Bring on Spring (Cleaning)

Spring in the northern hemisphere began the other day, accompanied by the annual Spring Cleaning effort many of us engage in.  We here at MyObjectives HQ have been doing some Spring Cleaning of our own.  Where we would normally use this space to help you understand the tremendous benefits of employing MyObjectives in your enterprise, we decided instead to share with you some of what we’ve been working on this winter on your behalf.

You use MyObjectives to engage employees in your goals.  Each month you continue your subscription is a sign to us it is working, that you have been more successful with MyObjectives than with any other method.  High fives here, accompanied by resolve to keep making MyObjectives better, adding new capabilities, streamlining old processes, and reducing the time it takes to accomplish the same results.

While we do have a few customers using MyObjectives at a fast pace — their game period is one month — most of you go with the standard business quarter for your game period.  Just like your principal residence, constant use requires a little bit of upkeep.  Dust or pet hair collects in the corners, sunlight fades some woods and fabrics, winter storms leave yard debris.

And just like your world, MyObjectives needs a sprucing up, a dust-off, a new coat of paint here and there to brighten our lives.

A sneak peek

It won’t be long now before we invite you over to our open house!  But here’s a preview, just because we’re so excited to share this with you.

We’ve sped up pretty much everything.  If you’ve ever given the advice to someone to break a big task into smaller ones so you can “feel” success more frequently, then you’ll appreciate that we’ve followed that same advice. You’ll see your information appear faster as we collect and display smaller amounts of information at a time.

We’ve rearranged some of the workflow steps to get you to where you are trying to go quicker.  One thing that has been spring-cleaned (our new term) is the “Save” button!  Pretty much anywhere you used to have to think about saving your work before moving on, you no longer need to: We save on the fly.

Our fresh coat of paint has one of those nebulous marketing names full of promise, like “Strawberry Meadows” or “Pointe Vista” — but in our case it’s a little more software techy: “Modern UI” Other paint manufactures spell it out, “Modern User Interface” but we’re okay with fewer syllables for the same meaning.

What We Mean by Modern UI

Modern UI tends to be minimalist in nature, intending to give just the right amount of information and context so you can stay focused on why you’re there.  But modern user interfaces are also measured by something you don’t see so dramatically: Accessibility.

Even if accessibility isn’t a daily work concern for you right now, hiring someone who benefits from accessibility is likely to make you appreciate the thought that goes into making MyObjectives accessible to all goal achievers.  Sometimes you don’t just paint over the effects of winter: You have to replace the splash molding over a window or clean the inside of an exterior light fixture.  That’s about what we’ve done with our accessibility support, too: Built it in at a deeper level, and had it inspected by the latest tools available.

Brighter days

And finally, our Spring Cleaning has removed the old cruft that slowed down our ability to quickly turn your requests into working parts of our software.  We did that because we love making this software help you achieve your goals, and so hearing your ideas, your usage patterns, your success stories … it all comes together to brighten our outlook on life.

Which is, after all, the promise of Spring.

 

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Paul Niven

Paul Niven is a management consultant, an author and a public speaker on the subjects of corporate strategy and performance management systems, like the Balanced Scorecard.

Ben Lamorte

Ben Lamorte is the founder and president of OKRs.com. He advises business leaders on the best methods for defining and making measurable progress on their most important goals.

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