THE CHECK-IN

WORKPATH GUIDE
THE CHECK-IN

The goal of Check-ins

Check-ins are a meeting format for a short, regular exchange among team members. They are
usually structured and prepared based on a focused set of predefined questions (see next page).
These quick (weekly) conversations should be used to
● establish a continuous rhythm of giving feedback
● track progress in your team
● share insights and learnings
● drive engagement and accountability

The different parts of a Check-in can also be split up and integrated in the Scrum meeting
formats Review, Planning and Retrospective: The Check-in data is gathered as usual before the
meeting. Then, the different parts of the Check-in data are taken into the respective Scrum
meeting and can be discussed there.

What happens in a Check-in?

In each Check-in, the team discusses the latest achievements, learnings as well as
roadblocks and how they can be tackled. Tasks and priorities for the next week(s) are
being planned. Goal progress and confidence level are updated.

The Check-in factsheet

1. Participants
● all team members contributing towards the achievement of
the OKR (this often equals the formal team but can also be
the OKR team)
● an OKR Coach if support is needed

2. Duration
● approximately 15-30 min
● if included in Scrum meetings like Sprint Planning, these can be
made more effective and efficient due to thought-through
preparation and outcome focus

3. Material needed
● Answers from all participants on the Check-in questions

Check-ins can be supported by OKR Coaches or, if integrated into the Scrum setup, by a
Scrum Master. Their responsibilities can then be described as follows:
OKR Coach: ensure preparation of the Check-in by all participants, making sure the Check-in
is used correctly
Scrum Master: moderation of the Check-in meeting block within the larger Scrum meeting,
making sure the Check-in is used correctly

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Frequency
Check-ins usually take place weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the team and existing
meeting rhythms. The meeting duration will vary depending on team size and Check-in
experience. Successful teams integrate the Check-in into existing meetings and help
structuring them in a more effective and efficient manner.

If integrated in a Scrum setup, Check-in frequencies can be aligned with the rhythm of
the different Scrum meetings.

Insight: Successful teams save up to 50% time in meetings if they follow a structured and
well-prepared Check-in format.

Suggested meeting agenda

a) By walking through the talking points of all three questions of one participant after each other
b) By talking through everybodies input for one question after another
Using b), you can split up and integrate the Check-in into the different Scrum meeting formats.

Why do we do this?
Question What is it about?
What are the advantages?

Projects and tasks in which

time has been invested since Reflecting on tasks of the last week
REVIEW

What did you

the last Check-in Transparency about actions that are
work on? / What
Contribution of these tasks to taken to achieve strategic priorities
did you achieve?
the success and progress of Recognition of contributions
existing goals

Sharing the most important Alignment and transparency

priorities for the upcoming week
PLANNING

regarding upcoming tasks

What do you plan Reflecting on how planned tasks (from Possible dependencies
to work on next? roadmap, backlog, goal initiatives, etc.)
and thus valuable working time will Anticipated progress on
contribute to goals strategic priorities

Important learnings and

Are there learnings, challenges or feedback that have Stimulate informal feedback
RETRO

to be shared with the team in the teams and promote a

risks, or blockers
you want to share? Understanding if anything holds culture of continuous
the team back from making feedback
progress

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Aspired Outcome
Successful Check-ins link your tasks and initiatives to strategic goals supporting focus,
clarity and purpose for all employees. No matter if a software tool or a simple
spreadsheet is used.
This can help to increase employees’ motivation and commitment to their tasks. By
raising the awareness of the progress on (shared) goals, they can also increase goal
achievement.
Furthermore, they help to document updates and progress in one place to assess and
manage performance, engagement and focus.
Finally, they promote the clarification of expectations, eliminate planning inefficiencies
and create a continuous flow of constructive feedback.

Important note: Check-ins are not about adding another meeting, but about making existing
meetings more efficient, data-driven and result-oriented. Since projects and tasks are
discussed with regard to their contributions to current goals, Check-ins help focusing on
important priorities and value contributions.

Checklist

1. Check-in Preparation

✓ reflect on what you want to get out of the Check-in

✓ fill out your Check-in template concisely
✓ think of how you can leave space, ask for and incentivize
constructive suggestions for improvement or problem solving
✓ summarize the completed tasks since the last Check-in

The Check-in preparation should be a tracking option for you and your
own OKRs and thereby foster high data quality.

2. During the Check-in

✓ stick to a constant and coherent structure

✓ interact in a result-driven manner to drive the development
and achievement of your OKRs
✓ Time-box speaker times or times for different parts of the
Check-in

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THE CHECK-IN

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Check-ins and existing agile meeting formats

To best promote alignment and transparency, teams in most organizations check-in weekly. As many
teams — especially product and development — work with agile methods and meeting formats like
sprint reviews, it’s recommended to integrate Check-ins into those.

