A Mission is one outcome on the way to your Moonshot, proved by the projects that do the work and the numbers that show it's working. Focus beats spread, so no more than three Missions can be live at once. When one finishes, the next on your roadmap takes its place.
Before you start
- The Moonshot's owner and admins reorder the roadmap, promote Missions and delete planned ones.
- A Mission's Captain, the owner or an admin can edit it, log its readings, check in, abort it or mark it achieved.
- To link a project, you also need to be able to edit that project. Personal projects can't be linked.
The rule of three
- Up to 3 Missions can be live at once. A fourth can't be promoted until a slot frees up.
- Missions go live in roadmap order. Only the next planned Mission can be promoted, and only once the Mission before it is live or achieved. Aborted Missions are skipped.
- A Mission needs a Captain before it can go live.
- If you run the Moonshot Solo (in Settings), 2 live Missions are recommended. You can still fill the third slot, labelled "The business running itself".
A free slot doesn't have to be filled. Leaving one open is often the better call, and there's a medal for it.
Reorder the roadmap
- On the flight path, drag a planned Mission onto another waypoint. The two swap places.
- Where Missions are grouped under a numbered marker, hover over it (or tap it) and drag them within the Up next list.
Live and finished Missions keep their places. Hover over any waypoint to see its outcome, state (Waiting, Eligible, Live, Achieved or Aborted) and Captain.
Promote the next Mission
- Under Live Missions, find the free slot that says "A slot is free."
- Select Promote next Mission.
It joins this quarter's cycle straight away.
Work on a live Mission
Select a Mission's card or waypoint to open it. From there you can:
- Edit its name and outcome, and change the Captain.
- Select Add a Project to link the work, or Unlink one. A project can belong to only one Mission.
- Select Add a number (or Edit numbers). Use a number From Reports, or Logged readings that someone records. For a logged number, select Log reading on the card or in the Mission. You can log one reading a day, and a second one that day replaces the first.
The Evidence ring counts the share of linked projects that are closed and each number's progress towards its target, all weighted equally. A logged number with no readings counts as no progress.
If a live Mission has no projects or numbers yet, Mission Control shows "Next, set up your live Mission". Select Set up followed by the Mission's name to add them.
Mark a Mission achieved
When every linked project is closed and every number has reached its target, select Mark achieved. Until then, the button tells you what's still out. You can't mark a Mission achieved until it has at least one project or number.
Take a Mission back, abort it or delete it
- Back to planned: for a Mission promoted too soon this quarter. It frees the slot, goes first in line for the next one and clears this quarter's check-ins. Owners and admins only.
- Abort Mission: ends a live Mission now. Say why, in up to 500 characters. Aborting in the first half of the quarter counts as a brave call. It frees the slot for the next Mission.
- Delete: removes a planned Mission from the roadmap for good. Its projects stay, unlinked.
A Mission carried over from an earlier quarter can't go back to planned. Abort it instead.
Good to know
- A number from Reports is organisation-wide, and everyone who can see the Mission sees it. Projects completed counts public projects only. Customers counts contacts whose lifecycle is Customer or VIP.
- In the projects list, filter by Mission to see the work behind each one.
- On a slot card, "Nothing's finished in two weeks" means it's time to split the work into something that can finish this week.