Most founders are busy every week and still unsure whether the business is getting closer to where they want it. Mission Control fixes that. You choose one destination, a Moonshot, and work backwards to the handful of outcomes, called Missions, that get you there. You then run no more than three at a time, a quarter at a time. The work stays in your projects. Mission Control shows whether that work is moving the number.
Before you start
- Only your organisation's owner can set the Moonshot. Anyone else sees "Your organisation's owner sets the Moonshot."
- A Moonshot is private to its owner until they share it. See Share the Moonshot.
- Open Mission Control from the sidebar.
Set your Moonshot
A good Moonshot is one number and a date, two or three years out. It should be far enough away that the way you work today won't get you there.
- In Mission Control, select Plan your first Moonshot.
- What kind of destination? Choose Revenue, Customers, Deals won, Delivery, A rate or Something else. The kind sets how the number is written and which report numbers can measure it.
- Set the number and the date. Name it under The Moonshot, then fill in Where it is today, Target and By when. Only Something else asks for a Unit.
- Choose where it's measured. Pick From Reports to use a number 53° already counts, then choose the Report number and what it's Counted over (This month, This quarter, Rolling 12 months or All time). Or pick Logged readings to enter the value yourself.
- Select Set the Moonshot.
Mission Control then opens on your journey: the Earth on one side, the Moon on the other, and a flight path between them. Above it, the Moonshot's Target, Current (while one is known), Baseline, By date and Measured by source.
Lay out the roadmap
Stand at the Moon and ask what has to be true right before you land. Each answer is a Mission. Work backwards until you reach today.
- Select the + on an empty waypoint (its tooltip says Add Mission).
- Name the outcome. Give it a short Name and write the Outcome as something that can be true or false, not a list of tasks.
- Choose a Captain, the person who answers for it. You're chosen unless you pick someone else.
- Break it down. Add the projects that do the work, a number that shows it's working, or both. You can add more later.
- Select Add Mission.
New Missions join the end of the roadmap as planned. None goes live until you promote it. See Missions and the rule of three.
Share the Moonshot
- On the Moonshot header, open Settings (the gear icon).
- Under Who can see it, use Give someone access. They start with View.
- Change anyone to Admin if they should shape the roadmap and run cycles, or choose Remove.
Only people listed here see the Moonshot and its Missions, and only they can captain one.
Write down the strategy
Each Moonshot has one strategy doc: a place to set out the thinking behind it, beyond the number and the date.
- On the Moonshot header, the owner or an admin of the Moonshot selects Write the strategy. This starts the doc and opens it.
- Write it like any other doc. See Docs.
- After that, everyone the Moonshot is shared with sees Strategy on the header and can open it.
Only people who can see the Moonshot can see its strategy doc, and only the Moonshot's owner and admins can edit or delete it. Everyone else reads it. Each Moonshot has its own: when you set a new Moonshot, its strategy doc starts afresh, and the last one's stays with the people that Moonshot was shared with.
Good to know
- The owner and admins can change the Moonshot at any time with Edit Moonshot. If Missions are live, the last step asks whether to keep or abort each one, with a reason for any you abort.
- Picking a report number needs access to Reports. Without it, you'll only see Logged readings.
- For a hand-measured Moonshot, use Log reading on the header. You can log one reading a day, and logging again the same day replaces it.
- When the number reaches its target, the Moonshot lands by itself. Everyone who can see it gets a full-screen Moon landing, and you can look back with See the journey.
- Only the owner can abort a Moonshot, from Settings with Abort Moonshot. It needs a reason, and any live Missions are aborted with it. Then the owner can set the next one.
- Your dashboard shows a Mission Control card with the Moonshot and live Missions, and Open Mission Control takes you here.