How to Use Ninety's Issues Tool

The Issues Component® is one of the Six Key Components® of EOS® (Entrepreneurial Operating System®). The companies that gain the most traction are those that surface Issues openly, prioritize them consistently, and resolve them completely, rather than letting the same problems recirculate week after week. 

EOS teaches a three-step process called IDS® (Identify, Discuss, and Solve) for working through issues as a team. Ninety's Issues tool puts that process into practice for every team in your organization.

What is the Issues tool?

The Issues tool is a team-level list where your organization captures and resolves the things standing between you and your goals. Every team in your Ninety account has its own Issues tool with two separate lists: a short-term list for items that need attention this week and a long-term list for items that aren't a priority this quarter.

All users can view their team's Issues lists. Only licensed users can add Issues to a team's list.

In the Level 10 Meeting®, the Issues list feeds the 60-minute IDS block in the agenda. It's the most important section of the meeting: the point where your team stops reporting and starts solving.

Learn how to get started with Issues from the video below. 

What is an Issue?

An Issue is anything your team needs to raise, discuss, and resolve together. In EOS, that definition covers four types of items:

• Problems: obstacles that prevent progress or harm the business.
• Obstacles: blockers affecting a Rock, a process, or a team member's performance.
• Ideas: proposals worth exploring but not yet actionable enough to become a quarterly goal.
• Opportunities: possibilities your team wants to discuss and decide on.
   

The Issues tool isn't only for what's going wrong. It's also the right place to capture ideas and opportunities your team wants to consider at the right time, whether that's this week or next quarter.

Short-term Issues

Short-term Issues are addressed during your weekly Level 10 Meetings through the IDS process. A short-term Issue has priority this week.

Long-term Issues

Long-term Issues (sometimes called LTIs) aren't a priority this quarter. They're carried to the next quarterly or annual planning session. Some LTIs eventually become Rocks; others remain on the list until your team has the capacity to take them on.

Long-term Issues also appear automatically on the V/TO® (Vision/Traction Organizer®) Traction page's Issues section, giving leadership visibility into systemic challenges that need bigger-picture attention.

Issue priority

Each Issue can be assigned a priority number from 1 to 5. Ninety's default treats 5 as the highest priority and 1 as the lowest:

• 5 — Must solve today.
• 4 — Will ideally solve today.
• 3 — Solve today if time allows.
• 2 — Not urgent, but should be solved soon.
• 1 — Not time sensitive.
   

EOS doesn't prescribe a specific numbering convention. Your team or company can decide how to use the scale, including reversing it if 1-as-highest fits your mental model better. What matters is that everyone uses it consistently, so your team always knows which Issues to tackle first.

How the Issues tool connects to other tools

Rocks. Creating Issues around your Rocks and milestones helps you determine whether quarterly goals are on or off track. When a Rock isn't progressing as expected, right-click it and select Create Linked Issue to push it to the Issues list for IDS. The linked Issue carries the Rock's title and description and displays the Rock under Linked Items in the Issue's details panel. Solving the Issue does not automatically complete the Rock.

Scorecard. Off-track Measurables are a primary source of Issues. Right-click any Scorecard cell and select Create Issue to convert it directly to a short-term Issue so it's ready for discussion during the next Level 10 Meeting. Measurables that are off track for three or more consecutive weeks are often strong candidates for the Issues list.

Meetings. Short-term Issues feed the IDS block of every Level 10 Meeting. Inside the meeting, the Issues card gives your team four ways to prioritize before discussion begins: ranking by number, the Top 3 selector, drag and drop, and Issues voting. Issues created and solved during a meeting appear in the meeting recap email.

V/TO. Long-term Issues mirror automatically to the V/TO's Traction page. If your leadership team wants specific LTIs visible to other teams viewing your leadership V/TO, open the Issue and toggle Public Issue on. Issues are private by default.

To-Dos. The most common output of a solved Issue is a To-Do. When your team reaches a decision during IDS, right-click the Issue and select Create Linked To-Do to assign the action step to an owner and set a due date. The To-Do stays connected to the Issue so anyone can trace the decision back to its source.

Planning Board. Long-term Issues that are ready to become quarterly goals can be dragged from the Long-Term Issues column on the Planning Board into a future quarter's column, where they will be converted into Rocks.

User roles and permissions in the Issues tool

• Team Members (also called Managees) can create, view, edit, archive, and delete Issues on their assigned teams. They cannot access Issue Settings.
• Managers can do everything a Team Member can, plus access Issue Settings for their assigned teams. Issue Settings include toggling Prioritization, Voting, and Desired Solve Rate on or off.
• Admins have full access across all teams, including company-wide Issue Settings in Company Settings.
• Implementers/Coaches have access equivalent to Admins within the accounts they support.
• Owners have full access across the entire account, including company-wide settings.
• Observers can view their teams' Issues lists but cannot create, edit, archive, or delete Issues.

For a full breakdown of what each role can do across all tools, see User Roles and Permissions.

What's in the Issues tool

Navigating the Issues Page — Learn how to switch between short-term and long-term lists, filter by team, toggle the archive on, and sort and reorder Issues using list and column views.

