A Goal Contribution board shows how each project or initiative supports the goals that matter most.

It’s a simple way to connect strategy to execution – and to challenge whether the work being done actually drives the outcomes your team wants to achieve.

Boards are for conversations, not just observation. Portfoleon boards work best when they’re shared – with your team, your peers, your leadership. Use boards in meetings, invite others in.
Strategy isn’t something you “monitor” alone, it’s something you do together.

The Goal Contribution board is a powerful follow-up to the prioritization spreadsheet. Where that board helps answer what’s most important, this one helps ask: Why are we doing this at all?

Here are two essential – and impactful – questions to explore:

• 🚩 What are we doing to achieve Goal X?
  Are there enough initiatives focused on this goal? Are we overloading others? Is this the right shape of effort?

• 🚩 Why are we doing Initiative Y?
  Which goal does it support? Does it really help us achieve that goal faster or better? Or is it just “good work” that isn’t strategically essential?

These questions seem simple. But asking them well – and acting on the answers – often requires courage.

• Are we challenging assumptions?
• Are we being honest about trade-offs?
• Are we doing the least necessary work to achieve our goals – or overengineering?

🚩 Example Difficult Conversation: A Project with Many Side Benefits

Imagine you’re a C-level leader preparing for a conversation with Alice, your engineering manager.

Alice wants to invest heavily in a large infrastructure upgrade. She says it will improve multiple systems and help the organization long-term. You don’t doubt her technical case – but you’re not convinced it’s the right time.

To prepare, you set up a Goal Contribution board:

• Swimlanes show your strategic goals
• Cards show ongoing projects
• Timelines and workload show when and by whom

During the meeting, you use the board to steer the conversation away from systems – and back to outcomes.

“Alice, this project sounds valuable. But which goal does it help us achieve – and how directly? Can we succeed without it, or by doing less? Is now the moment to invest, or is it a good idea at the wrong time?”

It’s not an easy conversation. But with the board, it’s a focused one.

🛠 How to Build This Board

To create a Goal Contribution timeline:

• Define your goals and strategy
  Set up your strategic plan and make sure your goals are structured.

• Link projects to goals
  Use the Hierarchy tab to define which initiatives contribute to which goals.

• Create a board – any board type works, but for this example we’ll use a Timeline board.

• Set up filters and lanes

  • Filter to show initiatives linked to strategic goals:
  • Set up swimlanes by parent goal:

That’s it – your board is ready for strategic conversation.