, incident description, and any action taken as a result of the incident.

The ClickUp Employee Incident Report Template will help you create an incident report quickly and standardize the process for recording employee incidents. The Doc breaks down an incident reporting process that’s easy to navigate. These documents can be used for incident tracking, incident analysis, and incident prevention purposes.

2. ClickUp Incident Action Plan Template

An Incident Action Plan (IAP) is a document outlining immediate plans to respond to an incident or emergency. Incident action plans include details such as resources, operational period information, safety considerations, communication protocols, and incident tracking methods.

By using the ClickUp Incident Action Plan Template as a starting point, businesses can save time and ensure that all necessary information is included in each IAP they develop. This will help companies create reliable records of incident-related activity and put effective strategies in place!

The template includes color-coded sections to capture all the information required for approval: 

• Situation Summary: brief summary of the Incident Action Plan
• Execution Plan: Objectives and strategies
• Incident Team Contact Information: Methods of contact for personnel on scene
• Incident Organization List: Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance teams
• Incident Assignment List: Tasks for supervisors and team members
• Map/Situation Summary: Incident site/region or other graphics

Incident Plan Approval: Submitted by, Date Submitted, and Signature

3. ClickUp Security Incident Report Template

A security incident report form captures all the details about any incident or incident-related activities. It also includes key indicators such as urgency level and severity of the incident. This is especially important for high-risk incidents, such as workplace accidents, injuries sustained, and medical treatment situations. 

Security incident reports will help analyze the overall effectiveness of an organization’s security systems and processes. By understanding how incidents occur and how they can be prevented in the future, companies can work towards creating more secure environments for their employees.

Directly share the ClickUp Security Incident Report Template URL among your team or export it for paper filing purposes. You can even protect your ClickUp Docs using the privacy and edit controls to prevent unwanted changes to the report information! 

By tracking all incidents with accurate data points over a period of time, enterprises can gain a better understanding of security trends within their environment and develop effective strategies for addressing them in the future.

Learn how to reduce cyber security risks in remote project management!

4. ClickUp IT Incident Report Template

An IT incident report is an internal document companies use to record and monitor IT incident-related information. By having comprehensive incident reports that are detailed and accurate, companies can identify incident trends which help them improve the response process and ensure compliance with legal requirements. 

Additionally, these documents help IT teams collaborate more effectively on incident response efforts while improving containment and resolution times. In turn, organizations save reliable records of all past incidents associated with their environment which can be used to assess current security posture and plan for future threats accordingly.

The ClickUp IT Incident Report Template includes a detailed description, a checklist, subtasks, and Custom Fields any manager can use to create a thorough, effective reporting of an IT incident. This task template provides a structure for developing your report, but it’s completely customizable to fit your organizational processes and procedures!

5. ClickUp Simple After Action Report Template

An After-Action Report is a strategic document used to evaluate and review the success or failure of a project, activity, or event. It is designed to assess both the positive and negative results to analyze what went well and what could have been improved.

And with the ClickUp Simple After Action Report Template, you’ll cover all your bases with this detailed Doc. The report is divided into four subpages:

• Exercise Overview
• Core Capability Analysis
• Core Capability Report
• Improvement Plan

Whether you’re new to After Action Reports or need new ideas to make an impact on stakeholders, this is a great template to work through on your own or with your team!

6. ClickUp Service Incident Report Template

A service report is a document detailing the activities and result of a service. A properly completed service report can be an invaluable tool for businesses and customers. It provides documentation of the services performed, which helps businesses track service history and maintain customer satisfaction. For customers, it acts as a record of the service that was performed and any changes or improvements made. 

The ClickUp Service Report Template is designed to enhance the description process with embedding features, rich text editing, media file sharing, and more. The task template is prebuilt with the general details of an acceptable service report, but feel free to customize it even further so it meets your organization’s standards.

Discover the top issue tracking software to resolve customer concerns!

7. ClickUp End of Day Report Template

An End of Day Incident Report is an incident document generated at the end of each business day. These reports contain detailed incident information such as incident severity level, impacted assets or systems, involved personnel or teams, and an incident timeline.

Additionally, these reports provide insight into the incident resolution process, corrective actions taken by the organization, and any lessons learned. They also allow organizations to gain an understanding of their incident trends over a longer period of time and plan for threats in advance. 

The ClickUp End of Day Report Template is a great starter option for businesses looking to identify gaps or weaknesses in response processes that should be addressed in order to improve containment and resolution times in the future. It comes with a self-assessment for the employees to rate their productivity, their backlogs, and tasks for the next day.

Check out the Getting Started guide for tips and examples to make it your own!

8. ClickUp Corrective Action Plan Template

A Corrective Action Plan is a set of steps designed to identify, correct, and prevent the recurrence of potential or existing errors and problems. This plan outlines the strategies that an organization should take in order to remediate the incident and restore normal operations. The plan typically includes actions such as root cause analysis, data documentation, risk management practices, and incident closure activities.

It’s sometimes a time-consuming process to get everyone on the same page. Especially when information can be used for regulatory reporting purposes and court cases if needed. Try the ClickUp Corrective Action Plan Template to align communication and tasks to save time! 

The main elements of a CAP in this Whiteboard template are organized to shorten the time it takes from identifying an incident to implementing a solution:

• Areas for Improvement: Identify the fields around your business operations or team performance that needs changes and attention
• Problems and Root Causes: Define the challenges, roadblocks, and supporting information of each to analyze and develop a solution
• Possible Solutions: Consider every factor involved in your corrective plan, and list down all the possible solutions to make a change for improvement
• Measure of Success: Define your success that’s measurable through key performance indicators or metrics that are applicable and beneficial to your team and overall operations
• Task Owners: Assign specific team members to every task 
• Timeline: Allocate enough time to prepare for change and improvement as you go through this template

9. Microsoft Word Incident Report Template

A Microsoft Word incident report template is an editable document for workplace incidents and injury accidents. It serves as a starting point for anyone to create new documents quickly, saving them time and effort in formatting the document. 

The template has dedicated sections for key details: the Introduction, Objectives, Incident Information, Methodology, Findings, Conclusion, and Recommendations.

10. Excel Incident Report Template

If you’re looking for an incident report template that’s still text-based but not paragraph-heavy, try an incident report in Excel! This template is organized into four key areas:

• Incident Type Checklist
• Incident Severity Scale
• Incident Categories
• Key Contact Information

As you start to build a library of incident report forms, using Excel will get more difficult. A report template in Excel is not remote or collaboration-friendly, so versional control could get out of hand. Integrate Excel with a project management tool like ClickUp to bring all work in one place. You can access the ClickUp platform anywhere—mobile, desktop, email add-on, and Chrome Extension! 

Stay a Step Ahead of Incidents With Templates by ClickUp

Your safety is every company’s top priority. So when accidents happen, you don’t want your incident report going into a drawer, never to be seen again.

Instead, follow that report, and take steps to make sure preventative measures are taken in the future!

The best way to do this? Find an incident report template that works with software designed to keep your work together, secure, and compliant—like ClickUp.

ClickUp is the only productivity platform powerful enough to streamline your safety processes, store valuable information, and keep the team aligned on all critical policies. With its own built-in and dynamic document editor, ClickUp is the ideal solution for incident reports of all kinds. Nested pages, live editing, assigned comments, and rich formatting are just a few of the features that make ClickUp Docs so valuable—but the best part? It comes at absolutely no cost.

Explore hundreds of templates for every use case, over 1,000 integrations, and rich reporting features across every pricing plan when you sign up for ClickUp, and watch your team’s productivity soar.

The post 10 Free Incident Report Templates in ClickUp Docs, Word, and Excel appeared first on ClickUp.

Goal setting is an important process for any individual or organization. When done correctly, goal setting can help you prioritize tasks, identify milestones, and ensure that you’re on the right trajectory to achieve your goals.

However, many people find goal setting to be difficult and time-consuming. That’s where templates come in!

In this blog post, we’ll cover the benefits of goal setting and provide you with a variety of templates to help you set and achieve any business, personal development, and life goals.

What is Goal Setting?

Strategic goal setting is something that is often overlooked, but it’s one of the most important things you can do for your personal development and growth in all areas of your life. 

