Create sessions

Learn how to use sessions to represent a time period in which a group of objectives should be achieved

Neli Ivanova avatar
Written by Neli Ivanova
Updated over a week ago

Overview

According to the OKRs methodology, goals should be time-bound. Sessions represent the time period in which a given group of objectives is meant to be achieved.

EXAMPLE: If you are planning OKRs in quarters, then, you can create a session called Q3 2023 that starts on July 1st 2023 and ends on September 30th 2023.

The process of creating new sessions repeats itself once every month, quarter, or year. That depends on the company’s specific OKR cycle practices.


Procedure

Perform the following:

  1. In the navigation pane, under OKRs, click All sessions.

  2. In the toolbar, click Create a session.

  3. In Title, enter a name for the session.

  4. In Timeframe, set the beginning and the end of the session.

  5. Select a Parent session, you can select another session that this session is part of.
    For example, a quarterly session can be a child of an annual session.

  6. In Cadence, define the cadence of the session. Cadence is the frequency of

    issuing key result updates. For more information, see Define the session cadence.

  7. For visual purposes, set a color for the session.

  8. In Workflow, select whether you want to use approval workflow for the OKRs of this session. Select between none, one level of approval, or two levels of approval.

  9. Once approval workflow is selected, you can disallow owners to approve their own OKRs by unchecking the option. That would mean:

    • if OKRs are owned by employees - excludes the owner from the list of approvers

    • if OKRs are owned by teams - excludes the team members from the list of approvers

  10. In Permissions, select whether the session is Visible to everyone or has Custom permissions.
    If you select Custom, click + Select from the list and select the Employees, Teams, Roles, or other Accounts that will have permissions to view this session.

  11. When finished, click on the Create session.
    The session appears in All sessions page.


Session statuses

A session can be in one of the three states:

  • Open
    When a session is open, users can add, edit, and delete objectives and key results. This state is used when people are still defining, negotiating, and planning OKRs for the upcoming period.

  • In Progress
    When a session is in progress, users can only update their progress on the key results. They are not allowed to add new objectives, remove existing ones, or modify targets. This state is used once the OKRs are finalized.

  • Archived
    When a given session is archived, you cannot perform any actions with the session or with its objectives. The session is kept for reference.

NOTE: Any session that you create in your Quantive Results account is listed under the OKRs sessions one month before its start date and one month after its end date. Thus, allowing for proper planning of the activities, related to launching and wrapping up an OKR cycle.


Order of sessions

In the All sessions page, the sessions are arranged according to their end date.

The session with the latest end date will appear at the top of the column. For example:


Next steps

After you have created a session, you can start creating objectives and key results that represent your company's goals for the chosen time period.

For more information, see:

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