Introduction to Rocks
How Rocks keep your teams progressing forward to greater company goals.
Written by Amanda Barfield
Updated at August 28th, 2024
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New Company
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Integrations and Beta
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Basics
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Data
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Rocks
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To-Dos
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Issues
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Meetings
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Headlines
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Vision
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Org Chart
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1-on-1
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Process
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Directory
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Mastery
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Assessments
Table of Contents
What Are Rocks?
Within Ninety, the Rocks tool helps you create projects to be completed within 90 days. These projects should propel the team forward and further align them with the company's overall goals and vision.
For example, if one of your company's goals is to increase customer self-sufficiency, and you are on the Education Team, you could create a Rock to enhance the Help Center where customers can find their answers without reaching out to support. If your company has a goal to increase brand awareness, you could create a Rock around posting on socials, writing blogs, or creating webinars.
Once you open the Rocks page, here is a drop-down reminding you of the goals and vision of your team to assist in Rock creation. Information provided is,
- Future Date - qtr end, due date of rocks
- Revenue
- Profit
- KPIs
Learn how to get started with the Rocks tool from the video below.
How Do Rocks Support the Company?
Rocks support your organization by empowering teams to turn their goals into trackable milestones, ensuring everything is on track and making it easy to discuss any potential issues.
Break it down
- Creative Achievable Substeps - Break down quarterly Rocks into smaller Milestones. Delegate tasks, set deadlines, and track progress toward the goal.
- Get Specific - See your Rock completion rate at a glance. Add notes, links, and attach files to the Rock and each of its Milestones.
- Easy Progress Updates - Your Rocks are visible in your team meetings, so you can easily create an Issue to discuss with the team or assign To-Dos.
From our guide, Ninety Rocks.
How Do Rocks Support the Other Tools?
Rocks should be used to help understand how each team's efforts progress the organization toward its long-term Vision.
Click through the tabs below to see how Rocks supports some of Ninety's other core tools.
My 90
Your My 90 workspace has two cards for visualizing Rock status', which you can turn on or off using the Edit Layout button.
- Rocks and Milestones - shows a list of your Rocks, their status, and the due date
- Rock Statuses - displays your Rocks status' as pie charts to better visualize which ones are Done, On Track, or Off track.
Data
Rocks need to be measurable to determine their success. Creating Rocks around your KPIs helps you determine whether they're on or off track.
📖 Read more about making Setting up your Scorecard.
Issues
When Rocks are added to your team, they display in your weekly meeting, and can quickly be turned into Issues to discuss by right-clicking the Rock and then clicking Make it an Issue from the dropdown.
Issues can be problems, obstacles, ideas, or opportunities, so it is often worth making Issues that are over performing their current targets.
Meetings
Efficient and effective meetings help teams align, solve issues, and prepare teams for the week ahead. Reviewing Rocks is part of our default agendas in the Meetings tool.
Org Chart
When creating Rocks, you can look at the KPIs and job tasks listed on your Seat in your Org Chart. This information helps the person(s) in the Seat and their leaders understand what success looks like.
1-on-1
During quarterly 1-on-1 meetings, leaders and team members reflect on the previous quarter — including how well the team member delivered on their Rocks.
Helpful Resources
To learn more about our teachings around Data and Scorecards, check out the following:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many Milestones should I have?
Since a Rock is meant to be completed within a 90 day period, it is helpful to chunk them into at least 3 milestones. These milestones ensure you keep on track throughout the 90 day period.
How do I reassign a Rock?
Go to Rocks from the left nav, select the Rock from the list. Once you've selected the rock, it opens the Rock details pane. In the top left you see a face, click that face and pick the new person who should own the Rock.
How do Rocks and Agile methodology work together?
Rocks can fit right into your agile methodology. Rocks are quarterly goals. You can consider your Rocks and other goals as epics consisting of various tasks, stories, and issues to complete.
If you're documenting your Rocks and other projects on another platform, you can provide links from those tickets to your Rocks in Ninety. Keeping your records linked and accessible in Ninety as your system of record makes it easy to check in on your team's progress during meetings.