The Objectives tab is where Compass analyses how well your firm’s objectives are written and how they map onto strategic plans. Every active or completed objective is scored against the SMART framework by a background AI job; this section turns those per-objective scores into cohort views.
What this module answers
Are we writing good objectives? Which SMART dimensions are weakest across the firm? Which segments need coaching on objective-setting? And how are objectives distributed across our strategic plans?
The pages
The Objectives sidebar has three pages:
Introduction — Explains how the AI analysis works before you read any charts. It covers the signals Compass produces for each objective: the five SMART dimension scores (1–10 each), the overall quality rating (Excellent / Good / Fair / Poor), an AI confidence score, context scores (complexity, strategic alignment, success probability), a fixed vocabulary of seven risk factors, and coaching guidance. A queue status banner at the top shows when quality analysis jobs are still queued or processing.
Quality & SMART — The cohort analysis: quality score trends, the SMART dimensions radar, quality distribution, common quality issues, and a segment-by-segment quality matrix. Covered in its own article.
Alignment — A heatmap of how active objectives are distributed across strategic plans, by department, role, and location. Covered in its own article.
Pick a date range
Unlike the review-based modules (which use review-cycle pickers), Objectives uses a generic date range. Use the Date range dropdown in the sidebar — 3 months (default), 30 days, 60 days, 6 months, 12 months, or 2 years — plus the Department, Role, and Location filters below it. The Quality & SMART charts scope to that window; the Alignment matrix is a snapshot of currently active objectives and ignores it.
Where the data comes from
Everything on the Quality & SMART page is built from the objective quality analysis job. Active and completed objectives are queued in the background, and Compass analyses each objective — reading only the objective text and returning structured scores on calibrated 1–10 scales. The narrative stays the source of truth; the AI just makes it comparable across people and time.
The Alignment page is the exception — it’s a straight count of active objectives per strategic plan, with no AI involvement.
Tips
Start on the Introduction page. Five minutes there makes every chart in Quality & SMART easier to read — especially what “confidence” does and doesn’t mean.
The AI reads what was written, not what was meant. A well-considered objective written tersely will score low on Specificity. Treat low scores as coaching signals about the writing, then validate against the original text.
If pages look empty, check the queue. Analysis runs in the background — the queue status banner on the Introduction page shows jobs still queued or processing.