quarterly-plan

Quarterly Plan

Set the 3-5 priorities that will define the quarter. Anything more is a wish list. Anything less probably misses something.

Gather Context First

1. Read context/roadmap.md (or equivalent) for longer-term direction
2. Read the prior outputs/cadence/quarterly-review-*.md if one exists
3. Scan the last 10-13 outputs/cadence/weekly-review-*.md for patterns and unfinished work
4. Check context/project-vision.md (or equivalent) for the north star
5. Identify any external constraints (funding runway, team changes, market timing)

The Planning Sequence

Step 1 — Connect to the longer arc

Before naming priorities, articulate:

• Where we are — current state in one paragraph
• Where we're going — desired state by year-end
• What's missing — the gap between the two

Quarterly priorities exist to close the gap. If a candidate priority doesn't help close it, it's not a quarterly priority.

Step 2 — Generate candidates

List every plausible priority — 10-20 candidates. Don't filter yet.

Sources:

• Carry-forward from last quarter
• Patterns from the weekly reviews
• Strategic moves the roadmap implies
• Customer signals (transcripts, support, churn data)
• Team capacity and skill changes
• Market or competitor moves

Step 3 — Apply the priority filter

Score each candidate against four lenses:

Lens	Question	Weight
Strategic value	Does this move us materially toward year-end?	3x
Feasibility	Can we actually deliver this in 13 weeks with current capacity?	2x
Reversibility	If wrong, can we course-correct?	1x
Cost of inaction	What breaks if we don't do this?	2x

Cut the candidate list to top 8-10 by score. Then pick 3-5 from there.

Step 4 — Write priorities as outcomes

A priority is an outcome with a measurable definition of done.

Weak (vision)	Strong (outcome)
"Improve activation"	"Lift week-1 activation from 31% to 45%"
"Better content"	"Publish 12 long-form pieces with 2k+ avg views"
"Hire faster"	"Close 3 senior roles by [end-of-quarter date]"