Peak Year

How do I plan my year with Peak Year?

In two minutes: one sentence for the year, three big things, roughly scheduled. Peak then immediately shows Plan Health and the first insight, for example an overloaded month. Every step is saved immediately.

1. 01Open Peak Year and choose “Plan the year in two minutes”.
2. 02Write your North Star: what must be true at the end of the year?
3. 03Create the three big things that must happen for it.
4. 04For each one, tap the start and end month.
5. 05Read the first analysis and choose up to three initiatives as focus.

How do I see what a shift would cause before I make it?

Drag a bar in the year strip or use “What if” on the initiative. Peak shows Plan Health before and after, capacity per month, affected people, goals and dependencies. Only “Apply” changes the plan; “Save as scenario” keeps the variant for comparison. Holding Shift while dragging moves it directly, and “Undo” brings back the previous state.

How do I create a measurable annual goal?

Under Plan with “+ Goal”. A goal has a name, a target value, today's status, a starting value and a unit. You link initiatives to the goal via “Contributes to”. Goals that already exist in Peak One, for example from the Funnel Planner, you link with “Link as annual goal”, without a copy.

1. 01Open Peak Year → “Plan”.
2. 02Choose “+ Goal” and enter the goal, target value, status today, start and unit.
3. 03Click “Create goal”.
4. 04Or, under “Already in Peak One”, choose “Link as annual goal” on a goal.

How do I set milestones for an initiative?

On the initiative's page under “Milestones”. One per stage is enough for Peak to see early whether something is slipping. When a milestone is achieved, mark it with “Achieved”; otherwise you can remove it.

1. 01Open Peak Year → “Plan” and click the initiative.
2. 02Under “Milestones”, type a name in “New milestone …” and choose a date under “Due”.
3. 03Click “Add”.
4. 04When it's achieved, click “Achieved”.

How do I connect an initiative to tasks in Peak Work?

On the initiative's page, you create the next step as a task in Peak Work. Tasks live there (Board, Day, Tasks). In Peak Year they count as a signal for progress and forecast.

1. 01Open the initiative.
2. 02Under “Peak Work”, type the next step in “Next step in Peak Work …”.
3. 03Click “Create task”. The task is now in Peak Work.

How do I set the focus for the current phase?

Under “Focus”, you choose up to three initiatives. The order in which you click them is their rank. Without a focus, everything competes with everything else. Focus initiatives are never suggested as stop candidates.

1. 01Open Peak Year → “Focus”.
2. 02Under “Choose focus”, click up to three initiatives, most important first.
3. 03Click “Apply focus”.

How do I do a review in Peak Year?

Under “Review”. Peak summarizes: plan versus reality, goals and forecast, capacity and dependencies, stop candidates and strategic drift. The review ends with decisions: keep, postpone, park, stop. It captures the plan health and focus of that moment and then appears under “Past reviews”.

1. 01Open Peak Year → “Review”.
2. 02Go through the sections and choose the recommendations you'll adopt.
3. 03Write down what you learned and what you decided.
4. 04Click “Complete review”.

How do I compare scenarios for my year?

Under “Scenarios”, you create named variants: move initiatives by months, park or stop them. Peak compares each scenario with the plan: plan health, critical signals, overloaded months, peak load, goals on track and initiatives in the plan. The plan stays unchanged until you choose “Apply”.

1. 01Open Peak Year → “Scenarios”.
2. 02Enter a name, for example “Hiring is delayed”, and choose the type.
3. 03For the affected initiatives, set a shift or choose “park” or “stop”.
4. 04Click “Create scenario” and compare. “Apply” changes the plan; “Remove” deletes the scenario.

Can I look at Peak Year with an example?

Yes, with “View sample plan” on the overview. You see a complete annual plan with initiatives, focus and plan health. Nothing is saved in the sample plan.

1. 01Open Peak Year.
2. 02Choose “View sample plan”.
3. 03Click through Plan, Focus and Review. Your own data stays untouched.

How does Peak Year calculate Plan Health?

From fixed rules about your plan: capacity per month and person, dependencies, forecasts from Peak Work, goal coverage, revenue motion per quarter, risks without countermeasures and whether reviews take place. Each of the seven dimensions starts at 100 and loses points per finding. Critical signals always appear next to the number, so the average hides nothing. Under “Plan Health in detail”, you see every finding with its reasoning.

Where does an initiative's forecast come from?

Plan, forecast and reality are stored separately. If you enter an expected end yourself, it applies. Otherwise Peak derives a forecast from the tasks in Peak Work linked to the initiative: if the completed share is clearly behind the elapsed time or tasks are overdue, the end slips. Every derivation names its reason and its confidence.

Why does Peak Year suggest stopping an initiative?

The stop candidate names its reasons: no linked goal, high effort, an overloaded month, an open dependency, low priority or a clear delay. From four points, it appears under Focus. Nothing is deleted automatically: you park, stop, postpone or consciously keep it, and then Peak stops suggesting it.

How does Peak Year calculate effort and capacity?

Each initiative has an effort per running month: Small 1, Medium 3, Large 5 and Very large 8 points. By default, each person has 10 points per month. If a month exceeds that, it counts as overloaded. Under Plan → “Planning assumptions”, you change the capacity and the planned distribution of work in percent. Peak compares this distribution with the tasks completed in Peak Work (strategic drift).

What's the difference between Park, Stop and “Remove from year”?

Park and Stop change an initiative's status; it stays visible in the annual plan. “Remove from year” takes it out of this year's plan entirely. In all cases, the history and tasks in Peak Work are kept, and nothing is deleted automatically. You can go back with “Undo” right afterward.

Why can't I see a company's annual plan?

You're registered as a guest in this company. Guests don't see the annual plan. If you need it, ask someone who manages members to add you as a member.

What can't Peak Year do yet?

Assumptions with evidence, decision objects with a later impact check, comments, approvals, Ask Peak, the graph view, CEO mode, and export and print come later. Target values are visible only to whoever entered them, and financial data doesn't feed into Plan Health yet.