Lattice Check-ins: A better way to stay aligned

In the past month since launching Lattice, we’ve seen thousands of people start to set and track their goals with their teams. Today we’re excited to release another step in our mission to help companies run better: Check-ins.

Check-ins are a weekly Q&A between managers and reports

Lattice Check-ins are a once-a-week Q&A between employees and managers. You answer a few quick questions about how your week went, your focus for next week, and any challenges or wins you’ve had. Your manager then receives an email as is prompted to give you some brief feedback — words of encouragement, course correction, or providing new information.

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In the beta we’ve preloaded four common questions, set the default to weekly, and started with only the ability to share with your manager. Over time, we plan to make Check-ins flexible and allow you customize all of these features.

If you’re like us, you currently track check-ins somewhere in a Google Doc, Evernote, or email. The check-ins can be unfocused or forgotten altogether, and there’s little sense of continuity over time.

We think that regular check-ins between managers and employees is a key component of good management; it drives transparency, helps teams stay on track with their goals, and allows people to offer suggestions and adjustments to teammates’ work. It also helps individual contributors make sure their work is being seen and that they are building a regular cadence of good communication with their managers.

Driving better alignment

Check-ins have always been a part of our roadmap, and they quickly became the most requested feature since our launch last month.

Goals are critical to running a company well. Without planning and objectives, work becomes a daily grind through a task list and the vague hope that it eventually leads somewhere good. Goals are the essential framework for avoiding this.

But another key piece in the puzzle is regular communication around progress on a shorter term basis. People have a natural rhythm to their work cadence, and we want to help capture that in Check-ins.

Weekly check-ins are a proven method of keeping teams aligned. Google helped pioneer this with weekly snippets, which are a simple reminder to ask employees to share what they did last week and what they’ll be doing next. A similar format has been used at countless other successful companies like Shopify, Stripe, and Buzzfeed to keep teams focused and aligned.

We hope that the new Check-ins feature promotes more trust, transparency, and alignment, and helps people be better managers and employees.

Please try it out and let us know what you think! We’re iterating quickly and your feedback is very much appreciated.