Check-in
Definition
A check-in is a brief, recurring update on a goal or metric in which its owner states the current number, whether it is still on track, and what has changed since the last update. Check-ins are what keep goals current in the weeks between the session where they are set and the session where they are scored.
Most frameworks put check-ins on a weekly rhythm, because a fortnight is long enough for a goal to go quietly off course. A complete check-in carries three things: the current value, a status of on track, at risk or off track, and one line of context explaining the change. Many teams collect them asynchronously in writing before the meeting so the session itself spends its time only on the at-risk items.
Check-ins degrade into ritual when nothing follows from them. If 'at risk' produces exactly the same response as 'on track' — which is to say none — owners learn that the honest status costs them attention while the optimistic one costs nothing, and within two cycles the data stops describing reality. What makes the update worth writing is what happens to the ones flagged red.
Example
Week 6 of 13. Key Result: lift trial-to-paid from 14% to 20%. Current 15.2%. Status: at risk — current pace implies roughly 17.5% at quarter end. Context: the reworked onboarding sequence shipped two weeks late and is expected to add 3 points from week 8.
See also: goal tracking