When you set goals, you’re essentially putting a roadmap in place to help you get from point A to point B. With a clearly mapped outline of your goals, you’re more likely to act on your plans. Combined with the right tools, goal setting can help you take the most effective way to it your short and long-term goals, and encourage you to measure progress regularly.

Bonus: SMART Goals for Students

Here are some other key benefits of goal setting:

• Increases productivity: Outlining and breaking down your goals into targets can help you focus on achieving the smaller steps, which helps boost motivation and builds momentum
• Creates a clear roadmap to follow: Clear SMART goals help you stay motivated by providing a clear roadmap of priorities and major milestones with a time frame in mind, preventing you from putting off your goals
• Promotes accountability: Establishing and noting your goals down can help you bring your thoughts into reality by giving you a plan of action that you’re solely responsible for 
• Improves time management: Goal-setting helps teams determine priorities, set realistic time-bound goals, and ensures that your team manages time and other resources effectively as they work towards achieving the goals highlighted
• Promotes positive behavior: Setting goals with achievable steps can elicit positive behaviors and habits that, in time turn into a way of living and mindset

Needless to say, you can benefit a lot from goal setting. So whether you’re new to goal setting or want to improve your process, these goal-setting templates can provide guidance and a framework to help you get started on the right foot.

Each one is designed to help you achieve your goals in a specific way. Get to know what each one is for and how you can use them to level up your goal-setting strategy!

10 Free Goal Setting Templates

1. ClickUp SMART Goals Template

What do you want to achieve this year? How about this month? This week? 

When you set goals and achieve them, you create a pattern of success that leads to even more success. But there’s more to goal setting than just writing down a list of goals. You need to use SMART goals if you want to see real results. 

SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Setting goals with this approach in mind can help you focus on one thing at a time and prevent you from making too many goals that can derail your progress.

Set goals in ClickUp and take advantage of the ClickUp SMART Goals Template to give you a framework for goal setting, and help you organize your goals and targets into a manageable system. You could also customize this template in any way to ensure it works for what you need and gear you up for success.

2. ClickUp Company OKRs and Goals Template

OKR stands for Objective and Key Results—objectives are considered the “what,” and key results are the “how.” These goals are often created quarterly and are typically short-term goals, and help individuals and teams that want to set ambitious goals with measurable progress.

With ClickUp’s flexible structure and with the assistance of ClickUp’s Company OKRs and Goals Template, you’ll be able to build out a team, department, and company-wide business objectives more effectively! 

Use this template for goal setting to help you create an organized, functional, and high-level List view of your OKRs, and measure your progress every step of the way. 

3. ClickUp Balanced Scorecard Template

A balanced scorecard (BSC) is a goal-setting and strategic management performance metric that organizations use to help improve their performance and operations. BSC provides companies with a framework for tracking and managing their strategy and gives decision-makers a high-level picture of the organization’s performance. 

In simple terms, these key indicators let organizations know whether they’re hitting their goals and if they’re on track to accomplish future goals. 

Plan smarter and start strong by using the ClickUp Balanced Scorecard Template! This goal-setting template can help by providing a foundation for prioritizing and tracking your tasks and projects and creating a clear plan of action.

4. ClickUp Sales KPI Template

If you work in sales, then you already know that there are a lot of things to keep track of. Take a load off of your shoulders by creating an organized and functional system for keeping track of your sales metrics all in one place.  

With the ClickUp Sales KPI Template, you’ll be able to build a hefty and detailed view of your sales metrics from multiple angles. Use this template as part of your goal-setting strategy to improve your sales performance, easily identify opportunities, keep track of your prospects, and accelerate sales growth. 

5. ClickUp Career Goals Template

How do you want your career to look like? This is a question that many professionals ask themselves, but they might not have a confident answer because they haven’t planned it out yet.

That’s why creating a roadmap of your desired career path is important! It can help you visualize your professional journey, create career development goals, guide you to stay on course, and prevent you from diverting far from your goals. 

Use the Career Path Template in ClickUp to give you a solid starting point, and easily map out your pathway from A-Z. You could also customize it to fit your specific needs, goals, and preferences. 

So whether you’re just starting in your career or are looking to switch gears, this template will help you create actionable steps that can steer you in the right direction!

6. ClickUp Exercise Log Template

This might seem a little out of place, but hear us out. We’re big believers in having a strong work-life balance so we highly encourage you to reconnect with your core values and set personal goals!

The ClickUp Exercise Log Template is designed with your fitness goals in mind. No matter if you’re training for a marathon, or simply want an organized way to log your exercises, use this template as a fitness journal to stay on track to hit your goals, all big and small wins!

ClickUp also offers a variety of other templates for personal use. Explore other useful templates like the Self-Care, New Year’s Resolution, and Personal Development Templates by visiting our Template Center!

7. Excel Goal Setting Template

Most people know Microsoft Excel for its spreadsheets, and use them to tabulate results and come up with additional analyses and results to match their expectations in the company, but did you know you could also use it for goal-setting purposes, too?

Whether you’re planning your weekly or monthly goals, use Microsoft Excel’s printable goal-setting worksheet to set SMART goals, plan your actions, track progress, and help keep your goals visible and top of mind.

8. Word Task and Goal Reward Chart Template

Achieving goals is exhilarating. It’s even better when you have a reward system in place for yourself to help you celebrate your wins.

Hold yourself accountable for your goals by using the Word Task and Goal Reward Chart Template. This template for goal setting promotes personal accountability and positive reinforcement by enabling you to plan out your week, visualize your performance, and determine whether you’ve done enough to achieve your goals.

Download this goal-setting worksheet and start rewarding yourself for doing the work!

9. PowerPoint SMART Goals Template

The PowerPoint Smart Goals Template presents the goal-setting concept in PowerPoint. With this template, PowerPoint users can use the app’s features to create powerful visuals such as infographics to show their specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-based goals, and add textual content to give more context about their goal-setting process.

10. PowerPoint Milestone Goals Template

The PowerPoint Milestone Goals Template is useful for visually highlighting the key milestones in your project. This template is great for goal setting as it can help you visually map out your milestones by using modern infographics to show compelling and clear, and easy-to-follow visuals within a timeline.

Hit Your Targets Faster with Goal Setting Templates

Goal setting is an important process that can help you succeed in any area of your life. However, we know it’s not always that easy, especially when you don’t know where to start or know how to create effective systems to help you stay on track. That’s why goal-setting templates can be so helpful!

Whether you’re goal-setting for business, personal development, or any other life goals, the templates above can help you set achievable goals, create an action plan, and map out your priorities in an organized and functional way.

Once you have your template of choice, turn to ClickUp Goals to connect your targets to your work, help you keep track of your progress, and manage all your goals in one place!

The post 10 Free Goal-Setting Templates (Excel, Word, ClickUp) appeared first on ClickUp.

You can’t wish for killer biceps before your nap and expect to wake up in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body. 

Whether it’s fitness goals or business goals, you’ll have to set both short and long-term goals to achieve anything. 

And understanding the goal-setting process will also help you answer job interview questions like “where do you see yourself in five years?”.

But wait, what’s the difference between short-term vs long-term goals? 

And why should you set both?

In this article, we’ll compare short-term vs long-term goals, and share some career goal examples and tips on setting achievable career goals. We’ll also answer FAQs about short-term and long-term goals.

Goals: Short or long, here we come!

What are Short-Term and Long-Term Goals?

When setting goals, you have to consider goals for both the short term and the long term. 

A. What is a short-term goal?

A short-term goal is something you wish to accomplish in the near future.

How long are short-term goals?

They’re short-term needs that you can achieve today, this week, this month, or even this year. For example, you can set a career goal like completing a skill enhancement course or a short-term savings goal like setting aside money for an emergency fund.

Short-term goals can also be stepping stones or actionable steps to reach a long-term goal much further down the road.

It’s like running at a level two speed on a treadmill to reach level six speed eventually.

Start at six, and your end goal might just be the ER. Ouch!

Set short-term goals and watch yourself progress to make those life-changing visions come true.

B. What is a long-term goal?

A long-term goal is something you wish to complete in the distant future and takes more time, planning, and patience. You can’t do them in a few weeks and dust off your hands; you might need ten years.

Usually, these goals consist of several mini-goals or steps, which is why it’s important to determine short-term goals alongside your long-term plan.

You can say that long-term goals are normally used to support your short-term goals. 

For example, your long-term goal can be to set up your own business, a savings goal for your retirement account, etc.

