Goals & Anti-Goals
Identify and prioritize key product, business, project, and/or consulting engagement goals and anti-goals (non-goals)
When to use
- We do this as early as possible during a project, usually defining them during Kickoff and revisiting them at Inception.
Why use it
- Goals help the team decide where to focus their time and efforts. By developing them hand-in-hand with stakeholders, we can align ourselves around shared goals and avoid any unnecessary or unwanted surprises down the road.
What you need
- Whiteboard or digital version like Miro
- Dry erase markers
- Sticky notes
- Sharpies
- Painter's tape (optional)
How to Use this Method
Sample Agenda & Prompts
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Draw 4 columns on the whiteboard, one for each type of goal. Put anti-goal column off to the side to introduce it later.
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Write out goal types on board along with prompts:
- Product goals - “What impact do we want to have on our product space?”
- Business goals - “What does success look like from a business perspective? Are there any important dates that we need to consider?”
- Project / Consulting engagement goals - “As a team, what do we want to accomplish during our time together?”
- Anti-goals - “What do we want to accomplish someday that would distract the team today?”
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Give 7 minutes of brainstorming time. Ask everyone to write as many ideas as possible, 1 per sticky note.
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In 2 minutes, have each person pick their top 8 goals for each category and rip up everything else. Remember to mention that this is okay!
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Go around the room and have everyone share out the 8 goals they selected. Have a co-facilitator put the sticky notes on the board in the right columns.
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As each person shares out, ask other people if they have a duplicate. Group these similar goals together.
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When everyone has shared, hand out 6 dots per person and have everyone dot vote on their top 2 product, business, and project/consulting engagement goals (there’s no need to vote on the anti-goals). Circle the top 2 goals that emerge.
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Confirm with key stakeholder(s) if there’s anything else really important that we’ve missed. If so, circle those as well or write them down.
Success/Expected Outcomes
Success is when the core team and stakeholders have a clear and shared understanding of the top product, business, project/consulting engagement, and anti-goals.
Facilitator Notes & Tips
If you have a lot of people in your Kickoff (e.g. 15+), consider asking everyone to organize themselves into groups of 3-4 people. This will simplify the process of sharing out and affinity mapping the generated goals.
Real World Examples
