The Quarterly Rhythm

StartConsole is designed around a quarterly execution rhythm. This chapter walks through the actions to take at the start, middle, and end of a quarter to keep your portfolio data accurate and your governance process running smoothly.

Start of quarter — Planning

1. 1

   Run your Quarterly Planning session (QPlan)

   Before the quarter begins, run a planning session with initiative owners and squad leads. Use the Capacity view to confirm squad availability and the Portfolio view to review which initiatives are proposed vs. already active. Agree the initiative roster for the quarter.

2. 2

   Set OKR targets for the quarter

   Go to OKRs and update the target values on all key results for the new quarter. If you are creating new objectives for the quarter, add them now and attach key results with clear numeric or milestone targets.

3. 3

   Confirm the initiative roster

   Set all approved initiatives to Active status (or submit them for gate approval if your organization uses that process). Set any initiatives that are being deferred to a future quarter to Cancelled or leave them as Proposed with a note in the description.

4. 4

   Allocate squad capacity

   In the Capacity view, enter allocation percentages for each squad across each month of the quarter. Flag any over-allocations and resolve them before the quarter starts.