How to Use the Planning Board in Ninety

Planning one quarter at a time can leave leadership teams reactive — focused on the current 90 days without a clear view of what comes next. The Planning Board is a tab within the Rocks tool that gives your team a shared, centralized view of Rocks for the current quarter and up to three quarters ahead. Use it to draft future Rocks, link them to annual goals, convert long-term Issues into upcoming initiatives, and arrive at every planning meeting with proposals already on the table.

The Planning Board is available to all users on paid Ninety plans (Essentials, Accelerate, or Thrive). It is only available on the web app.

Who can use the Planning Board

Video Overview

Navigating the Planning Board

The Planning Board displays your team's Rocks across five columns. Each column represents a planning horizon, and your team can use them in whatever way best fits your planning rhythm:

1. Current — The Rocks your team is actively working on this quarter.
2. Next — Rocks your team is planning to take on next quarter, or when capacity opens up.
3. Later — Rocks intended for one or more quarters into the future.
4. Future — Rocks your team plans to take on when the time and capacity are right.
5. Long-Term Issues — Your team's long-term Issues list, which may include future Rock candidates and backlogged strategic ideas.

The Next, Later, and Future columns are flexible. Some teams assign a specific quarter to each Rock; others move Rocks through the columns fluidly as capacity shifts. Either approach is valid — use the structure that works for your team.

Working with Draft Rocks

The Planning Board introduces a Draft status for Rocks that are still being defined or considered for a future quarter. Draft Rocks can be:

• Created and edited like any other Rock.
• Archived while still in Draft status.
• Converted to active status when you're ready to commit to them.

Draft Rocks remain visible on the Planning Board until you finalize or archive them. When you move a Rock to any non-current column, Ninety will automatically set its status to Draft.

Team navigation

Use the Team dropdown toward the top left of the page to switch between the teams you're a member of.

Additional actions

At the top of each column, click the + button to create a new Rock or the ellipsis (...) to open a sort menu for that column. You can also:

• Drag and drop Rocks between columns, or drag a Long-Term Issue into a quarter column to convert it to a Rock.
• Link to Goals by clicking Link Goal on any Rock's card to connect it to a company or team goal from your V/TO.
• Use the Rock Status filter to view only Rocks at a specific stage (for example, Draft Rocks in future quarters).

How to open the Planning Board

To open the Planning Board:

1. Click Rocks from the left navigation.
2. Click the Planning Board tab.

From there, select a team from the Team dropdown, filter by Rock status, and adjust which team members' Rocks are displayed using the Users dropdown.

Creating Rocks in the Planning Board

To create a new Rock in the Planning Board:

1. Click the + button at the top of any quarter column.
2. Fill in the Rock's details: title, description, due date, status, team, quarter, and any other relevant fields.
3. Click Create Rock to add it to the Planning Board.

Linking annual goals to Rocks

You can link any Rock to a goal from your V/TO to ensure your quarterly priorities are aligned with your company's longer-term objectives. To link a goal:

1. Click Link Goal on any Rock's card from the Planning Board.
2. Click the checkbox next to one or more goals.
3. Click Link items to Rocks.

Linked goals appear on the Rock's card directly in the Planning Board view, giving you a quick visual confirmation that your Rocks are connected to the right objectives.

The goals available to link depend on the team membership of the Rock's owner. For example, if a member of your Sales team shares a Rock with the Finance team for visibility, the Finance team cannot link their goals to that Rock unless the Rock's owner is also on the Finance team.

To learn how to document your team's annual goals, see Documenting goals in your V/TO.

You can also link Rocks to other items in Ninety — including other Rocks, Milestones, To-Dos, Issues, and Headlines — from the Rock's details panel.

Moving Rocks between quarters

To move a Rock to a different quarter, drag and drop its card into the intended column. Dropping it near the top of the column tends to be easiest.

You can also assign a quarter directly from the Rock's details panel using the Quarter dropdown:

• Default: None (no quarter assigned).
• Available options: Previous quarter, current quarter, or up to three future quarters.

Assigning a quarter ensures the Rock appears in the correct reporting period in the Rocks Analytics tool and accurately reflects your team's planning history over time.

