Goals and commitments
Goals are the outcomes your Execution Scope is accountable for. They anchor the Living Execution Plan even as tasks, priorities, and context change around them.
What it is
Goals sit at the top of your Execution Scope because they answer the questions that matter most: what are we trying to accomplish, what does done look like, and what stays true even if the path changes? Goals and Intent are one of the seven categories In Parallel tracks in Execution Memory — they're what the AI anchors drift detection and priority signals to. A scope without clear goals produces noisy, ungrounded signals. Unlike tasks — which get created, reassigned, and closed constantly — goals hold steady and provide a reference point that makes "what changed and why" meaningful over time.
In Parallel supports three goal types, each suited to a different kind of outcome:
Type | Best for | Key fields |
OKR | Ambitious objectives with measurable key results | Objective, Key Results (title, unit, start/target values), Owner, Target Date |
KPI | Ongoing metrics you track continuously | Metric name, Unit, Current Value, Target Value, Owner |
Milestone | Qualitative achievements or deliverables | Title, Owner, Target Date, Action Plan items |
How it works
Goals live in the Goals section of your Execution Scope. Each goal has a state (Draft, Green, Amber, Red, On Hold, Completed, Archived) that tracks its current health. OKRs track progress through Key Results; KPIs through a single current-to-target value; Milestones through an Action Plan of smaller tasks.
Goals feed directly into the Living Execution Plan. When meetings create new signals — new risks, decisions, or changes in direction — the post-meeting report connects those signals back to your goals, keeping the plan coherent over time.
For goals with active commitments, In Parallel also generates an AI health assessment — a Green, Amber, or Red signal with a written rationale — based on deadline proximity, current progress, and ownership assignment. This updates automatically after each planning cycle.
Your Execution Scope also has priorities, which rank what matters most right now in service of your goals. The relationship between the layers is:
Goals/commitments — the outcomes you're accountable for
Priorities — what moves those outcomes forward most right now (ranked, small set)
Tasks/milestones — the concrete work supporting those priorities
Your delivery tool (Jira, Asana, etc.) stays the system of record for task execution. In Parallel keeps the plan coherent and explains changes over time.
How many goals to set — and how to write them well
For most Execution Scopes, the right number of active goals is 1–3.
Fewer goals create a clearer plan. When you can't rank priorities, you usually have too many goals — or the scope is too broad. If a scope consistently has more than three active goals, it's often a sign that it covers multiple distinct cadences or outcome streams that would benefit from being split into separate scopes.
A goal that works is:
Outcome-oriented, not task-like. If it starts with "build / ship / launch," ask: what outcome does that create? How will you know it worked? Rewrite as that.
Attributable. One person owns it, even if many contribute.
Bounded. A clear timeframe or milestone marks when it closes.
Measurable when possible — but a well-scoped qualitative milestone is better than a vague metric.
Examples — well-written: - "Reduce onboarding time from 14 days to 7 days by end of Q2." - "Deliver Customer X implementation with agreed milestones by March 15." - "Stabilize platform reliability: error rate < 0.5% for 4 consecutive weeks."
Examples — too task-like (rewrite as outcomes): - "Ship onboarding checklist" → what does shipping it achieve? - "Run migration scripts" → what state does running them produce?
Keep goals stable and let priorities and tasks change around them. Review goals in your recurring meeting cadence — it keeps decisions defensible.
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