What do you think about NCTs to set goals?

NCT’s (narratives, commitments, and tasks) can be a great framework, but like any framework, they are only as good as what you make of it and how you apply it to your day-to-day work as a team. If you haven’t read these, this Reforge article about NCT’s and this article from First Round Capital both do a good job summarizing the approach.

As a bonus, Shreyas Doshi thinks they are helpful when OKRs aren’t working for a team (and he’s seldom wrong).

You’ll find NCTs not much different than OKRs, except for the expanded narrative which can provide teams with valuable context and insight into the WHY and I’ve also seen some teams benefit from having as task list as well. The downsides for smaller teams can be the heaviness on reporting weekly, monthly, and quarterly and it’s here that I personally prefer simpler touchpoint when you have smaller teams.