Converting Long-Term Issues to Rocks

Long-term Issues (LTIs) that have matured into actionable priorities can be converted to Rocks directly from the Planning Board. To convert an LTI:

1. Drag a Long-Term Issue card into any quarter column.
2. Select what to do with the original Issue: mark it complete, or complete and archive it.
3. Review the additional options displayed as checkboxes.
4. Click Confirm.

Common use cases

The Planning Board supports several distinct planning workflows. Here are four ways teams commonly put it to work.

Preparing for quarterly planning

Before your Quarterly Planning Meeting, use the Planning Board to arrive with proposals already drafted rather than starting from a blank slate. Review your Long-Term Issues column for Items that have become Rock candidates, then drag them into the quarter column you anticipate working on them. Use the Draft status to signal that a Rock is a proposal, not yet a commitment. When the meeting starts, your leadership team can review, refine, and finalize — rather than spending the session generating ideas from scratch.

Running a planning meeting

Open the Planning Board during your Quarterly or Annual Planning Meeting so your whole team is looking at the same view in real time. Propose Rocks, discuss priorities, and move Draft Rocks into the current column as decisions are made. This gives the meeting a concrete, visual focus and ensures decisions are captured in Ninety the moment they're made rather than transcribed later from notes.

Identifying unallocated goals

After you've assigned Rocks to future quarters, check whether each company or team goal has at least one Rock linked to it. Goals that have no linked Rocks may indicate a gap in your strategic execution plan — you've committed to an objective but haven't defined a quarterly initiative to move it forward. Use the Link Goal feature on each Rock's card to make these connections visible and ensure nothing important is left without a champion or a plan.

Coordinating across teams

The Planning Board helps teams surface dependencies and avoid planning in silos. Managers can view their own team's board; Owners, Admins, and Implementers can view any non-private team's board. Use this visibility to spot cross-team dependencies before they become problems — for example, confirming that the Marketing team's Q3 Rock accounts for a product launch the Product team has planned for Q2.

Using the Planning Board in meetings

The Planning Board tab is accessible within the Rocks tool during any meeting that includes a Rocks segment, including Level 10 Meetings, Quarterly Planning Meetings, and Annual Planning sessions. During a meeting, your team can:

• Review and finalize Draft Rocks for the upcoming quarter.
• Plan and align on future Rocks during Annual Planning sessions.
• Transition Rocks from Draft to active status as the quarter approaches.

Best practice: Use the Rock planning segments of your Quarterly and Annual Planning Meetings to review and lock in Rocks on the Planning Board before moving them to the current quarter. This keeps your planning process structured and ensures every active Rock was deliberately chosen.

What happens when a team member leaves a team

If a user is removed from a team, their Rocks remain on the Planning Board but their name will no longer appear in the Owner dropdown. Their Rocks will be grouped under All in the filter view until a new owner is assigned.

Frequently asked questions

How should I integrate the Planning Board into my quarterly and annual planning process?

Start by moving long-term Issues you believe are Rock candidates into the quarter you anticipate working on them. You can also move canceled Rocks that need to be revisited — or incomplete Rocks that require more time — into future quarters. Over time, the board becomes a living backlog of your team's strategic priorities, organized by when you plan to act on them.

Where can I view Rocks for future quarters?

The Planning Board is the only place in Ninety to view and manage Rocks for future quarters.

Can I link items, like Issues, to future Rocks?

Yes. You can link Issues, To-Dos, and other items to future Rocks. Linked items appear in the Rock's details panel. Linked goals appear on the Rock's card in the Planning Board view.

Can I use the Planning Board to plan a multi-quarter project?

Yes. For initiatives that span more than one quarter, create a series of Draft Rocks in sequential quarter columns and link each of them to the same long-term goal in your V/TO. This gives your team a connected view of how each quarterly push contributes to the larger objective, without requiring you to fit a multi-quarter initiative into a single Rock.

Can I use the Planning Board to see everyone's Rocks across the company?

No. The Planning Board follows the same team-based permissions as the main Rocks tool. You can view and manage Rocks only for teams where you're a member. Owners, Admins, and Implementers can view any non-private team's board. This maintains appropriate visibility boundaries while supporting effective cross-team coordination.