Net net, a SMART set of milestones will give your organization a clear path to success

From one perspective, building a business can be viewed as achieving a set of goals, or milestones, over a period of time. In fact, it is often the successful execution and completion of these milestones that can result in a business' success and can ensure its continued survival and funding (see article Money, Lots and Lots of Money.) NetMinds has worked with a number of companies to help them create and manage towards a set of concrete milestones to ensure their success. Our Partners' combined 50+ years of product development & marketing experience gives us a unique perspective on how to set and manage these milestones. This article will explore the 5 attributes that many successful milestones share and provide some simplistic examples of each. While reviewing these you may feel that they are quite basic and mundane rules to incorporate. But rest assured building and managing to milestones built with these five attributes is the most likely path to success.

S Stands for Specific: The first attribute a goal should have is specificity. If a goal isn't specific then it's unlikely to be sufficiently focused to enable completion. The fact is the vast majority of goals tend to be broad over-arching objectives. Therefore, when crafting your goal ask yourself, "Is this goal specific enough that those working to achieve it, will be able to focus on what needs to be done to complete it?" An example of a specific goal: perform a competitive analysis of the top 5 competitors in our field.

A Stands for Achievable: The next attribute a good goal should have is to be achievable. Setting a goal at an unrealistic level has the effect of driving down morale and creating a "defeated before we've begun" attitude. The same, but opposite is true for too simple goals. However, setting achievable goals should NOT be interpreted to mean "reach" or "stretch" goals are out of the question. The difference is a matter of scale, which can often only be determined on a case-by-case basis. An example of an achievable goal: contact our top 10 customers and determine what attributes of our products they like the most. An unachievable goal: contact every customer who has ever bought our products and doesn't now and find out why they stopped buying.

R Stands for Relevant: Another attribute many good milestones share is relevance. This is key to ensuring that the goals set for the organization map to the overall objectives of the organization. If those setting their goals had ensured they were relevant to the organization than all that effort and energy could have been put to productive use. Frankly, this happens more than one would like in large or rapidly growing organizations. Don't let this happen to you. An example of a relevant milestone (case specific): launch v2 of our product by January 31st. An irrelevant milestone (case specific): update marketing materials for v1 of our product, when we're rolling v3 out in the market.

T Stands for Timely: The last, but by no means least, important a milestone should have is timeliness. Setting a timeframe for goals to be accomplished in a very fundamental aspect of a successful goal. If there is no time-sensitivity to the milestone than the likelihood it will be accomplished on time is exactly zero. Therefore, if you want something done in a period of time, then make sure you tell people at the outset. An example of a timely milestone: respond to customer inquiries within 24 hours of receipt. An untimely milestone: respond to customer's calls.