Rocks are the three to seven most important things a team must accomplish in the next 90 days. The idea is straightforward: 90 days is about as long as a team can stay genuinely focused on a fixed set of priorities. In Ninety, the Rocks tool is where your teams document those priorities, monitor progress, and keep the whole organization aligned, quarter after quarter.

The Rocks tool is Ninety's workspace for setting and tracking 90-day priorities. It organizes every Rock by team, owner, and status, and updates in real time as your team marks milestones complete, changes statuses, and adds notes throughout the quarter.

The Rocks tool is part of every team's default Weekly Team Meeting (WTM) agenda. During the Rocks segment, team members report whether each Rock is on track or off track. Any Rock that's off track can be raised for Raise, Discuss, Resolve (RDR) to surface the problem with the team that week.

A Rock is a 90-day (quarterly) priority with a single accountable owner. The owner doesn't have to do all the work themselves, but they're responsible for ensuring the Rock is completed by the end of the quarter.

Rocks are distinct from daily tasks and ongoing responsibilities. They're significant objectives outside the scope of regular work, such as launching a product, overhauling a process, or completing a key phase of a larger initiative.

Each Rock lives within a team. When you create a Rock, you assign it to a specific team and a specific owner. From there, you can break it into milestones: smaller steps that help the owner make steady progress and let the team track completion week by week.

Every Rock starts as an individual Rock, assigned to one accountable owner. From there, teams can elevate a Rock to the departmental or company level to signal that it carries extra weight for the team or the whole organization.

For a full explanation of each type and how to designate one, see Types of Rocks.

At the top of the Rocks page, there's a collapsible dropdown labeled Vision tool | Revenue, Profit, Measurables. It shows a read-only summary of your team's quarterly targets:

This panel is view-only from the Rocks page. To update any of these values, go to the Vision tool and edit them directly in the Goals section.

When you create or edit a Rock, Ninety determines its quarter in one of two ways:

Rocks with due dates past these midpoints are assigned to the following quarter. If your company uses a fiscal year that doesn't start in January, update your Fiscal Year Start Month in Company Settings to keep quarter labels accurate across all tools.

Rocks don't operate in isolation. They're the link between your organization's longer-term goals and your weekly execution rhythm. Here's how the Rocks tool connects to the rest of Ninety.

Your My 90 workspace includes a Rock widget you can toggle on or off: Rocks & Milestones, which lists your Rocks with their status and due date, and Rock Statuses. Click one of your Rocks to view its details card, or click the right-facing chevron to view the Rock's milestones.

Rocks should be measurable (the M in SMART). Building your Rocks around existing Scorecard Measurables, or creating new Measurables after choosing your Rocks, helps your team define what "done" looks like.

When a Rock falls off track, any team member can right-click it and select Create Linked Issue to push it into Issues for RDR. Issues can be problems, obstacles, ideas, or opportunities, so it's also worth flagging a Rock that's overperforming if it's creating unexpected capacity or uncovering a larger opportunity.

Reviewing Rocks is part of the default Weekly Team Meeting agenda in Ninety's Meetings tool. The Rocks segment is where each owner reports on track or off track, and the team decides whether any off-track Rocks need to be addressed that week.

The Org Chart shows each person's Seat, along with the Measurables and accountabilities attached to that Seat. When creating Rocks, reviewing the owner's Seat helps make sure each Rock aligns with their actual role and responsibilities.

During the quarterly 1-on-1 meeting in Ninety, leaders and team members reflect on the previous quarter, including how well the team member delivered on their Rocks. This reflection connects individual accountability to the quarterly cadence.

The table below summarizes what each role can do in the Rocks tool. For a full breakdown of permissions across all tools, see User Roles and Permissions.

The articles below cover every feature of the Rocks tool. Start with the foundational articles if you're new to Ninety, or jump to the one that covers what you need.

The Rocks page is your team's central view of its 90-day priorities. This article covers the page layout, filter controls, view tabs (List, Planning Board, and Archive), and how to find exactly what you need. Read Navigating the Rocks Page for details.

There are three ways to create a Rock in Ninety: the global Create button, the + Add Rock shortcut directly on the Rocks page, and the Create button inside a meeting. This article covers all three methods along with troubleshooting for common creation errors. Read Creating and Setting Up Rocks for more information.

Not all Rocks carry the same weight. This article explains the difference between individual, departmental, and company Rocks, and how to designate a Rock at the right level for your team. Read Types of Rocks for more information.

Milestones are the sub steps that help a Rock owner make steady progress throughout the quarter. This article covers how to add, edit, complete, and remove milestones on any Rock. Read Adding Milestones to Your Rocks for more information.

Rocks can be reassigned to a different owner at any time from the Rock's details panel. This article explains how to change the owner of a Rock and what happens to the Rock's visibility when you do. Read Assigning Rock Ownership for more information.

A Rock can appear on multiple teams' Rocks pages simultaneously. This article explains how sharing works, which roles can share Rocks, and how shared Rocks behave across teams. Read Sharing Rocks Across Multiple Teams for more information.

Maz, Ninety's AI assistant, can help you draft a SMART Rock based on a description of what you're trying to accomplish. This article explains how to launch Maz from the Rocks tool and what to expect from the drafting workflow. Read Creating SMART Rocks with AI Assistance from Maz for more information.