See how each one is like a big goal, or a long-term vision, that gives you a sense of direction in life? 

Sure, long-term goals can seem overwhelming or even impossible at times. But when you follow through on each short-term goal along the way, you’ll eventually get there.

What about a goal that’s not short or long enough?

You can split your goals into three: Short, medium, and long-term goals

A medium, intermediate, or mid-term goal comes into the picture when you need a middle ground between short and long-term goals.

While you can usually achieve medium-term goals between six months to less than five years, it can vary from person to person and goal to goal.

Bonus: SMART Goals for Students!

Short Term vs Long Term Goals

What’s the difference between short-term and long-term goals?

The main difference between short and long-term goals is that long-term goals tend to drive direction and strategy while short-term goals are tied to your current situation and tend to be easier to achieve. Of course, the most obvious difference is the amount of time and resources it takes to accomplish each.

Let’s compare long-term vs short-term goals to spot some key differences.

1. Strategy

At its heart, a long-term goal is strategic. 

You need to make small changes in your everyday life to achieve them. 

That’s why you split a long-term goal into smaller manageable goals and ensure you have some sort of reminder to achieve them.

Longer-term goals are a test of your motivation and perseverance, and you’ll often face major obstacles on the way.

On the other hand, short-term goals need strategies that have more to do with your current performance. You’ll base your strategy primarily on how close you are to realizing your ultimate goal.

2. Number of goals

Usually, you can have two or maybe three long-term goals in mind. It is usually big picture and can be a career goal, financial goal, or personal goal. But not many.

Have too many long-term goals, and you’ll feel overwhelmed and exhausted.  

Your reliable friend, coffee, won’t help either. 

However, due to the shorter duration, you can focus on multiple short-term goals at the same time. And you can crush them all, one by one!

Here’s a handy table that will help you visualize the difference between long and short-term goals.

Bonus: Interested in tracking your goals digitally? Read our guide on the best goal-setting software!

Short-Term and Long-Term Career Goals Examples

A career goal is an objective you pursue in your professional life. 

It paints a clear picture of what you want to achieve. You’ll also understand how to get there.

Let’s explore some short and long-term goals examples for your career:

A. What are some short-term career goals?

Short-term goals for your career have definite outcomes you can start achieving in a couple of months to a year. They can be part of a grand scheme or stand-alone objectives to boost your career. Here are several short-term goals:

1. Learn a new skill

Learning a new skill can be an ongoing goal. You need to keep up with the industry requirements and pick specific skills for your profession.

If you’re a nutritionist who isn’t familiar with strength training, you could become a certified trainer.

Someone that knows their food and workouts? 

Your resume is gonna be lit.

2. Make a professional website

A powerful digital footprint is crucial for professional success, and launching a website is one of the best short-term goals.

That’s because a potential employer or client could look you up on the web to know more about you and your work. Just like how we’ve all Googled ourselves at some point or the other.

And you want people to find you, right?

Then create a website to:

• Highlight your skills and past projects 
• Establish yourself as a brand
• Target the right clients and employers

If you’re a fitness trainer, create a fitness blog or share your videos on a YouTube channel. This will put your name in front of the right audience. 

3. Improve productivity

One of the most straightforward career goals is to improve your work’s quality, quantity, and efficiency.

These metrics will depend on your profession and company. But they usually involve increasing customer satisfaction, delivering projects within deadlines, and reducing company expenses.

Work on these metrics all day, every day, and you might turn your long-term goal for a promotion into a short-term one.

B. What are some long-term career goals?

A long-term career goal is broader than a short-term one. Some don’t have a defined timeline as such and might take several years to complete.

Here are some examples:

1. Earn a degree 

Graduating from a university and receiving your bachelor’s degree could be the first long-term objective you set to secure your career. It’ll define your career path, entry-level designation, salary, etc.

Make sure you get that degree and prepare to go places!

2. Get a promotion

Getting promoted is a common long-term career goal.

It can take you a year or more to get a promotion. Yet, we all want this honor that speaks volumes about our awesome performance and work ethic.

Most importantly: a big fat paycheck is incoming!

3. Build your network

To be successful in any career, you need to build your network.

You can contact like-minded people and industry leaders through portals like LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., Or meet more folks with your background in professional meetups, conferences, or retreats.

Smart, isn’t it?

Building a network will help you:

• Stay on top of the latest industry trends
• Feel the pulse in the job market
• Meet potential mentors, partners, and clients

And most importantly, people in your network can be your advocates when you look for a job. 

Or even better, it might just open the door to all your future entrepreneurial possibilities.

Check out some more examples of professional goals for a better idea.

How To Set Short-Term and Long-Term Career Goals

Setting long and short-term goals depends on what’s important to you and what can benefit your growth as a professional.

Here are three tips on how to set your short and long-term career goals:

1. Have specific and measurable goals

Let’s say your goal is to be happy. 

Now, that isn’t specific.

Happiness to you may be a promotion.

To another person, it may be to leave work early on a Friday.

When you are creating goals, this is why you need to ensure every objective is a specific goal.

The best way to do this is to answer the three “W” questions:

• What do I want to accomplish?
• Why do I want to achieve this goal?
• When do I want to complete this goal?

An objective should also be a measurable goal.

How?

Ask yourself questions like:

• What’s the timeframe for goal achievement?
• What’s the progress indicator? 
• How will I know if I have reached my goal?

Not sure how goals are different from objectives? 

Take a look at our goals vs. objectives comparison.

2. Be realistic

Your goals should be within your capabilities.

You can’t say, “I want each of my blog posts to get 500 comments,” especially when you’re just starting. It’ll set you up for failure.

Instead, set weekly goals you can achieve, like “I’ll aim for 1-10 comments every week.”

Realistic goals are more achievable, and when you do complete them, you’ll feel accomplished. It’ll get you pumped to push further. 

3. Be flexible and positive

Obstacles are just part of life. Don’t let that throw you off track.

Rather, adjust your goals accordingly and hold on to a positive attitude.

Perseverance and optimism are a recipe for success.

How To Manage Short and Long-Term Goals

ClickUp is one of the world’s highest-rated productivity tools that empowers every individual and business to set and achieve their long-term, mid-term, and short-term goals.

Here’s how ClickUp helps you do that:

1. Goals

Goals in ClickUp lets you stay on track to hit your goals with clear timelines, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), and automatic progress tracking.

Use it to set high-level objectives and then break them down into manageable Targets.

A Target (smaller goal) can have OKRs that you can track in the form of numbers, money, tasks, or true/false statements.

Hit each target and visualize your progress toward completing the goal! 

Want to ace your OKRs?

Check out some OKR examples and this list of the best OKR software!

2. Gantt Chart view

ClickUp’s Gantt Chart feature lets you create a definite timeline for your short-term and long-term goals.

You can use it to:

• Schedule tasks or goals
• Move them around to rearrange them with drag-and-drop functionality
• Visualize and manage dependencies

Check out our guide on how to use ClickUp to set goals for your team.

FAQs About Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

Need more answers on goals?

These FAQs should help:

1. What are SMART goals?

The SMART formula is a cute little acronym to help you define a good goal. It’s beneficial to set SMART goals because of the thought that goes into them.

A SMART goal must be

• Specific: Establish the desired result in clear and specific terms
• Measurable: Should be measurable with specific criteria like Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and milestones so you can track the success
• Achievable: Realistic and within capabilities
• Relevant: In sync with your business objectives and should add to your grand scheme
• Timely: Have a defined timeline, including a starting date and a target date

Bonus: Check out these SMART HR Goals!

2. What are some examples of short and long-term goals for a business?

Here are some common short-term business goals:

• Set specific sales OKRs and marketing targets 
• Reduce day-to-day expenses
• Implement a social media marketing strategy
• Improve customer service
• Test marketing strategies

Here are some long-term business goal examples:

• Open new offices in different cities or countries
• Increase your company’s share in the market
• Increase overall brand awareness
• Get more clients
• Hire more employees

3. What are some common goal-related interview questions?

Here’s some help so you can crack career-goal-related interview questions:

1. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Don’t get bogged down by cliched responses to this question. 

Instead, take this opportunity to share more about your personality by describing:

• How do you plan to contribute to the company’s growth
• The skill growth or certifications you want to obtain
• How do you want to grow within the company and make it to a leadership position 

2. What skills or knowledge would make you better in your current role?

This question requires you to know your industry requirements.

