How Are We Doing? Ask Your Company and Get the Numbers

In short: In Rocket Routine OS you ask "How are we doing?" in the chat, and the VP of the responsible area answers from the current metrics, work items and meetings with exact numbers. Where a number is missing, it says so.

How a weekly runs in which this question comes up is in the article on the weekly. This one is about what stands behind the answer: where the numbers come from, who supplies them and what happens when one is missing.

You ask in the chat

Talk to your company: it answers, it gets the work moving, and you decide. For the state of things that means you write "How are we doing on Sales?" in the chat, and the VP Sales answers. A VP is the AI head of an area, named after it: VP Sales, VP Marketing. Each of the ten areas has a VP and a responsible person. By default the VP is the AI head and the responsible person is human. A company can also make a person the VP, for example its existing head of Sales. The AI head then stays on as that person's assistant.

The VP answers from the metrics, work items and meetings of its area, as they stand at that moment. A work item is a piece of work assigned to an area and to an owner, a person or an AI head. If you want a picture, you say so: "Show my open work items by status as a chart." The chart appears in the chat, and a table works the same way.

One metric per outcome

For a VP to give numbers, the numbers have to exist. They are built in a chain. A goal is what you want to achieve, and it is linked to its area. An outcome is the measurable result that shows you achieved it. A metric is the number that tracks that outcome, for example recurring revenue. Each outcome has exactly one metric.

Every metric comes with a target and warning lines. A traffic light shows where the current value stands against them: green, yellow or red. The type "Stay stable" is for numbers that should stay within a corridor. It has a lower and an upper limit: inside, the light is green, close to a limit it is yellow, outside it is red. A metric can also belong to an area instead of an outcome. This area metric shows how the area is doing overall. That way the VP can name the colour of the light for every metric and not only the value.

Where the value comes from

The value of a metric arrives in one of three ways: it is read from a connected tool, entered by hand, or calculated by an AI agent. To enter one, you simply write the number in the chat: "Recurring Revenue is 84,000." The Navigator, your everyday partner in the chat, shows you how it read the number before saving, for example as 84.000 €, and assigns it to the right period. A value you enter on 2 November for a monthly metric belongs to October. You can change the period.

Who supplies the number on time

Every metric has an owner, a person or an AI head. Before the meeting that reviews the metric, the owner is asked for the value. A few working days earlier, the request lands in their Inbox. The Inbox is the place where you receive requests, approvals and reports. If the value is still missing after that, the person responsible for the area hears about it.

When a number is missing

A number can still be missing. The VP then says so in its answer. The gap is in the text, and you see what you don't know before you build a decision on it.

Three views for three questions

Besides the chat there are three views, each for a different question. The Dashboard is your personal overview with your metrics, your Inbox, your work items and your next meetings. It answers "How am I doing?". The Control Tower is the work board: work items from Backlog to Released, ordered by status, with blocked or escalated ones in a column of their own. It answers "What is going on?". Alignment shows how goals and outcomes connect, in the views Focus, Tree and Table. It answers "How does it connect?".

Work items hang directly on an outcome, and a project is an outcome with its work items. At the top of the product you switch between Dashboard, Control Tower and Chat. How the views fit into the whole product is in the whole picture.

No status meeting

If you want to know how the company is doing, you don't have to ask anyone for a report or schedule a status meeting. You ask whenever you like, and the answer comes from the numbers of right now. What you do with it is up to you, because AI proposes and you decide. Meetings stay the place for decisions, because the numbers are already there.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get an answer to "How are we doing?" in Rocket Routine OS?

You ask in the chat, for example "How are we doing on Sales?". The VP of the responsible area, the AI head, answers from the current metrics, work items and meetings with exact numbers. On request it shows a chart or a table. Where a number is missing, it says so.

What is the difference between the Dashboard, the Control Tower and Alignment?

In Rocket Routine OS, the Dashboard is your personal overview with your metrics, your Inbox, your work items and your next meetings. The Control Tower is the work board, where work items are ordered by status. Alignment shows how goals and outcomes connect.

Where do the values of the metrics come from?

A value is read from a connected tool, entered by hand or calculated by an AI agent. When you enter one, the Navigator shows how it read the number before saving and assigns it to the right period. The owner is asked for the value before the meeting that reviews the metric.

What does the traffic light of a metric show?

In Rocket Routine OS, every metric has a target and warning lines. The traffic light shows where the value stands against them: green, yellow or red. The type "Stay stable" has a lower and an upper limit: green inside, yellow close to a limit, red outside.