What Is Item Linking in Ninety and How to Link Items
Linking connects related items across Ninety's tools, so your team can document dependencies, track progress, and see how individual tasks and issues relate to larger goals. For example, you can link all the To-Dos, Issues, and Headlines that support a single Rock — keeping related work visible in one place.
Linked items appear in the Linked Items section of each item's details panel, so everyone on the team can follow the thread between a Rock and the work it generates.
There are two ways to link items in Ninety:
Create a linked item — spawn a new item directly from an existing one. The new item inherits the original's title and description as a starting point.
Link to an existing item — connect an item that already exists in Ninety to another active item.
How to create a linked item from an existing item
You can create a new linked Rock, To-Do, Issue, or Headline from any existing item in the Rocks, To-Dos, Issues, or Headlines tools (or from those tools' sections during an active meeting).
To create a linked item:
Right-click the item's row (or click the ellipsis at the end of its row).
Select Create Linked [item type] from the dropdown — for example, Create Linked To-Do or Create Linked Rock.
Edit the details in the popup as needed. The new item inherits the original's title and description by default. The default due date is seven days out for To-Dos, Issues, and Headlines; 90 days out for Rocks.
Click the Create Linked [item type] button.
The new item is created and immediately linked to the original. Both items will show the connection in their Linked Items section.
What can be linked to what?
Any item type can be used to create a linked item of any other type. The table below shows all supported combinations.
Source item | Can create a linked… |
Rock | To-Do, Rock, Issue, Headline |
To-Do | To-Do, Rock, Issue, Headline |
Issue | To-Do, Rock, Issue, Headline |
Headline | To-Do, Rock, Issue, Headline |
Note: You can create as many linked items from a single item as needed — there is no limit.
What cannot be linked: Scorecard Measurables are not a supported link type. You cannot link a Rock (or any other item) directly to a Measurable. If you want to track a Rock's progress toward a number, link it to a Goal (Target) from your team's Vision > Strategy page instead.
How to link to an existing item
If the item you want to connect already exists in Ninety, you can link it directly without creating a new one. This method supports a wider range of item types, including Milestones and Goals.
Supported item types for linking to existing items:
Rocks
Milestones
To-Dos
Issues
Headlines
Goals (from your team's Vision > Strategy page, including cascaded goals from the leadership team's Vision)
To link an existing item:
Open the item's details panel by clicking its row on its tool page.
Scroll down to the Linked Items section.
Click + Linked Item to open the Link to Existing Items window.
Use the left (<) and right (>) carets to navigate between item types.
Click the item(s) you want to link. You can select multiple items at once.
Click the Link Items to [item name] button to save the links.
Team scope: The Link to Existing Items window only shows items belonging to the same team as the item you're linking from. Items from other teams cannot be linked. The window loads five items at a time per category — scroll down within a category to load more.
For example, if your Marketing team has a Rock focusing on a product launch campaign, they can link any number of their team's Rocks, Milestones, To-Dos, Issues, Headlines, and Targets to the Rock. However, they cannot link items from other teams to their Rock.
How to unlink items
You can remove a link from any item's details panel at any time.
To unlink an item:
Navigate to the tool for the item you want to edit (for example, Rocks or To-Dos).
Click the item to open its details panel.
Scroll down to the Linked Items section.
Click Edit.
Click Unlink next to the item you want to remove.