STEP 1: MAKE A GOALRemember to make it H.A.M. - High-level, actionable, and measurable.

This worksheet will walk you through the process of using Agile Product Development methodologies for goal achievement. Remember, above all else, make this process your own! I'VE OUTLINED THE STEPS FOR YOU BELOW:

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STEP 2: BREAKDOWN YOUR GOALCreate a backlog of actions needed to achieve your high-level goal. They should be small, specific, and end-

to-end.

STEP 3: EFFORT APPROXIMATION Determine your value system and assign it to each action item. Your effort approximation can be time based

or action based.

AGILE PRINCIPLES FOR GOAL ACHIEVEMENT

STEP 4: PLANNINGDefine a time-boxed period in which you are going to do the work; determine your velocity; choose goals to

work on that match your velocity.

Review what you accomplished versus what you said you were going to do. Ask yourself what went well,

what could have been better, and what you can improve next time.

STEP 5: WORK

STEP 6: REVIEW

STEP 7: ITERATE

Do the work to complete the actions you have committed to doing. Do a daily check-in to make sure you are

on track.

Go back to your backlog with your new information and refined as needed.

Goal Setting and Breakdown

1. Make a goalRemember to make it H.A.M. - high-level, actionable, and measurable. We'll get more specific in the

next step!

AGILE PRINCIPLES FOR GOAL ACHIEVEMENT

Pro Tip: Use a tool to help you organize your broken down goals. For business, Pivotal Tracker, Jira, and Asana are popular tools. For personal use, I like Trello.

2. Breakdown your goal

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Create small, specific, and end-to-end actions that will help you reach your high-level goal. It might be helpful to sketch out a timeline or group actions by theme.

AGILE PRINCIPLES FOR GOAL ACHIEVEMENT

4. Planning

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Estimation and Planning

3. Approximate the effort needed to complete your action itemsGo back to the small, specific, end-to-end action items that you created in step 2 and add effort

approximations next to each one. This could be time based, such as days, hours, or minutes needed to

complete the task. This could also be action based, such as the frequency you want to do an action or

the quality level you want to achieve.

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Define a time-boxed period in which you are going to do the work; determine your velocity; choose

goals to work on that match your velocity.

You're doing great!

How long are you going to work on these actions?

What is your velocity? This can be number of hours you think you can dedicate to working on this

or the number of actions you think you can complete.

Based on your velocity, what actions are you going to work on for your defined work period? It's ok

to choose just 1 or 2 actions, pick what is appropriate for your velocity.

AGILE PRINCIPLES FOR GOAL ACHIEVEMENT

6. Review

Work and Review

5. WorkWork for the period of time that you specified in the previous step. Each day ask yourself:What did I do yesterday?What am I doing today?Are there any blockers?

Use the below space to write down any blockers and your plan for getting past them.

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After your specified work period has ended, sit down and review on how it went.

What did you commit to doing? What did you actually do?

AGILE PRINCIPLES FOR GOAL ACHIEVEMENT

7. Iterate

Review and Iterate

Continue your review of how the process went and reflect on what you can do better next time.

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Go back to your backlog with your new information and refine as needed. Add, change, or remove

actions based on what you learned from the previous work period. Then go back to step 3 and start the

process for your next work period.

What went well?

What could have gone better?

What can you change going forward?

WAY TO GO! 

Use these steps as a foundation for your goal achievement framework. Remember to make it work for you, take risks, and be iterative! I would love to hear from you about how

this process is working for you, adjustments you have made, or questions that you have.

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