Many organizations face significant challenges in getting visibility into how teams are mobilized on strategy across the enterprise. This issue intensifies with the size and complexity of the organization, making it increasingly difficult to quickly identify and mitigate risks that could hinder progress on the strategy. The lack of visibility often means that risks and blockers, especially those buried a few layers deep in the organization and outside the direct line of sight, go unnoticed until they escalate into more significant problems.

The Relationship Map in WorkBoard provides instant visibility into how teams org-wide are mobilized on strategy and OKRs to quickly spot and prevent blockers, risks, or cascade failures by:

• Providing a holistic view of the full stack of dependencies and work effort driving a strategic outcome, objective, or key result.
• Identifying where dependencies are off-track or at risk so issues can be resolved mid-cycle and in time to impact the final result. 
• Elevating potential blockers across the organization to help teams uncover hidden dependencies and roadblocks leveraging embedded AI suggestions.

Downstream dependencies

The map brings forward all the work that is in support of an object in WorkBoard, or is in other words a downstream dependency. Within WorkBoard, there are many forms of dependency, and nearly all are visible in WorkBoard Relationship map.

For example:

• Key Results that measure an Objective are a dependency of that Objective
• Objectives that have been aligned up to another Objective are dependencies to that Objective
• Objectives that align up to Pillars are dependencies of that pillar
• Actions that Support a Key Result are dependencies of that Key Result
• And more…

In fact, Relationship map can show about 30 kinds of relationships - visualizing the full stack of WorkBoard elements from Strategies all the way to Workstreams and Actions.

How to access Relationship map

WorkBoard Relationship map is intended to provide visibility into the dependencies on many kinds of objects within WorkBoard. In keeping with that, we’ve made Relationship map a snap to access from a number of elements within the WorkBoard platform. You can access it from:

• Strategy
• Pillar
• Outcome
• Objective
• Key Result

Moving around on the Relationship map

When you access WorkBoard Relationship map, you’ll see that you are placed in a Canvas-like environment

• There are several ways to move around Relationship map:
  • If you are using a mouse:
    • To pan: click the 2nd mouse button + drag to pan, or hold the space bar while you click and drag to pan
    • To zoom: If you're using a mouse with a scroll wheel, you can use Ctrl + scroll wheel (Mac: Cmd + scroll wheel)
  • If you're using a trackpad:
    • To pan: If you're using a trackpad, use a 2-finger swipe
    • To zoom: If you're using a trackpad, pinch in and out
• On any input device, you can use the +/- buttons in the lower right, or Ctrl +/- (Mac: Cmd +/-) to zoom in and out
• Click “Zoom to fit” (next to the +/- buttons on the lower right) to reset the zoom

Zoom in to see information about each dependency individually

How to use Relationship map

Relationship map provides a holistic view of all the full stack of dependencies contributing to a strategic objective. Quickly spot potential blockers or risks that are outside the direct line of sight to take corrective action.

Cards

Each card on the Relationship map represents a WorkBoard element. When you are zoomed out, you can see what kind of object it is, and the Red, Amber or Green color for a quick sense of risk to plan. Zoom in, you can see more details about that object.

Starting point

Whenever you access the Relationship map, you are seeing the dependencies from a specific element (specific objective, strategy pillar etc.) You can identify the starting point object by the chip that says “Starting Point”. And if you ever get lost or can’t find it, just click the title and it will snap you back to the starting point.

Accessing WorkBoard objects

When you click on an object, you will have the option to “View Details”. Clicking that will open the object in a new tab so you can action follow-ups or ask questions or add comments.

Data privacy

If a user doesn’t have access to an object in WorkBoard, they won’t be able to see its details on the Relationship map. Rather, the object will show up as a “masked” card with details hidden.

AI Suggestions

WorkBoard Relationship map uses embedded AI suggestions to elevate potential blockers across the organization and help teams uncover hidden dependencies and roadblocks. These allow you to:

• See where dependencies are off-track or at risk
• Find bottlenecks while there's still time to correct them

How to use:

• Suggested dependencies for Objectives and Results show on the map as Co-Author shaded cards with dashed lines
• To turn suggestions on or off, use the toggle in the upper right

You can modify existing relationships and establish new ones if you see the suggestions as fit from the relationships section of key results!

Adding relationships to a Key Result

Adding a relationship from the Key Result details page

• Locate the 'Relationships' section on the right side of the page
• Use the plus + button to search and select a Key Result, Workstream, Action Item, bodies of work from Jira, or other external systems as links
• Select Save to lock in your changes

Adding a relationship from the edit panel

• From the Objectives module, select the kebab menu (3 dots) next to the Key Result
  • Alternately, click the pencil in the upper right-hand corner of any Key Result details page
• Scroll down to select Add key result relationships
• Use the plus + button to search and select a Key Result, Workstream, Action Item, bodies of work from Jira, or other external systems as links
• Select Save to lock in your relationship, and Save again to save your Key Result

Note: you will need edit rights to the key result in order to add or modify relationships