Do some digging and find out if it’s research, marketing, or people skills that’ll make you ideal. Make sure you know exactly where you stand about these skills as well. 

For example, if you’re at a beginner level when it comes to research, mention this to the employer. But at the same time, don’t forget to highlight your current skills and strengths.

3. How do you achieve your professional goals?

Here’s a chance to highlight your professionalism and work ethic. 

In response, tell the interviewer what professional goals you’ve set for yourself. This tells them about your motivations. Then, describe how you make space in your schedule to achieve your goals. 

Check out these goal setting templates!

Set Absolute Goals!

Setting short and long-term goals is your roadmap to success. 

But a goal that you don’t write down or support with a strategy is a pipe dream.

Why not set goals with a powerful project management tool like ClickUp so you can track them and visualize the progress?

You can manage projects, and to-dos, and plan your short-term and long-term goals on a single platform. 

Go set some rock-solid goals with ClickUp for free to stop dreaming about what you want and start working in the right direction.

The post Short-Term vs Long-Term Goals (Examples, FAQs) appeared first on ClickUp.

And some of these can be vague, over-the-top life goals that we think are attainable. 

But they only make us feel disappointed when we can’t hit them.  

If you’re struggling when it comes to goal setting, no, you’re not a failure.
You just need to set weekly goals first.

In this article, we’ll tell you why and how you should set weekly goals. We’ll also list down the action steps to achieve them consistently. 

Bonus: We’ll also give you a list of 30 weekly goal ideas for some inspiration. 

Let’s go.

What Are Weekly Goals?

Weekly goals break down a larger goal into smaller tasks that you want to achieve within a week. 

If you’re new to goal setting, it’s a good place to start. 

For example, let’s say you want a big house, drive a swanky BMW, or make a six-figure salary.

These are great ideas for a long term goal. But you can’t really attain them in a week. 

Instead, goals with a weekly focus can be more casual and less stressful, making it much easier to achieve them. 

Why Set a Weekly Goal?

Weekly goals help us wake up from this sleep and take measurable steps to achieve our life goals over a defined period.

A week is long enough to carry out several tasks and make significant progress towards your bigger goal. 

Yet, it’s short enough to tweak your actions if you go slightly off track. 

However, most of us give little thought to these small steps and aim for the bigger goal without any roadmap. But if you break them down, your ultimate goal becomes more manageable and achievable. 

Another great thing about setting week goals is that they’re flexible. 

You can adjust and align them to take care of activities or bad work habits that may prevent you from achieving your personal goals. 

For example, setting weekly goals can be useful if you’re a procrastinator. You can assign a short term goal for each day and do things daily rather than rush towards the end of the week.

Moreover, achieving weekly goals sets the momentum for progress and motivates you to stick to your plan. 

If you’re all game and want to try this fantastic weekly goal setting method, here are some weekly goal ideas to get you started. 

30 Weekly Goals Examples

From career goals to focusing on self-care, you can set weekly goals for all walks of life. 

If you’re yet to decide on which area to focus on, here are some weekly goals ideas to help you out: 

Career goals

Want to grow at work and get ahead of others?

Try out these career goal ideas:

• Learn the Pomodoro method of time management
• Attend a networking event to build new connections
• Declutter your work inbox
• Join a training course to upskill yourself
• Meet your deadlines on time

Financial goals

Saving money is on everyone’s wishlist.

Here’s how you can do it with weekly goals:

• Open an investment account 
• Avoid online shopping for a week
• No eating out for a week
• Negotiate the price of your next buy
• Save money emergency fund

Health and fitness goals

Don’t envy that fit coworker or friend. Instead, get going with these fitness goal ideas: 

• Get eight hours of sleep every day
• Drink water instead of carbonated drinks
• Go to the gym three times this week
• Home-cook all your meals this week
• Do yoga three times this week
• Take a walk after lunch or dinner

Self-care and mental health goals 

Here’s how you can take care of yourself with weekly goals amidst a hectic work life:

• Take a break from social media 
• Meditate for ten minutes every day
• Watch an episode of FRIENDS
• Organize your room 
• Read a chapter in a book
• Maintain a gratitude journal

Relationship goals 

Nurture your relations with these good weekly goal ideas: 

• Catch up with an old friend
• Call your parents 
• Host a movie night with family 
• Video call a close friend 
• Create a routine of “We time” with your partner

Fun goals

Want to try something new? 

Try out one of these fun examples of weekly goals:

• Send an unexpected gift to a friend or colleague
• Join a dance class or learn baking 
• Volunteer at an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization)  
• Create a new playlist for the gym
• Find seven things in your closet to donate

Bonus: SMART goals for Students

How Achieve Your Weekly Goals

Have a weekly focus 

Before you start working on a weekly idea, decide on a weekly focus.

Your weekly focus could be anything, a phrase, a quote, or a poem. Something that inspires and gives you the motivation to set a better goal. 

Dedicate a specific time every week to decide your weekly focus. Ideally, it should be before the week starts, probably a Sunday afternoon or evening. 

Use this time to spotlight yourself and think about what you want to achieve in the upcoming week. 

It could be personal project management or a professional goal. Additionally, review your goal weekly with regard to your monthly goals or a quarterly goal. 

Mark this time on your calendar and try to stick to this weekly regimen. The idea here’s to turn setting weekly goal ideas into a habit. 

Use the SMART goals framework

To achieve your goals, you need to have a SMART objective.  

The SMART goal framework stands for:

• Specific: your weekly goal must be clear and not vague 
• Measurable: your weekly goals should give you tangible results  
• Attainable: a week’s short term goal should be realistic and achievable. You don’t want to set far-reaching personal or career goals and feel like an underachiever
• Relevant: your goal should be in line with your weekly focus. Set a short term goal that brings you one step closer to your aspiration
• Time-Bound: you must have a timeframe to achieve your weekly goals. When you set a deadline, it helps you become more proactive and work harder towards your personal goals

For example, instead of saying, “I’ll increase my sales this week,” you could say, “I’ll arrange ten  product demos this week.” 

That’ll give you a specific, measurable, and attainable goal.  It’s relevant to your company’s objective of increasing monthly sales. And you’ve made this goal time-bound by giving yourself a week. 

Wondering how goals are different from objectives?

Check out our detailed goals vs. objectives guide.

Write down your goals

Once you have a good weekly plan using the SMART goals framework, you must write it down. 

Why?

It’s got to do with your brain’s science. 

When you think about your weekly goals, you usually use the right side of your brain associated with imagination and creativity. Basically, you just imagine stuff. 

But when you write it down, you tell your left brain (the logical side) that you want to do something about it. This knock-knocks your subconscious, which helps you create an actionable plan. 

Writing goals also gives you the satisfaction to tick off those tiny boxes on your checklist. 

To write different goals, you can get yourself a fancy weekly planner or organizer. You can also find a printable planner template online. Even better, you can use an online goal tracking tool. 

Just ensure you have access to this weekly planner or tool throughout the week. 

Bonus: Schedule Templates

Break down a bigger goal

To achieve your bigger goal, you must break it down into smaller, manageable goals. This makes it easier to achieve.

For example, you could start with a quarterly goal and set milestones for each month. 

Then, have weekly goals to inch towards each milestone. You can even break them down further into daily goals. 

But when you break down goals, ensure that each mini goal (whether it’s a weekly or daily goal) ties back to a bigger goal. This will help you think of the bigger picture and get the motivation to achieve your goals. 

Stay accountable with goal setting

If you struggle to stay on track, you could rope in an accountability partner. It can be your team lead, manager, or even a friend.   

For those going solo, you can set accountability statements that remind you of the present and upcoming week goals. These are action items or milestones you commit to and complete within a given time frame. 

Make sure they’re specific and measurable so that you know when you’ve achieved their purpose. 

Another way to stay accountable is to use a goal tracking app.

Use a goal tracking tool

A goal tracking tool like ClickUp can help you stick through and crush your goals week by week. 

ClickUp is one of the highest-rated project management software used by teams and individuals to manage their personal goals or professional weekly goals.

It offers several goal tracking features that let you set measurable targets, track your progress, and conduct a weekly review.  

In fact, at ClickUp we set weekly goals to break down our business goals into smaller achievable tasks. 

How do we do it? 