The Planning Board is a multi-quarter view that lets you organize Rocks across the current quarter and up to three quarters ahead. It's the right place for Rocks planning during Quarterly Planning Meetings. Read Using the Planning Board to Plan Rocks Across Quarters for more information.

You can receive daily email summaries of upcoming and past-due Rocks, as well as event notifications when you're assigned a Rock or someone comments on a Rock you own. This article covers how to configure both types of notifications. Read Receiving Notifications for Rock Updates for more information.

At the end of each quarter, Rocks can be archived automatically during a quarterly meeting or manually at any time. This article covers the difference between archiving and deleting, how to restore archived Rocks, and how to bulk-archive all completed Rocks at once. Read Archiving and Deleting Rocks for more information.

You can export your team's Rocks and milestones directly from the Rocks page to an XLSX spreadsheet. This article explains how to run the export and what's included in each tab of the file. Read Exporting Rocks to a Spreadsheet for more information.

You can print or export the Rocks page to a PDF file from the filters bar. This article explains how to generate the PDF and how your current filter settings affect which Rocks are included. Read Printing and Exporting Rocks to PDF for more information.

How many Rocks should I have per quarter?

Each person should own three to seven Rocks per quarter. Fewer than three may indicate that the quarter's priorities aren't fully captured; more than seven spreads focus too thin to make meaningful progress on any single Rock. Leadership teams typically aim for three to five Company Rocks, with departments and individuals setting their own Rocks in support of those company-level priorities.

What's the difference between a Departmental Rock and a Company Rock?

Both Departmental Rocks and Company Rocks appear at the top of the Rocks page, above individual cards, but they operate at different levels. A Departmental Rock is an individual Rock that a team has elevated to signal it's a priority for the whole team, not just the person who owns it. A Company Rock is set by the Leadership Team and represents an organization-wide priority for the quarter. Only Rocks on the Leadership Team's Rocks page can be designated as Company Rocks.

Can a Rock span multiple teams?

Yes. When creating or editing a Rock, you can assign it to more than one team using the Other Teams field. The Rock will appear on the Rocks page for every team it's assigned to, and all assigned team members can see its status and progress. See Sharing Rocks Across Multiple Teams for details.

Can Observers create or own Rocks?

No. Observers have read-only access to the Rocks tool. They can view their team's Rocks but cannot create new Rocks, be assigned as owners, or make changes to existing Rocks. The Owner, Admin, Manager, and Team Member roles can all create and own Rocks.

How do I reassign a Rock to someone else?

Open the Rock by clicking its title to open the details panel. At the top of the panel, click the owner's profile icon and select the new owner from the list. The Rock will move to the new owner's card on the Rocks page immediately. See Assigning Rock Ownership for more information.

My Rocks seem to have disappeared. What should I check?

Work through this checklist in order. First, confirm you have the correct team selected in the Team dropdown: Rocks are always scoped to one team at a time. Second, check which tab is active. If the Archive tab is selected, you're viewing archived Rocks, not active ones. Third, confirm the Status filter is set to All. Fourth, confirm you're assigned to the team in question: Managers and Team Members can only see teams they're members of. If you've worked through all of these steps and the Rocks are still missing, contact support.

My Rock is showing the wrong quarter. How do I fix it?

Open the Rock's details panel and locate the Quarter field. Update it to the correct quarter. If wrong-quarter assignments are a recurring issue, confirm that your Rock's due date falls within the expected quarter cutoffs listed above, and check that your company's Fiscal Year Start Month is set correctly in Company Settings.

What does it mean when a Rock's status is Off Track?

A Rock marked Off Track is still in progress, but something has made it unlikely to finish by the due date. This might be because milestones are running late, the scope has grown, or a blocker has come up. An Off Track Rock should be raised for RDR during the next Weekly Team Meeting so the team can identify and resolve whatever is blocking progress.

What happens to Rocks at the end of a quarter?

At the end of a quarterly meeting in Ninety, you'll be prompted to archive completed Rocks and carry forward any that aren't done. Archived Rocks move to the Archive tab, where they're preserved for historical reference. Rocks you carry forward appear in the next quarter's active list. You can also archive Rocks manually at any time, or bulk-archive all completed Rocks at once using the Archive Completed option in the ellipsis menu. See Archiving and Deleting Rocks for details.

How do I use Maz to create a Rock?

Maz, Ninety's AI assistant, can help you draft a SMART Rock when you're not sure how to frame your goal. To use Maz for Rock creation, navigate to the Rocks tool (not My 90), click + Add Rock under your name on the team card, then click Help me draft a SMART Rock. Maz will ask a few questions and return a suggested Rock title and description that you can edit before saving. See Creating SMART Rocks with AI Assistance from Maz for the full workflow.

How to Track Business Goals and Crush Objectives: How Ninety uses Rocks to set and track 90-day goals at every level of the organization, and how the Scorecard ties those goals to measurable outcomes.

Best Practices in Setting Rocks to Hit Your Quarterly Goals: A walkthrough of the SMART goal process in Ninety, including how to write Rocks that are specific enough to execute and how to use milestones to keep progress visible.

Quick Tips for Setting Quarterly Rocks: Three questions to ask yourself before finalizing a Rock, plus how milestones break quarterly goals into manageable weekly steps.

Rocks, Pebbles, Sand: A Guide to Prioritizing Goals: The prioritization framework behind the Rocks concept, and why focusing on your biggest objectives first leads to better outcomes quarter after quarter.