Pick the framework your team already uses — OKR, OGSM, V2MOM, AARRR, HEART, or North Star — and Hamster gives you the structure to track what you want and link it to the work that delivers it.
Metrics is where you define how each measurable goal is counted — unit, direction, aggregation, baselines, and targets. Results is where per-period targets and actuals land, with status and confidence, so the scoreboard stays current without a parallel spreadsheet.
Goals are how your team captures what you want in a place every teammate, every brief, and the AI assistant can read. Hamster ships with six measurement frameworks built in. You pick the one your team works with — Hamster enforces the shape, you fill in the substance.
Each framework template defines:
Goals are the layer that sits above initiatives. Initiatives are the bundles of work that deliver a goal; briefs sit inside initiatives. So the flow goes Goals → Initiatives → Briefs → Plans → Tasks → PRs — outcome at the top, shipped change at the bottom.
You can switch frameworks later. Switching doesn't disturb the work below — your initiatives, briefs, plans, and tasks all stay intact.
| Framework | Hierarchy you fill in | Default cadence | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| OKR | Objective → 2–5 Key Results | Quarterly | Most product and engineering teams; familiar from Google/Intel |
| OGSM | Objective → 2–5 Goals → Strategies → Measures | Annual | Leadership teams that want a single page from objective down to measurement |
| V2MOM | Vision · Values · Methods · Obstacles · Measures | Annual | Salesforce-style framework that names what could derail you, not just what you're chasing |
| AARRR | Acquisition / Activation / Retention / Referral / Revenue → Metrics | Continuous | Growth and lifecycle teams measuring funnel movement |
| HEART | Feature → Happiness/Engagement/Adoption/Retention/Task Success → Goals · Signals · Metrics | Continuous | Feature- or surface-level UX measurement |
| North Star | North Star Metric → 3–5 Input Metrics | Continuous | Product-led teams centred on a single primary metric |
Each framework template is versioned and curated by Hamster. When templates evolve, your existing goals don't break — your framework instance keeps its current shape until you choose to upgrade.
Pick a framework — From the Goals page, create a framework instance from a template. Give it a name (e.g. "Q1 2026 OKRs", "Growth AARRR"), pick a cadence (quarterly, annual, monthly, continuous), and optionally set a start and end date.
Fill in the hierarchy — Each framework has its own goal types. OKR has Objectives and Key Results. OGSM has Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures. V2MOM has all five top-level types. Hamster enforces the shape — you can't put a Key Result under a Strategy or skip a layer.
Metrics — On any goal type marked measurable (Key Results, OGSM Measures, AARRR/HEART Metrics, North Star and Input Metrics), attach a unit, a direction (increase / decrease / maintain), an aggregation (sum / avg / last / max / min), an optional baseline, and a target. OGSM Measures can additionally be tagged as leading or lagging KPIs.
Results — A framework's cadence creates periods (Q1 2026, H1 2026, etc.). For each measurable goal, log a target and an actual per period, plus a status (On Track, At Risk, Off Track, Achieved, Missed) and an optional confidence (0–1).
Link initiatives to goals — From an initiative, link it to the goal(s) it's meant to deliver. A single initiative can contribute to multiple goals; a goal can be delivered by multiple initiatives. Optionally weight each link (0–1) when an initiative only partly serves a goal.
Watch work ladder up — As briefs ship, their initiatives roll up into goals. The Goals view shows you which goals have initiatives behind them, which are unanchored, and which are tracking against their targets.
The AI assistant reads from your goals when it refines briefs, generates plans, and proposes initiatives, alongside Blueprints and the Context Graph. Ask things like:
When the assistant proposes a brief or an initiative, it can reference the goal it ladders up to — so the why is visible at every layer.
Frameworks are deliberately separated from delivery. Your initiatives, briefs, plans, and tasks don't depend on which framework you've chosen. If your team moves from OKRs to OGSM, you change the framework instance — the work below stays exactly where it is, and the new framework's goals can re-link to the same initiatives.
This is intentional: frameworks are how you measure direction. Delivery shouldn't have to change shape every time the team picks a new measurement language.
Managing goals (creating frameworks, editing goals, attaching metrics, recording results) requires the goals.manage permission. By default this is held by Owners and Admins; Members and Reviewers see goals read-only. Roles and permissions spell out who can change what.
leading reports early; a lagging one reports outcomes. Mixing them is how strategies stay honest.