Creating Projects & Initiatives

Summary

Projects and Initiatives in Brev let you track bodies of work — not just numbers — so your OKR system reflects how execution actually happens. Learn how to create them, link them to Goals, and keep them moving.

Projects vs. Initiatives vs. Actions

It's worth getting the hierarchy straight before you start creating:

Project — A specific deliverable or body of work with a clear end state (e.g., "Launch enterprise pricing page"). Lives under an Initiative or directly under an Objective.
Action — A specific task or to-do. Lives under a Project or can stand alone.

All three connect to your Goals hierarchy, but Projects are the most common unit of execution tracking in Brev.

Creating a Project

1. Navigate to Goals and click + New Goal.

2. Select Project as the goal type.

3. Fill in the fields:

Title — Describe the deliverable, not the activity. "Launch redesigned onboarding flow" not "Work on onboarding."
Owner — One person responsible for the project's outcome.
Time period — Set a realistic end date. Brev uses this to flag overdue projects.
Status — Start with "Not started" or "In progress."

1. Link to a parent goal:

Parent goal — Connect this Project to the Objective or Key Result it supports. This is what rolls progress upward.

1. Add a description with context: what are you building, and why does it matter?

2. Click Create.

Pro tip: If a project spans multiple Objectives, pick the primary one as the parent. You can reference it in other places via Actions or descriptions, but one clear parent keeps the hierarchy clean.

Creating an Initiative

Initiatives are higher-level groupings. Create one when you have multiple Projects that share a strategic theme.

1. Click + New Goal and select Objective or Initiative (depending on your org's naming convention).

2. Give it a strategic title: "Expand into Mid-Market" or "Improve Product Reliability."

3. Set the owner and time period.

4. Leave the target flexible — Initiatives often measure progress through the Projects and Metrics beneath them, not a single number.

5. Click Create, then add Projects as child goals beneath it.

Tracking Progress on Projects

Projects track progress differently than Metrics. Instead of a number, they use status and completion percentage:

Not started — Nothing underway.
In progress — Active work happening.
At risk — Behind schedule or blocked.
Completed — Done.

Update status manually in the goal detail view, or let check-in prompts surface it during your weekly cadence.

The parent Objective rolls up project statuses to give a composite progress view.

Adding Actions to a Project

Actions are the task layer inside a Project. To add one:

1. Open the Project detail view.

2. Scroll to the Actions section.

3. Click + Add Action.

4. Set a title, owner, and due date.

5. Click Save.

Actions appear in the assignee's personal dashboard and can be surfaced in Cadence meetings.

⚠️ Note: Actions are not the same as Goals. They don't count toward progress scoring on their own — the Project's status and your manual updates drive that. Actions are the "how" layer.

Linking Projects to Multiple Surfaces

Once created, Projects show up in multiple places:

Goals view — In the hierarchy under their parent Objective.
Cadences — Relevant projects surface during meeting prep.
Team Digests — Projects update statuses appear in weekly digests.
Agent tasks — Brev Agents can be tasked with updating or reviewing project status.

This cross-surface visibility is the point. A Project isn't just a checkbox in a task manager — it's a living piece of your strategy, visible to everyone who needs to see it.