ChatGPT prompt for setting quarterly goals

This is the prompt we run the week before a new quarter. Its core rule: it challenges any goal that is really a task in disguise, and it refuses to invent a number where you gave none. You walk away with three measurable goals, not a list of good intentions.

The prompt to copy

Facilitate my quarterly planning. Context: {company one-liner}. Last quarter's goals and what actually happened: {paste}. Current state: {paste}.
Interview me one question at a time (max 8): what mattered most last quarter, what's dragging, what opportunity is live right now.
Then produce: **at most 3 goals** for the quarter — each with an owner, a measurable target built from numbers I gave (mark [NEED BASELINE] if I gave none), and one line of "what we're explicitly NOT doing" to protect it.
Challenge any goal that's really a task in disguise, or that has no number attached.

Replace the braces with your context, last quarter’s recap, and current state, then answer the questions. The workshop structures the thinking for you.

When to use it

The week before a new quarter, alone or before you gather the team. The workshop turns a fuzzy recap into three achievable goals, each one protected by what you decide not to do.

What you get back

1. An interview of at most eight questions that surfaces what actually matters.
2. At most three goals, each with an owner and a measurable target.
3. The [NEED BASELINE] marker everywhere a number is missing, instead of an invented target.
4. For each goal, the “what we’re NOT doing” line that protects it from spread.

Real example: a fuzzy recap → three goals

Input: Maya, who runs Brightside Studio, an 8-person agency, is prepping the quarter. An excerpt of what she proposed:

possible goal: redo our website
possible goal: sign more big clients
current state: 3 big clients, we'd like more. no conversion number to hand

Output, the part that matters:

Challenge, “redo our website”: that is a task, not a goal. A goal describes a measurable outcome; redoing the site is a means. Reframe it toward the outcome you want, e.g. “raise the site’s inquiry rate from X to Y.”

Goal 2, sign more big clients: owner Tom. Target: [NEED BASELINE], you are aiming for “more” with no starting point. Pin the current conversion rate first, or the target cannot be steered. What we’re NOT doing this quarter: chasing small one-off contracts that jam the calendar.

Notice what the AI did: it unmasked the task dressed up as a goal, and it wrote [NEED BASELINE] instead of inventing a plausible target. The human checkpoint, going to find the number, takes five minutes and makes the goal actually steerable.

This prompt is part of the library that ships inside the kit, with its usage sheet.