Waves
Time-boxed planning cycles that align teams around strategic objectives.
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Waves are the core planning construct in Mistvine. They represent focused periods -typically quarters -where your organization sets objectives and teams align their work to drive measurable progress.
What Are Waves?
Think of waves as strategic planning containers. Each wave has:
- A time boundary - Start and end dates that create urgency and focus
- Organization objectives - The big goals your company is pursuing this period
- Team objectives - How each team contributes to those company goals
- Progress tracking - Weekly sentiment and metrics showing if you're on track
Why "waves"? Performance happens in cycles. Annual planning is too slow; daily standups are too granular. Waves give you the right cadence -focused enough to maintain urgency, long enough to achieve meaningful outcomes.
Wave Lifecycle
Every wave moves through four phases:
1. Draft
This is your planning phase. Create the wave, define organization-level objectives, and assign teams. Iterate until you're confident.
What you can do:
- Set wave name, dates, and strategic context
- Create and edit organization objectives (roofshots and moonshots)
- Add key results with baseline and target values
- Assign teams to participate
- Configure incentives (optional)
What's restricted:
- Teams cannot create their objectives yet
- Sentiment tracking hasn't started
2. Active
The wave is live. Teams create their objectives, weekly sentiment begins, and everyone tracks progress toward goals.
What you can do:
- Teams create their objectives with alignment rationale
- Submit weekly sentiment (red/amber/green) on objectives
- Update key result progress
- View dashboards and analytics
- Collaborate through Q&A
What's locked:
- Wave structure and dates
- Organization objectives
- Team assignments
3. Completed
The wave has ended. Review outcomes, celebrate wins, and analyze what worked.
What you can do:
- View all historical data and progress
- Generate reports and insights
- Duplicate the wave for the next cycle
4. Archived
Long-term storage. The wave remains accessible but is hidden from day-to-day views.
Organization Objectives
These are the strategic goals set at the wave level -what the entire organization is trying to achieve.
Structure
Each objective includes:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Problem context | Why this matters -the problem you're solving |
| Measurable outcome | What success looks like in concrete terms |
| Baseline value | Where you're starting from |
| Target value | Where you want to end up |
| Business impact | How this connects to company strategy |
Objective Types
- Roofshot - Achievable stretch goals (80% confident you can hit them)
- Moonshot - Ambitious goals that push boundaries (50% or less confidence)
Tip: A healthy wave has mostly roofshots with 1-2 moonshots to drive innovation.
Key Results
Break objectives into measurable key results:
Objective: Improve customer retention
├─ Key Result: Reduce churn from 5% to 3%
├─ Key Result: Increase NPS from 45 to 60
└─ Key Result: Launch loyalty program by end of wave
Each key result tracks: baseline → current → target, with progress calculated automatically.
Team Objectives
Once a wave is active, teams create their own objectives that align to organization objectives.
Alignment Rationale
Every team objective requires an alignment rationale -a brief explanation of why this team's work contributes to the parent objective. This creates transparency and ensures teams aren't working in silos.
Example:
Our objective to "Reduce page load time by 40%" aligns to the company objective "Improve customer retention" because faster performance directly reduces user frustration and abandonment.
Pulse Check
Every week, team members submit an anonymous Pulse Check on their objectives:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Green | On track -confident we'll hit our targets |
| Amber | At risk -blockers exist but we have a plan |
| Red | Off track -need help or scope adjustment |
Sentiment is completely anonymous. Managers see aggregated team sentiment, never individual responses. This encourages honest reporting without fear of judgment.
Confidence Level
Each submission includes a 1-5 confidence score. Low confidence with green status might indicate imposter syndrome; high confidence with red status might mean a team sees the path forward but needs resources.
Managing Teams in Waves
One Wave Per Team
A team can only participate in one active wave at a time. This prevents objective sprawl and ensures focused execution.
Team Assignments
Assign teams during the draft phase. Once the wave is active, you cannot add or remove teams -this preserves data integrity and prevents scope changes mid-cycle.
Wave Managers
Delegate wave management to specific people:
Wave managers can:
- Modify wave settings (during draft)
- Create and edit organization objectives
- Assign and remove teams
- Approve team readiness
- View wave-specific analytics
Wave managers cannot:
- Access other waves
- Modify organization-wide settings
- Escalate their own permissions
Running Multiple Waves
Organizations can run parallel waves for different purposes:
- Regional waves - EMEA, Americas, APAC with different timing
- Product-line waves - Core platform vs. new initiatives
- Pilot programs - Test new processes with a subset of teams
One wave can be marked as "primary" for default dashboard views.
Wave Duplication
At the end of a cycle, duplicate successful waves as templates:
Optional inclusions:
- Organization objectives (cleared of progress)
- Key result structures
- Team assignments
The new wave starts in draft status, ready for refinement.
Best Practices
Wave Length
- Standard: 12-13 weeks (quarterly)
- Short: 6 weeks for fast-moving teams or experiments
- Long: 16+ weeks for strategic initiatives (less common)
Number of Objectives
- Organization level: 2-5 objectives per wave (configurable)
- Team level: 1-3 objectives per team
Less is more. Focus drives results; too many objectives dilute effort.
Objective Quality
Good objectives are:
- Specific - Clear about what will change
- Measurable - Quantifiable outcomes
- Time-bound - Achievable within the wave
- Aligned - Connected to strategy
Bad objectives:
- "Improve the product" - Too vague
- "Ship 50 features" - Output, not outcome
- "Make customers happy" - Not measurable
Sentiment Discipline
Encourage teams to submit sentiment weekly, even when busy. Patterns over time matter more than any single week. A gradual shift from green to amber is an early warning signal.
Next steps: Create your first wave from the Waves section in your organization dashboard.