By setting up weekly scorecards using Goals in ClickUp. 

These scorecards help our teams break down their work into smaller action steps and give them a sense of purpose every day. Each team member sets four to five  Targets to know what they need to accomplish on that day. 

Weekly scorecards also let our project managers know what each member is working on and if their efforts culminate into our bigger business goals. 

Here are some of the goal tracking features in ClickUp that you can also use to reach your weekly goals: 

• Goals: set Goals with clear deadlines and measurable Targets. You can name each Goal section, write a description, and set start dates and due dates
  
• Targets: track your weekly goals by setting tangible objectives. Opt for different targets like currency, true or false, numerical, and task targets 
• Goal Folders: group weekly goals, monthly goals, OKRs, or KPIs and control who can access them
  
• Weekly scorecards: decide top initiatives for the upcoming week. Share weekly scorecards with your team to tell them what different goals you’ll be working on
  
• Dashboards: view and share your Goals on a Dashboard to quickly refer to weekly or monthly goals. You can easily gain insights into your SMART Goal in one place
  
• Epics: break down bigger business goals into smaller tasks. Create Targets under each Epic and link lists and tasks to these Targets
  
• Checklists: create a to-do list with Subtasks to define your daily goal. You can also use Recurring Checklists for common tasks that you need to do every week
  
• Templates: create and save Templates for common weekly goals and share them across teams. From daily task to Checklist Templates, there’s a wide variety to help you save time and manage weekly goals better

Start Tracking Your Weekly Goals With ClickUp

Remember, your weekly goal doesn’t need to be perfect. It should just be smart enough to help you make a little goal progress every day. 

A smart goal tracking tool like ClickUp can be of great help here. 

From setting all sorts of Goals with weekly scorecards to keeping a tab of your tasks with Reminders, ClickUp is that friend who will help you every step of the way. 

But the best part is most of these features are available for free! 

Why wait then? 

Use ClickUp for free to organize your weekly goals, and we bet no one can stop you from doing your victory dance. 

The post How To Set and Achieve Weekly Goals (+ 30 Goal Examples) appeared first on ClickUp.

These goals are intended to keep you and your team aligned and focused on any project plan. 

And if you want to achieve something worthwhile, you’ll have to start by defining a clear goal.

In this article, we’ll tell you what project goals are and how to write them, along with five examples. 

You’ll also take home the secret tool to manage project goals with ease.

Ready to set some spectacular project goals? 

Let’s go!

What Are Project Goals? 

A project goal refers to the desired outcome of a project. 

They are high-level statements that give you an overall context of what the project will accomplish.

Now, there could be different types of goal setting like performance goals, time goals, and resource goals. 

However, most project goals only define the end results and can be pretty vague too.

Sure, they give you some direction. 

But to achieve these goals, you also need to set clear and SMART objectives. 

Let’s understand what they are and how they’re different from project goals.

What are project objectives?

If project goals define the WHAT, project objectives define the HOW. 

They’re the smaller tasks or actions you need to tackle to achieve your project goal. In short, these are your project deliverables.

Objectives are also much more specific than project goals. 

They’re more manageable and time-bound. 

Let’s discuss the difference between an objective and a goal better. 

How are project objectives different from project goals?

Understanding the difference between project objectives and goals is easy.

Though these terms are used interchangeably, they both have different roles to serve.

Goals are high-level vision statements that give direction to a project, while a project management objective is a low-level plan of action or deliverables to reach the vision.

Here are a couple of more points that will help you differentiate both: 

• Goals are usually long-term, while objectives are short-term with a stricter timeline
• Goals can be a big picture full of smaller tasks, while objectives are specific and measurable

Let’s understand the difference from the Broke Girls’ point of view:

• Project goal: grow sales and customer base by making the best cupcakes
• Project objective: for the coming month, send cupcake samples of new flavors every week to nearby shops and get their feedback

Here, the goal is to boost sales by making the best cupcakes, but the clear objective defines how they can by figuring out which cupcake flavor people like the most. 

If you’re still confused about the differences, check out our detailed guide on Goals vs. Objectives.

Now that we have addressed the elephant in the room, let’s move on to writing the perfect project goals.

How To Write Project Goals?

Before you begin to write a project goal as a project manager, there are a few rules that you must abide by.

1. Define project goals at the beginning of your project

If you want to stay on track, you must establish your project goals and objectives at the beginning of your project life cycle.  

You can then use them as guides after project initiation begins.

Remember the cake-baking recipe we told you about? 

2. Connect project goals to your business objectives

Now, don’t get confused with objectives here.

Business objectives are not the same as project objectives. 

They’re a broader vision statement that a company sets for itself, like capturing a bigger market share or offering better customer service. 

A project plan or a project charter should always be in line with your company’s overall goal. 

After all, a project manager wouldn’t want to set a project goal that contradicts their company’s specific goal. 

3. Involve your project team in goal setting 

Your team, including the project manager and the project stakeholders must have a clear understanding of your goals and objectives. The more you involve your project team in goal setting, the more motivated and committed they’ll be to achieve it. 

This will also help increase your buy-ins and ensure greater success with your overall goal.

4. Employ the SMART framework

Once you’ve defined your “reach for the star” kind of project goal, the next step is to define a SMART project objective. 

The S.M.A.R.T objectives framework stands for: 

• Specific: you must clearly define your project objective and connect it with the end result of your project
• Measurable: your project management objective should mention a tangible end result like a number, percentage, etc.
• Achievable: your project objective should be well within the project scope
• Realistic: the project objective you set for your project team should be within reach
• Time-bound: you must set a deadline to achieve your project objective

Now that you know how to set any smart goal using SMART objectives, let’s look at some project goals examples to make things more clear. 

5 Project Goals and Objectives Examples

To help you out, here are some examples of project goals and objectives:

1. Revenue

• Goal: generate more sales revenue 
• Objective: introduce an e-commerce platform in the upcoming year to increase customer reach by 20%

2. Efficiency 

• Goal: improve business processes 
• Objective: reduce lead time by 20% in the next six months by introducing a project management tool 

3. Customer satisfaction 

• Goal: increase customer satisfaction
• Objective: improve software usability to reduce support tickets by 10% in the next quarter

4. Cost reduction

• Goal: reduce overall company expenses
• Objective: reduce costs by $20,000 in the next quarter by providing teleworking facilities to help employees work remotely

5. Sustainability 

• Goal: reduce company’s carbon footprint
• Objective: achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030

Now that you know how to write any goal for your project, you can create an action plan to ensure your project’s success.

But how do you know if you’re on the right track?

Bonus: Collegiate Goals

The Best Way To Set and Manage Project Goals in 2022

The idea of setting goals sounds great until you actually have to make an effort to define them. 

You may have goal ideas in your head, but how you set and manage them will ensure your success. 

And, for that, you need the right project management software like ClickUp.

A goal-tracking tool like ClickUp can show you how well you’ve performed in terms of your project management goal and generate reports on the progress that you make. 

You can use it to set personal goals, share goals with your team, attach tasks to your goals, and track them in real-time. 

In short, ClickUp’s Goals can help you hit your goals.

And, not just that, ClickUp also offers a wide range of project management features for free! 

Let’s see how ClickUp makes your goals actionable, achievable, and measurable:

• Goals: have clear deadlines and measurable Targets. To stay on track, you can also set Start Dates and Due Dates
• Targets: track your Goal by setting tangible project objectives. Select from different metrics like currency, true or false, numerical, and task Targets 
• Checklists: create to-do lists that count towards your project management goal. You can also use Recurring Checklists for everyday tasks that you need to do every day or week 
• Weekly Scorecards: avoid procrastination by setting priorities and initiatives for every week. Let your teammates know what goal you’ll be working on
• Templates: create and save Templates for common goals and share them across teams. Use Checklist Templates to save time and manage goal-related tasks better
• Dashboards: get a high-level overview and insights into your projects, goals, tasks, and more. Share your project progress digitally with your teammates
• Epics: break down your bigger business goals to make them more manageable. Set different targets under each Epic and link tasks to these targets 
• Timeline view: create a visual roadmap of your project to plan your work over time. Give your stakeholder access to your timeline with public sharing for transparency
• Gantt chart: get a bird-eye view of your project. Schedule tasks, manage deadlines and handle bottlenecks accordingly
• Mind Maps: brainstorm and create a visual outline of your project goals and share it with your team

Good news; the list doesn’t end here! 