The bi-weekly sprint review is intended to talk about the results

(output) achieved in the sprint (of the last two weeks) and to gather
feedback. If the results are also presented in conjunction with their
impact on goals, the effectiveness (outcome) is also made visible.

By combining sprint review and Check-in, you will be able

to reflect on two different levels: the achievements of the sprint and
the ones of your goals.

You can find more information regarding the interplay of agile methods and meeting
rhythms in the article of our partner Sonja Mewes.

Why you should update goal progress and confidence level (status)
Make sure to discuss and document goal progress and confidence levels in the Check-in. OKR
Owners share the goal progress as well as the assessment of how confident they are that
particular Key Results still can be achieved until the end of the cycle.

This forward-looking assessment is an important communication tool for teams and — more
important — an early alert system and reporting channel across all units and functions.

Progress Confidence Level

How has the OKR, as

How confident are we to
measured by the metrics of
achieve this goal within the
the Key Results, developed
the current OKR Cycle?
in the last week?

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The Workpath platform assists your Check-ins by being a

one-stop for gathering data from all participants. This way,
you get a quick overview about what needs to be discussed
and what not.

Also, you can ensure that Check-ins are well-prepared, goal

progress is up-to-date and all participants can contribute.
Finally, you can go back to archived Check-ins to revisit
learnings and important decisions.

Many companies up to a size of 50 employees work well with analogue Check-in templates.
For bigger companies, it might make sense to think about tool support for the Check-in.

Check-in templates
Templates with the right questions can help you to structure your Check-ins.

In the following you can find questions which can be used to do your Check-in. There is certainly no
one best solution and no one-size-fits-all. As a team you should find out yourself, which kind of
agenda and formulation of questions fits you best and supports your Check-ins most effectively.
In general, it is important that you create an atmosphere, where also problems can be shared and a
result-oriented and trustful exchange can take place.

Ask yourself e.g.:

What did you work on this week?
What were the highlights/lowlights?
What are the team’s plans and resulting priorities for
each team member?
What did you learn this week?
Are there any blockers that the team can help you with?

THE CHECK-IN
CHECK-IN TEMPLATES AND EXAMPLES

CHECK-IN TEMPLATE #1

This Check-in template focuses on what has been done already and what is up next. It also tries to
capture learnings and helps to identify impediments for which support can be requested.

Weekly Check-in Template (Example)

REVIEW PLANNING
What did you work on this week? What are your plans & priorities
for the next week?
● … ● …
● … ● …

RETROSPECTIVE
What did you learn this week? Are there any roadblocks that need to be resolved?
● …
● ...

CHECK-IN TEMPLATE #2

This 2x2 matrix first looks at the status of your OKRs, assesses then what is not in the data by looking
at the confidence levels and finally helps you to find out what is slowing your team down and how you
can resolve this.

OKR Progress Confidence Levels

With the information we have today,

What changed in the Key Results
how confident are we that we
since the last Check-in?
will reach each Key Result?

Impediments Initiatives

How do we proceed with the

initiatives already started?
What is slowing down the team?
What are we going to do
to improve results?

THE CHECK-IN
CHECK-IN TEMPLATES AND EXAMPLES

CHECK-IN TEMPLATE #3

This template can be used as conversational tool by giving a structured overview about priorities,
confidence levels, next projects and a more qualitatively assessed overall “health” status of e.g. your
team or projects.

Intention for the week: Confidence level per KR:

● What are the 3-4 most important things
to be done towards the goal ● 5/10 means 50% confident to reach OKR
● Discuss if priorities will get us closer to ● Color it red if < 30% and green if >70%
the OKRS ● Has it changed? Discuss why

Priorities this week OKR Confidence

“This is Objective 1”
P1 We must get this done KR1: This is Key Result 1 5/10
KR2: This is Key Result 2 2/5
P1 We must get this done KR3: This is Key Result 3 7/10

P2 We should get this done “This is Objective 2”

KR1: This is Key Result 1 1/3
KR2: This is Key Result 2 7/10

Next 4 weeks projects Health

Decisions on LSP for Italy Team health

Team struggles with amount of change
Metrics for linehaul filling rate
Xxx health
...

Forecast for month: Health metrics:

● What should our team know is coming ● Two things we want to protect while
up that they can help with/prepare for we strive to make the OKRs
● Only the big tasks that are coming up ● Mark it green/yellow/red and discuss
the next 4 weeks

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