September 2023 Product Update

Built by Strategy and Operations Leaders, For Strategy and Operations Leaders.

This is a mantra we live by, and our newest features are no exception to this mantra.

Arguably our biggest update in history, we are thrilled to announce the launch of several new features that will help you unlock the full potential of your strategy.

In this update:

• All-New Hierarchy View: Visualize and build a connected, balanced plan with ease.
• Four (4) Huge Upgrades to Tactics: Connect your strategy with execution and take action when key objectives are blocked.
• Advanced Reporting PDF Export: Streamline reporting workflows and shift the focus from reviewing yesterday's news to creating tomorrow's opportunities.

Introducing Hierarchy View

Visualize and build a connected, balanced plan with ease

You asked, we delivered. Welcome to Hierarchy View - a bird’s eye view for your team to see how your strategic plan is connected. Build your plan in a visual, simplified way, and identify trends in your plan through this web of rich information.

Hierarchy View allows you to easily create connections and add Objective relationships with the click of a button.

Hierarchy View allows you to quickly see how well your themes are supported, and identify your plan balance by seeing a count of Objectives supporting each theme. This feature will help you set each theme up for success, by ensuring the theme has enough supporting objectives to make a real impact.

In addition, a couple other use cases for Hierarchy View include:

• Build your plan at a company offsite by pulling up Hierarchy View remotely or in person and collaboratively adding Objectives that support themes in your plan.
• Identify bends before they become breaks, by visualizing what Objective relationships downstream are at risk or behind, which could cause a company objective to be missed.

Four (4) Major Upgrades to Tactics

Connect your strategy with execution and take action when key objectives are blocked

After such positive feedback around Tactics, we wanted to keep building what is already working. We heard your feedback loud and clear, that you value how Tactics can help your team connect strategy and execution.

Tactics customers - we have more major additions to our Tactics module that we know you’ll love.

‍

1. Easily View Your Blocked Objectives

We Strategy and Operations Leaders need to be able to identify potential risks. They need to determine if a sales rep leaving could cause a revenue target to be missed, or if competing business priorities will cause a product launch to be behind. At the end of the day, they need to determine if a key initiative will be missed, and why.

Which is exactly why we created a view to see all blocked Objectives in your organization. From the Objectives table, you can now select a saved view called “Blocked” from your views dropdown.

This view will display all Objectives that are tied to Tactics with blockers.

It is critical for Strategy and Ops leaders to determine where they need to intervene, and to escalate important issues to the leadership team. Stop waiting until the end of the quarter to hear about a potential risk with an important Objective. Just jump right into Elate, and immediately see what is blocked to course correct as needed.

‍

2. New Table View for Tactics

Another request we've heard around Tactics is for the ability to see all of your organization's Tactics in one view. Well... now you can!

Elate's new Tactics Table allows you to filter, search for, and add Tactics all from one spot.

This table allows you to easily identify blockers with Tactics, visualize progress, and see an overview of Tactic statuses at a glance.

‍

3. New "Nudge" Functionality within Tactics

In the Tactics Table, users with an Organization Role of Admin can now follow up with Tactic owners. Nudging Tactic owners will help make sure your team is keeping critical business information up to date in Elate. Similar to the Objective nudge, you can now "Nudge" Tactic owners to update the status of their Tactics and to close their Tactics.

Simply click the “Nudge” button above the Tactics Table, and select the nudge you would like to send. You can type a custom message that you’d like to send the Tactic's owner.

These nudges can send to email, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to meet your team where they already work.

‍

4. New Calendar View in Tactics

A key part of connecting Strategy and Execution is understanding the tactical execution that goes into hitting your goals. Tactics already allows you to add Next Steps and Blockers, but they were not easily skimmable at a Team or Objective level… until now!

Calendar View allows you to see a chronological view of what is going on for each Team, and each Objective.

You will now see the tab “Tactics” as the second tab on each Objective. This tab will show you a calendar with key events tied to Tactics for that Objective.

Specifically, you can now see all Blockers, Next Steps, and Tactics tied to the Objective.

If you dig in deeper into the tactical execution of your Objectives, you can interact with the Calendar.

As you can see in the screenshot below, hovering over each item in the Calendar lets you see what the Blocker or Next Step is, as well as any relevant dates tied to it.

Clicking on that specific Blocker on the Calendar will also navigate you to the relevant Tactic.

Finally, you can also see the Calendar at a Team level. Team leads can now more easily drive action in Elate, by seeing more of the whole picture around the tactical execution that leads to hitting strategic goals.

These new Tactics upgrades are only available for customers subscribed to the Tactics module.

‍

Export "Advanced" Reports to PDF

Streamline reporting workflows to shift the focus from reviewing yesterday’s news, to creating tomorrow’s opportunities

To our Advanced Reporting customers, we are thrilled to announce that you can now export your reports to PDF!

From the Report Editor, you will now see a “Download” button. This button allows you to download the report you created in the Report Editor to a format that you can share with your team.

We’ve heard that many of you are using this feature to create Leadership Team Reports and Board Reports, among many other types of reports. This PDF export will prevent you from doing double work. Save countless hours by downloading the reports you have already created to PDF, and share these PDFs with ease.

This feature is only available to customers that have subscribed to the Advanced Reporting module. Did you miss the release? Learn more here.

‍

Request a Demo

Planning Season is here. If you'd like to see a customized demo of Elate or connect with strategy expert, get in touch with us below.

‍