Check out the other ClickUp features that can help you ensure your project’s success.

Want To Manage Your Project Goals

No one said that achieving a project goal would be easy. 

Whether it’s personal or professional, every goal will run up against major odds or hurdles. 

But the idea is to never give up.

With a smart project management tool like ClickUp, you can certainly make things look as easy as pie as you work towards hitting your project goals. 

From setting SMART objectives or project Goals to keeping a tab of your tasks with Checklists and Reminders, we bet ClickUp will help you every step of the way. 

And the best part is, most of these helpful goal setting features are available for free! 

What’s holding you back then? 

Get a taste of ClickUp for free, and make achieving project goals a piece of cupcake.

The post How To Set Realistic Project Goals (And Mistakes To Avoid) appeared first on ClickUp.

Ready to learn about the difference between goals and objectives?

Setting goals and objectives might have similar processes, but each needs to be approached differently.

In this article, we’ll help you settle the objective vs goal debate by highlighting the differences between the two, how they work together, and the best tool to help you track both!

Let’s get this started.

What Are Goals?

A goal is a desired outcome that you want to achieve. 

Company goals are a compass – giving your team an idea of what they need to achieve and direction they need to go. 

Basically, they’re the general intentions of the company and can help guide the mission statement. They help you zero-in on what you’re looking to achieve.

However, outcome oriented goals only deal with end-results – they don’t tell you how you’re going to get there.

That doesn’t mean goal setting isn’t important!

Goal setting is really important because it gives your team focus on what they’re aspiring towards – giving them clarity over everything, which will boost their motivation and productivity!

Bonus: SMART Goals for Students

What Are Objectives?

Objectives define what your team needs to do in order to achieve the goal. 

They are specific measurable statements that have a set target for your team to reach.

In other words, they change outcome-oriented goals to process-oriented goals so there can be measurable achievements in the right direction.

For example:

Let’s say you want to amp-up the revenue of your business.

In order to do that, one of your marketing objective is to increase the number of customers by 20%. 

Here, your goal is increasing revenue while your objective would be to increase customers by 20%!

Goals vs. Objectives: What Are the Major Differences?

The main difference between goals and objectives is that goals are broader in scope and help create vision and direction, while objectives are more specific targets and describe tangible actions to achieve an end result.

Here are some of these major differences between goals and objectives broken down:

1. Scope

Goals: 

Goals are comparatively more general statements, so their scope can be broad. 

And in some instances, they don’t even have to be limited to a team or project – broad, outcome-oriented goals can even be followed by the entire organization!

For example:

If the final goal is just to earn more money, all the members of an organization can align their efforts to accomplish this goal. 

Objectives:

Project objectives are more specific than goals and usually refer to one particular process – like sales and marketing. 

For example:

If we’re talking about sales and marketing objectives, then you could have process objectives like a 20% increase in the number of prospects in your sales funnel.

2. Time frame

Goals:

An organization’s goals have a longer time frame than objectives.

For example, an ideal time frame for a Fortune 500 company’s goals is around three to five years, while schools and early learning institutes prefer to use annual goals.

Objectives:

Effective objectives have a specific target that’s set around a short or medium time frame. 

For example, common short term objectives can last as long as a financial quarter. Your team needs to rush to meet your objectives within this time frame.

Related: Differences between long and short term goals

Here’s a handy table to compare goals and objectives.

Objectives vs. Goals: How Do They Work Together?

If you have goals but no measurable objectives to support them – you won’t be able to get that sweet taste of success (and frothiness)!

Here’s how your business can use goals and objectives together to help you achieve success:

Using goals and objectives together – Step 1: Set goals

Your business goals should align with your company’s mission statement. This ensures that your goals are relevant and relatable to your customers and employees. And once you achieve this, your teams should be motivated to work together and achieve a goal together!

For example:

• A startup might be: Identify product-market fit (See how this startup uses ClickUp to track OKRs!)
• A Fortune 500 might be: Expand into the South-East Asian market  

But it doesn’t end with just defining a set of goals for your business.

Once you’ve finished setting goals, you need to break them down into measurable objectives:

Using goals and objectives together – Step 2: Create SMART objectives

After the goal setting process – you need to define the objectives that can help your team achieve them. 

However, there are few rules you need to follow while laying down objectives.

All you have to do is create SMART objectives!

And while yes, that does mean making your objectives more sensible, there’s more to it:

S.M.A.R.T is an acronym stands for making your objectives Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timed.

You must have heard of SMART Goals, so why are we calling them SMART objectives?

It’s all about context. 

We are talking about goals and objectives, and we have mentioned that objectives are what you need to do in order to attain your goals. That’s why it makes sense to talk about SMART objectives instead.

Let’s see this process in action:

1. Specific objectives 

A specific objective is: Increase sales of ‘Rum Ham’ to new customers (a questionable decision, but at least it’s specific!)

2. Measurable objectives

You should also be able to track the progress of your objective and major business milestones. 

Why?

How else would you verify if you’re on the right track or not?!

So while ‘increase sales of Rum ham’ is a good objective – it doesn’t have a clear-cut measure to it.

The measurable objective would be to Increase sales to new customers by 200%.

3. Attainable objectives

Your objective should also be grounded in reality. 

While it would be nice to increase sales by 200%, they just don’t have enough team members to push the product. 

Here, a more attainable objective is: Increase sales to new customers by 30%.

4. Relevant objectives

Smart objectives have to be important to the mission of the business. Objectives should always be linked to something that can help their business grow, improve customer satisfaction and so on. 

Say you are a SaaS business. You might want to think twice about introducing done-for-you services that require human intervention. It’s unrelated to how SaaS growth models work and implies that you either lack product-market fit or a scalable growth strategy.

5. Timed objectives

Objectives can’t go on forever. 

You need to create a deadline for them or you’ll keep tackling them incessantly and lose sight of your goal!

So now the final SMART objective is:

By October 2023, sales to new customers should have increased by 30%.

This way, with a smart objective, your team knows exactly what to do and how to do it.

Using goals and objectives together – Step 3: Create strategies and tactics

Once you’ve laid out the measurable targets – your team needs to figure out how they’re going to meet those objectives and achieve your ultimate goals. 

This is where your target strategy comes in.

A target strategy is a series of steps or tasks that need to be done in order to accomplish the objective or target. 

Remember, not every strategy you attempt will work out – it’s up to you to try different ones until you finally meet your objective. 

And when you meet enough objectives, you’ll be able to meet your overall goal!

How to Keep Track of Your Goals and Objectives

Once you’ve set your business objectives and goals, your team has to work together to get the desired outcomes.

But how do you know if you’re on the right track?

When you’re on a boat in unfamiliar waters, you need a tour guide to help you figure out where you are!

A project management tool like ClickUp will help you develop and track your process oriented goals and objectives. This will help you measure past performance and keep everyone on the same page.

What’s ClickUp?

ClickUp is one of the world’s highest-rated remote project management tools. It’s used by around 200,000+ teams around the globe, including ones from startups and large corporations.

It has all the features you need to create and manage your goals and objectives with ease! 

Here’s a closer look at how:

Types of Goals in ClickUp

No matter what your business is or what your business goals are, ClickUp will help you with them.

Here are some of the types of meaningful goals you can create and track in ClickUp:

• Team Goals
• Sprint Goals
• Personal Goals
• OKRs

1. Team goals

Want your team to push themselves and be more productive?

Try ClickUp’s Team Goals.

In ClickUp, Goals are high-level containers that can be broken down into smaller tangible targets. 

These targets are easily measurable and, when you complete them, you’ll also complete your Goal. 

This way, when using ClickUp, Targets are essentially the objectives that help you tackle your Goals!

Here’s how you can create and manage Team Goals in ClickUp.

Step 1

Click on this cute little trophy button within ClickUp.

Then simply enter your Goals into the Goal window that pops up.

For example, your team’s ultimate goal could be to increase sales by 15%:

Step 2

After you’ve set the Goal, you can assign it to your team members.

Step 3

Now that you’ve set the Goal, it’s time to create the objectives.

In ClickUp, an objective = Target

So just add your Targets that’ll help you meet your measurable goals. 

