Introduction to Rocks
How Rocks keep your teams progressing forward to greater company goals.
Written by Tommy Mains
Updated at March 6th, 2025
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Insights
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Data
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Rocks
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To-Dos
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Issues
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Meetings
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Headlines
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Vision
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Org Chart
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1-on-1
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Process
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Directory
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Knowledge Portal
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Mastery
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Assessments
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Partner Hub
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Integrations and Beta
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Account Options and Troubleshooting
Table of Contents
What Are Rocks?
Rocks are 90-day goals that help teams make measurable progress toward their organization’s long-term vision. These objectives focus on significant initiatives outside of daily tasks, such as launching a new project, improving a process, or achieving a strategic objective.
Rocks provide a structured way to ensure that key priorities receive focus, accountability, and measurable tracking. By setting quarterly Rocks, teams can:
- Align with company goals and vision.
- Break large objectives into achievable steps.
- Track progress and address obstacles in team meetings.
Tip: Use the Insights Tool to monitor Rock and Milestone progress.
Learn how to get started with the Rocks tool from the video below.
How Do Rocks Support the Company?
Rocks support your organization by empowering teams to turn their quarterly goals into prioritized work for the next 90 days. Rocks
Goals as a Focus Filter
When we're committed to our goals, they act as a powerful filter when we're faced with a decision. Does pusuing this action help us move toward our goals? If so, allocate resources accordingly.
From our guide, On 9 Core Competencies.
How Do Rocks Support the Other Tools?
Rocks should be used to help understand how each team's efforts progress the organization toward its long-term Vision.
Click through the tabs below to see how Rocks supports some of Ninety's other core tools.
My 90
Your My 90 workspace has two cards for visualizing Rock status', which you can turn on or off using the Edit Layout button.
- Rocks and Milestones shows a list of your Rocks, their status, and the due date
- Rock Statuses displays your Rocks status' as pie charts to better visualize which ones are Done, On Track, or Off track.
Insights
Completing goals provides the traction your teams need to keep moving toward their long-term initiatives. Rocks are the quarterly goals and projects you and your teams select as the most important things to accomplish in the next 90 days.
The Rocks page in the Inisghts tool allows you to monitor the performance from all your teams' Rocks and Milestones.
Data
Rocks need to be measurable to determine their success. Creating Rocks around your KPIs helps you determine whether they're on or off track.
📖 Read more about making Setting up your Scorecard.
Issues
When Rocks are added to your team, they display in your weekly meeting, and can quickly be turned into Issues to discuss by right-clicking the Rock and then clicking Make it an Issue from the dropdown.
Issues can be problems, obstacles, ideas, or opportunities, so it is often worth making Issues that are over performing their current targets.
Meetings
Efficient and effective meetings help teams align, solve issues, and prepare teams for the week ahead. Reviewing Rocks is part of our default agendas in the Meetings tool.
Org Chart
When creating Rocks, you can look at the KPIs and job tasks listed on your Seat in your Org Chart. This information helps the person(s) in the Seat and their leaders understand what success looks like.
1-on-1
During quarterly 1-on-1 meetings, leaders and team members reflect on the previous quarter — including how well the team member delivered on their Rocks.
Helpful Resources
To learn more about our teachings around Data and Scorecards, check out the following:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many Milestones should I have?
Since Rocks are meant to be completed within 90 days, it’s best to break them into at least three milestones to ensure steady progress throughout the quarter.
How do I reassign a Rock?
To reassign a Rock to a different user:
- Click Rocks from the left navigation.
- Select the Rock from the list to open its details panel.
- Click the accountable user’s profile icon in the top left.
- Choose a new owner from the dropdown list.
How do Rocks and Agile methodology work together?
Rocks can fit right into your agile methodology. Rocks are quarterly goals. You can consider your Rocks and other goals as epics consisting of various tasks, stories, and issues to complete.
If you're documenting your Rocks and other projects on another platform, you can provide links from those tickets to your Rocks in Ninety. Keeping your records linked and accessible in Ninety as your system of record makes it easy to check in on your team's progress during meetings.