S.M.A.R.T Goals

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

This acronym helps create goals that are more likely to be succesful. This was used in Noom when tracking personal health goals.

Example

An example of a goal that wouldn’t be SMART.

Make the service better.

• Not Specific
  • Which service? Better how?
• Not Measureable
  • User sentiment? Uptime?
• Attainable?
  • Maybe. But the goal is too vague to be certain.
• Not Relevant
  • Too vague to portray relevence. Maybe the service is perfectly fine.
• Not Time-bound
  • Make the service better by when? Friday? Next quarter? Next year?

A good version:

Reduce avg server load time by 50% by Q3

• Specific
  • This is targetting a specific metric (avg server load) by a specific amount (50%).
• Measurable
  • The load time is a measurable metric which you can refer to see if you’re succesful.
• Attainable
  • This will depend on the goal and the people doing the work.
• Relevant
  • This is specific enough that the team could decide if this is relevant. Maybe server load isn’t important, but now that’s an easier discussion.
• Time-bound
  • ”by Q3” gives us timeline for when this should happen.

Goals can be missed or improperly measured but by starting with with a solid SMART goal you can understand where things went awry and/or course correct earlier. Sometimes projects fail due to unforseen circumstances, but remember that’s called experience.

References

Related Concepts:

• Goal Setting
• Performance Management
• Team Management
• Personal Development

https://www.process.st/checklist/smart-goal-setting-checklist/