And since you need to measure these targets, you can choose from a variety of units such as:

• Numbers: Any value from 0 to infinity!
• True/False: Has as a condition met or not met?
• Currency: Any amount of money
• Tasks: A task or list of tasks that has to be completed.

After you’ve set each target, you can go on to assign each one to different team members!

Step 4

Now, you can start tackling each target to meet your measurable goals and objectives.

Each time your team moves closer to one of their project goals, they can update the figures within each of their ClickUp targets. 

And here comes the best part!

ClickUp automatically calculates the objective progress percentage based on the targets.

This way, whenever you or your team updates one of the targets, your overall objectives measure your progress in real-time. This can give your team members a motivational boost, so they can crush more objectives!

B. Sprint Goals

ClickUp is also the perfect tool if you’re managing an Agile software development team.

Why?

You can use ClickUp to monitor the progress of your Agile and Scrum sprints!

No, not that sprint! 

A sprint is a period of time in which a software development team creates a working model of a product.

Here’s how you can track sprint goals in ClickUp:

• Create a Goal
• Set a due date for your sprint goal
• Define a set of Targets that will help you meet your sprint goal
• Add those Targets as Tasks 

Now, all you have to do is continue knocking out your targets, and you can see your sprint goal’s progress percentage update in real-time!

C. Weekly Scorecards 

Most goal setting tools allow you to only track your own Objectives and Goals.

However, ClickUp allows you to keep track of your team member’s individual Goals as well! In ClickUp, your team can create weekly Objectives and tasks that they need to achieve and share them with the team.

Weekly Scorecards help managers get a bird’s eye view on what everyone is working on. You also get to see how everyone is contributing towards achieving the goal. 

This motivates your team to work together and accomplish more measurable goals!

But wait, Scorecards are not the only way managers can keep tabs on their team! 

They can use ClickUp’s Box View and Profiles to see what tasks their team members are working on.

D. Personal goals

ClickUp isn’t just for business. 

You can use ClickUp to create personal goals too! 

ClickUp allows you to customize Permissions for all your goals and objectives. You can choose who can view or edit your Goals, or you can keep them completely private.

Note: You can even customize permissions for your project Goal as well. This way, you can customize what certain team members or clients can do when it comes to your Goals.

E. OKRs

Time for a pop quiz question:

What is common between Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon?

Nope – it’s not that they’re all productivity-drainers!

All 3 companies use OKRs!

Objective and key results OKRs are a goal setting framework used by organizations to set and measure goals for their company and employees. It splits each objective into a set of key results that’ll help you meet that objective.

The OKR framework may seem daunting, but it’s as easy as pie.

All you need is ClickUp.

However, in OKR terminology Objectives = Goals.

To clear up any confusion, check out this table:

• Therefore, when you’re setting ClickUp Goals, you’re setting up your OKR Objectives 
• And when you’re setting up your ClickUp Targets, you’re setting up your key results

Apart from this name change, everything remains the same!

This way, if you want to follow the OKR approach, just use the steps we outlined in the Team Goals point and you’ll be fine!

Note: OKRs should not be confused with KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). 

OKRs help you track your goals, while performance indicators measure the success of an ongoing process.

But we’re not done!

Scrum masters and Agile project managers get tons of handy charts to keep track of how they’re progressing towards their goals like:

• Burn up charts: highlights the project tasks your remote team has completed so far
• Burndown charts: highlights the amount of work remaining in a project
• Velocity Charts: determines your team’s task completion rate 
• Cumulative flow: visualizes project’s progress over a time period

Okay, now we’re done.

Goals Vs. Objectives Conclusion

Let’s end the goal vs objective debate right here.

Goals and objectives are not interchangeable terms. 

Goals are an outcome you want to achieve, and objectives help you figure out how to get there. 

However, you need both of them to succeed.

Creating smart goals and objectives for your company can give your team the push that they need!

But remember when you create goals and objectives, you need a way to track them too.

And since project management tools like ClickUp have tons of features to manage your business and personal goals, why not take it for a spin and try it for free today!

Read related posts:

• Top goal tracking apps
• Best goal setting software
• HR Goals
• Goal-Setting Templates

The post Goals vs. Objectives: What They Are & How to Use Them appeared first on ClickUp.

Looking for a list of performance goals and objectives for your company? 

We’ve got you covered!

Growing a business is no easy task.

But if you implement clear-cut performance goals and objectives across your organization, it’s not going to be that hard. 

They’ll help focus your efforts on areas that actually matter! 

So what exactly are these performance goals and why do you need them?

More importantly, how do you establish and track them?

In this article, we’ll cover what performance goals and objectives are, why you need them and highlight 9 essential ones for your business. 

We’ll also give you 3 practical tips to take your performance plan to a higher level!

Let’s get started!

What Are Performance Goals And Objectives?

Performance goals and objectives are targets set by companies and team leaders that cover their operations. Usually, these goals and objectives are established according to the company’s mission or vision.

But wait…aren’t goals and objectives the same thing?

Nope. 

Objectives are the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goals. 

Essentially, you complete your objectives to meet your goal.

• The squad’s goal: Secure the plaque
• Their objective: Distract other participants

Similarly, if your company’s goal was to increase revenue, your objective could be “increasing sales.”

Benefits of Setting Performance Goals And Objectives?

People establish performance goals and objectives to track their company’s progress accurately.

How does that happen?

With a goal in sight, it’s easy to focus on areas that help your company grow. 

Additionally, tracking your goals with care can help you identify problems and address them quickly.

For example, let’s say your goal was to reduce customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 20% but you could only reduce it by 10%. After analyzing this result, you’ll be able to know what went wrong and take measures to fix those areas — like reducing spend on non-profitable marketing strategies.

Setting team goals also help managers or team leaders conduct unbiased employee reviews.

How?

You can evaluate employees by holding them accountable for their performance over their goals and objectives. This way, your evaluation criteria is unbiased and transparent.

The benefit? 

Fair assessments create room for trust and build a strong relationship between managers and employees.

Additionally, when employees are part of a fair working environment, you can easily motivate them to perform well.

Related: Performance Review Templates!

9 Performance Goals Examples

You now know what performance goals and objectives are and why you need them.

But which ones should you set and track in your company? 

Here are some key performance goals and objectives (and the metrics to measure them):

1. Marketing and sales goals 

Any marketer needs to set measurable and attainable goals to be successful.

These goals will help the company grow, expand their customer base and gain more revenue easily. 

Here are three objectives you could set to achieve your marketing and sales goals:

Objective #1: Increase website conversions by a set percentage

A conversion occurs when someone performs a desired action on your website, like making a purchase or signing up for your newsletter. 

How does this help?

Apart from generating qualified leads and more profits, increased conversions mean a larger customer database and a better understanding of customer’s needs. 

For example, if you tweak your website’s landing page and find out that more customers are signing up as a result of that modification — you’ll have an idea of what attracts them. You can then employ this across other marketing channels for more conversions!

How do you track this?

Conversion rate = (number of converted visitors / total website visitors) * 100%

For example, if the total number of conversions is 2000 and 18000 users visited your website, then the conversion rate is 11.11%.

Objective #2: Increase monthly web traffic

Monthly web traffic refers to the number of users visiting your company’s website.

However, most companies don’t track web traffic by itself. You usually compare it with other metrics, like the average time spent by visitors or purchases made by them on the website.

How does this help?

An increase in monthly web traffic could mean:

• Your online advertisements are working 
• A chance at gaining more qualified leads
• More opportunities to analyze customer habits

How do you track this?

You can use web analytics tools like Google Analytics to estimate your monthly web traffic. 

It generates a complete breakdown of customers grouped by region, state or cities. You can then compare these reports and analyze them to improve your marketing and sales activities.

Objective #3: Reduce sales cycle length

Sales cycle length is the length of time between initial contact and closing a lead.

How does this help?

Similarly, reducing your sales cycle length helps you avoid wasting your time and resources. You can utilize these saved resources to generate more qualified leads instead!

How do you track this?

Just follow these steps:

• Step 1: Add up the total number of days it took to close every lead 
• Step 2: Divide it by the number of deals closed

For example, if Lead A took 15 days, Lead B took 12 days and Lead C took 21 days then:

• Total number of days: 48
• Number of leads: 3
• Average sales cycle length: 48/3 = 16 days

2. Financial goals

You can define financial goals and performance targets that’ll improve the financial health of your organization. 

