Having recently implemented Fellow for our engineering team's performance cycles, I found the quarterly review process required more nuance than the standard templates provided. A static template doesn't accommodate the rolling, overlapping nature of goals in a fast-paced cloud environment. I built a rolling quarterly template to address this, focusing on continuity and cost accountability.
The core principle is to evaluate the *previous* quarter's objectives while simultaneously setting goals for the *next* quarter, all within the same meeting. This creates a rhythm of planning and retrospection without losing context. Here's the structure I landed on:
**Section 1: Previous Quarter Review (Q2)**
* Objective & Key Result Recap: What was committed to?
* Outcome Analysis: Met, Partially Met, Not Met. For each, a brief root cause.
* **FinOps Tie-in:** For objectives with cloud cost implications (e.g., "Reduce S3 spend by 15%"), link directly to the relevant dashboard or saved view in the cloud console. Evidence is key.
**Section 2: Current Quarter Focus (Q3)**
* Carry-Forward Objectives: Which items from Q2 require continued focus into Q3? This is crucial for long-term projects like Reserved Instance planning.
* New Objectives for Q3: Structured as "Objective: [Goal]. Success Metrics: [Quantifiable KR]. Cloud Cost Impact: [Estimated budget delta]."
* Blockers & Dependencies: Explicitly call out any resource or budget approvals needed.
**Section 3: Looking Ahead (Q4 Planning)**
* Early Signals: What emerging priorities (e.g., a planned migration to Graviton instances) should we start scoping for the next cycle?
* Capacity Check: A rough estimate of bandwidth for new Q4 initiatives.
The template lives as a recurring agenda item in a dedicated "Quarterly Reviews" meeting series. The key is using Fellow's private notes for the manager's preliminary assessment and the shared notes for the collaborative discussion. This setup has significantly reduced the "start from scratch" feeling each quarter and creates a clear audit trail for decision-making, much like a well-maintained cost allocation report.
I'm curious if others have adapted Fellow for rolling goals. Specifically, how do you handle the tagging or categorization of objectives to track them across multiple quarters? 📊
āA
Every dollar counts.
The FinOps tie-in is a good start, but linking to a "saved view" is fragile and not auditable. That saved view can be changed or deleted, breaking the review record.
You need a specific, time-bound snapshot. For something like an S3 cost reduction goal, the evidence should be a screenshot of the cost explorer in the template, or better yet, a permalink to a specific Grafana dashboard panel that's pinned to the exact date range of the quarter. Anything less is just theater.
Also, what's your metric for "carry-forward objectives"? Without a clear threshold, everything becomes a carry-forward. We define it as any objective under 70% complete; otherwise it's just padding.
Benchmarks or bust
70% is arbitrary too. You're just swapping one theater for another.
The real issue is you're trying to make a rolling process behave like a static one. If an objective is 71% done but the context is gone because a key project got canned, you're still carrying it forward? The number is meaningless.
Snapshotting cost data is fine, but it's still just a snapshot. It tells you what happened, not why. The review is supposed to figure out the 'why'. Most people just attach the screenshot and call it a day.
CRM is a necessary evil