Creating Issues — There are three ways to create an Issue in Ninety: the global Create button, directly from the Issues tool, and as a linked Issue from an existing Rock, To-Do, Headline, or other Issue.

Editing Issues — Update an Issue's title, owner, description, team, priority, and attachments from the details panel. Move an Issue between the short-term and long-term lists at any time.

Prioritizing and Ranking Issues — Step-by-step instructions for all four prioritization methods: ranking 1–5, using the Top 3 selector during a meeting, drag and drop reordering, and Issues voting.

Sending and Receiving Issues Between Teams — Send an Issue from your team's list to another team for discussion and resolution. Understand how the receiving team controls the Issue's status until it's returned.

Make It an Issue — Convert any item in Ninety into an Issue using the right-click menu. This includes off-track Rocks, Scorecard Measurables, Headlines, and To-Dos.

Archiving and Deleting Issues — Archive solved or irrelevant Issues to keep your list clean while preserving the record. Bulk archive all completed Issues at once, or delete an Issue permanently.

Customizing Issues Tool Settings — Turn prioritization, Issues voting, and desired solve rate on or off for your team. Managers, Admins, Implementers, and Owners can access these settings from the gear icon on the Issues filters bar.

Issues Dashboard — Track your team's Issue-solving performance over time. Set a desired solve rate and review how your team is trending against it in the Insights tool.

Issues Notifications — Configure email notifications so you're alerted when someone comments on an Issue you're following.

Exporting Issues — Export your team's short-term and long-term Issues to an XLSX spreadsheet, including descriptions, priorities, owners, and completion dates.

Printing Issues — Generate a PDF of your team's Issues list to share with stakeholders or review offline.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between a short-term Issue and a long-term Issue? Short-term Issues are the problems, obstacles, ideas, and opportunities your team addresses during weekly Level 10 Meetings through the IDS process. Long-term Issues aren't a priority this quarter. They're carried to the next quarterly or annual planning session and may eventually become Rocks or remain on the list until capacity opens up.

How does priority ranking work? Is 1 the highest or the lowest? Ninety's default scale treats 5 as the highest priority and 1 as the lowest. Five means "must solve today"; one means "not time sensitive." EOS doesn't prescribe a specific convention, so your team can agree to use the scale differently as long as everyone uses it consistently. During a meeting, click the # column header to sort Issues by their priority number so the highest-priority items surface first.

Can I add ideas or opportunities as Issues, or is it only for problems? All four types are valid: problems, obstacles, ideas, and opportunities. The Issues list is the right place to capture an idea or opportunity your team wants to discuss at the right time, whether that's this week in IDS or at the next quarterly session as a long-term Issue.

What does "solving" an Issue actually mean? Solving an Issue means reaching a clear decision about what to do next: who owns it, what the action is, and when it's due. The outcome is often a linked To-Do that tracks the action. Solving means the path forward is agreed upon. Mark an Issue as solved by clicking the circular radio button to the left of its title.

How do I move an Issue between the short-term and long-term list? Right-click the Issue and select Move to Long-Term or Move to Short-Term. You can also open the Issue's details panel and click the clock icon at the top to toggle between lists. Changes save automatically.

Can I add Issues from the mobile app? Yes. In the Ninety mobile app, tap the plus button and select Issue, or go directly to the Issues section and add one from there. The text-to-Issue feature (Henryx) was deactivated on June 30, 2025, so the mobile app is the best alternative for adding Issues on the go.

Why do my long-term Issues appear on the V/TO Traction page? Long-term Issues automatically mirror to the V/TO Traction page so leadership has visibility into systemic challenges that need bigger-picture attention. Each LTI has a Public Issue toggle in its details panel. When the toggle is on, other teams can see that Issue when they view your leadership V/TO. The leadership team's long-term Issues are private by default, so toggling it on is required for cross-team visibility.

Where is the Top 3 selector, and why can't other attendees see it? The Top 3 selector (the 1, 2, 3 list icon on the Issues card) is only visible to the meeting presenter — the person who started the meeting or claimed the presenter role. Other attendees, including scribes, won't see the button. The presenter clicks the icon, then selects the three Issues to prioritize; those three Issues move to the top of the list.

What's the difference between archiving and deleting an Issue? Archiving moves the Issue out of your active list and into the archive, where it can be viewed and restored at any time. Deleting permanently removes the Issue from your workspace and the archive with no way to recover it. For any Issue you might want to reference later, archive rather than delete.

Learn more

Gain Traction with IDS® from EOS® — A Professional EOS Implementer's complete guide to the Identify, Discuss, and Solve process: how to find the root cause of an Issue, how to keep the Discuss phase focused on facts, and what a real Solve looks like.

What Is the EOS Model® and How Can It Transform Your Business? — Places the Issues Component in the context of all Six Key Components and explains why building an organization that surfaces and solves issues systematically is foundational to gaining traction.

What Is a Level 10 Meeting®? The EOS® Weekly Meeting Explained — A practitioner's walkthrough of the full L10 agenda, including how the IDS block works in practice and why it's the most valuable section of the weekly meeting.

How the Level 10 Meeting® Helps My Team Adjust and Advance — A first-person account of IDS in action: how real decisions get made during the Issues block, how they become To-Dos, and how that discipline compounds over time.