These goals can vary from increasing your cash flow to reducing production costs. 

Here are three examples of financial objectives you could set:

Objective #1: Increase cash flow

Cash flow is simply a measure of the money that flows in and out of your business. 

You need to know your cash flow to ensure that your business does not run out of working capital!

How does this help?

An increase in cash flow usually indicates higher revenue generation. 

While greater revenue helps you take the next step to explore new business opportunities, you can also:

• Raise salaries
• Expand your business in terms of infrastructure
• Hire experts for planning projects and guiding your team in the right direction

How do you track this?

To determine cash flow, add your various cash variables and plug them into this formula:

Cash flow = cash from operating activities +(-) cash from investing activities + cash from financing activities

Objective #2: Reduce average costs

The per-unit cost of production of goods is referred to as average costs. 

It includes all the fixed as well as variable costs of production – no matter how small they are.

It can even be something as simple as lamination:

How does this help?

Reducing average costs can increase your profit margins in the long-term. 

Profits can then be used to increase product or service quality — which in turn helps generate more customers!  

How do you track this?

Average cost per unit = (total variable cost + fixed cost) / quantity of units produced

For example: 

• Total variable costs: $2,440 
• Total fixed costs: $11,000
• Total units produced: 5000 
• Average cost per unit =  2440+11000/5000 = $2.69

Objective #3: Increase revenue per employee

Revenue per employee is the amount of income each employee is generating for the company. 

How does this help?

Higher revenue/employee translates to better profit margins.

And that creates opportunities for incentives, bonuses, or even better pay for employees.

How do you track this?

Revenue per employee = Company’s total revenue / current number of employees

For example, if the company size is 200 and the revenue generated is $8.4M annually, then revenue per employee is $42K.

3. Human resources goals

Human resources goals focus on utilizing your employees to their optimum potential. 

You can set goals focused on learning new techniques, coaching them over their strengths and weaknesses or improving employee engagement.  

Here are three objectives to help you set such goals:

Objective #1: Reduce employee turnover rate 

Employee turnover rate is the percentage of employees that leave an organization during a certain period of time.

How does this help?

By reducing your employee turnover rate, you can avoid problems like:

• Overworking your employees due to staff shortages
• Reduced employee motivation
• Decreased profitability as you’ll have to spend time and money hiring and training new employees

How do you track this?

To determine the employee turnover rate, just use this formula:

Employee turnover = (number of people who left the company during a specific period/ total employees during that period) * 100 

For example, if 20 people left the company in July when the total employees were 1000, your employee turnover rate would be 2%.

Objective #2: Increase employee engagement

Employee engagement refers to the passion and commitment employees have towards their job. 

How does this help?

Increased employee engagement enhances your employees’ connection with their job and company. And when that happens, they’ll feel supported and valued. This drives them towards better job motivation and dedication — which, in turn, translates to productivity.

How do you track this?

There are multiple ways you can determine employee engagement. 

You can conduct surveys, one-on-one meetings or use employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) to measure this goal.

Objective #3: Lower cost per hire

Cost per hire is the average money you spend hiring human resources. 

This includes money spent on job boards, recruitment and assessment software, referral incentives, hiring drives, etc. 

How does this help?

Calculating the total cost per hire provides an insight into your hiring budget which you can use for better budget planning in the future. You’ll also be able to use this data to eliminate useless expenditure in the hiring process.

For example, switching to telephone interviews from on-site interviews for a customer service representative role not only gives you an idea of how good they are on the phone, but it also saves you money too.

Plus, it’s a great option for remote teams looking to hire employees from across the globe!

How do you track this?

Cost per hire = (internal recruiting cost + external recruiting cost) / total hired

Internal recruiting costs include hiring manager’s salaries, planning interview drives and referral bonuses. Money spent on hiring technology and advertisements make up your external recruiting costs.  

3 Tips To Establish Performance Goals And Objectives

Setting realistic goals can be challenging and you could end up being clueless like Jake here:

Luckily, we have a few tips to help you go about it:

1. Define SMART goals 

How do you implement smart performance goals?

Simple: with SMART goals! 

But what are they?

Setting SMART goals is a goal setting process that’ll help you create efficient goals in no time. Make your goals SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timely.

The acronym can be split into:

• Specific: Define clear goals, leaving no room for ambiguity and misinterpretation
• Measurable: Goals should be easily trackable with measurement metrics
• Attainable: Achieving goals should be possible
• Relevant: While goals should be relevant to the company’s vision, it should also help the career development of employees
• Timely: They should have a definitive time frame

Here are some examples of SMART team goals: 

• Increase leads by 20% before the start of the next financial quarter
• Reduce employee turnover rate to 5% within six months
• Reduce average cost by 8% before the end of the current month 

2. Involve your team in the goal setting process

Why should you involve your team in the goal setting process?

Goal setting gives employees an insight into the overall strategy and their role in it. They can also give their inputs, ask questions, and express concerns regarding problems they could face. Involving your team in the goal setting process is a surefire way to boost employee engagement. 

How?

It gives employees an insight into the goal strategy and their role in it. They can also give their inputs, ask questions, and express concerns regarding any problems they could face. 

Additionally, employees can structure and prioritize goals around their attributes too — making sure that they’re able to tackle them efficiently. 

And the benefit?

Making goal setting a collaborative effort will motivate employees to work harder to achieve  their goals. It also eliminates any lack of clarity regarding the goals.

3. Use tools to implement and track your goals

Keeping track of your goals and objectives with a pen and paper is a recipe for disaster. It’s risky, inefficient and incredibly difficult to manage.

ClickUp is the highest-rated project management tool in the world. 

Widely used by 200,000+ teams in companies ranging from startups to giants, it’s the only tool you need to manage your goals and collaborate with your team. 

Whether it’s assigning tasks or tracking the progress towards your goals — ClickUp’s got everything covered!

Here’s how ClickUp helps you track your team goals: 

1. Create Goals and add multiple Targets

ClickUp’s Goals are high-level containers that can be broken down into smaller, measurable Targets. 

In ClickUp, Targets = your objectives

For example, if the Goal for team leaders is to increase employee engagement, then their Targets could be “conduct 10 team building activities” and “get employee feedback over their assignments.”

But how do you achieve these Goals and Targets?

To complete a Goal, you just need to complete its Targets!

Teams can easily update each Target according to their progress. ClickUp then auto-calculates your Goal’s progress percentage based on these Targets.

What’s more?

ClickUp lets you use a variety of units to measure a Target! 

You can choose from:

• Number: A range of numbers from 0 to infinity
• True/False: Only two possible outcomes — done or not done
• Currency: An amount of money (best suited for budgeted team goals)
• Tasks: A task or set of tasks that should be completed to achieve the Target

Sort Goals into neat folders to make things organized and easily accessible. For example, you can create a folder solely for your Scrum project’s Goals!

2. Powerful Dashboards for visual overviews

With numerous goals to tackle, how do you keep track of them easily?

By using ClickUp’s Dashboards!

Dashboards are like the mission control centers for your entire team. 

Dashboards give you quick visual overviews of any project, like your Agile software development project, with various graphs like:

• Velocity charts: Highlights the completion rate of your tasks
• Burndown charts: Shows the amount of work remaining in a project 
• Burnup charts: Displays the amount of work already completed in a project 
• Cumulative flow charts: View how the project is progressing over time  

For example, a glance at your Cumulative chart is all you need to instantly know how your project’s doing!

But these aren’t all of ClickUp’s features!

At ClickUp, we relate to Gina here:

Which is exactly why this powerful tool also gives you other features, like:

• Team Reporting: Gain insight into your team’s performance with detailed reports 
• Project Management Automation: Automate project processes to save time
• Multiple Assignees: Assign multiple members to any task quickly
• Assigned Comments: Create tasks out of comments to ensure that they don’t go unnoticed
• Pulse: Know which tasks you’re team is focused on at the moment

Conclusion

Establishing realistic goals and objectives will help you keep track of your company’s performance and efficiency

And when you align them to employee objectives, it boosts their motivation and productivity –– helping you grow a successful business.

Defining good goals isn’t enough… You need to track them too!

Since goal setting tools like ClickUp help you set and track your goals easily, why not sign up for ClickUp today? 

Related readings:

• Short term vs long term goals
• Setting realistic project goals
• HR SMART Goals
• Goal-setting templates

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