A Business Alignment, Goal-setting, and Strategy Tool
An X matrix is called an X matrix because it literally draws a big “X”. It separates out four categories and shows the linkage between them.
- strategic objectives
- Annual objectives
- Improvement initiatives (or TTIs)
- Measurable improvement targets (KPIs)
- People who are associated with the improvement initiatives - can be a Responsibility Assignment Matrix
The corners of the matrix effectively map:
- Strategic Objectives to Annual Objectives (bottom left)
- Annual Objectives to Improvement Initiatives (top left)
- Improvement Initiatives to KPIs (top right-ish)
- People to Initiatives and KPIs (top right-most)
- … and also KPIs to the long-term objective they support (bottom-right)
Purpose
For strategy. Forces you to select a small number of important initiatives. Sets long-term strategy, then breaks it down into shorter term goals, which are measurable.
Its purpose is NOT to :
- communicate to workers what they should be doing. They shouldn’t have to care about the mechanics of how the strategy works.
- track progress on things, the KPIs should have their own dashboards & whatnot