WIG (Wildly Important Goal)

What is a WIG (Wildly Important Goal)?

The idea behind the 4 Disciplines of Execution is that organizations have more good ideas than they have the capacity to execute. As a result, it’s helpful to focus on the most crucial objective that otherwise wouldn’t be completed without special attention — the one goal that means no other goals matter if left unachieved. 

Why are WIGs important in product management?

WIGs are important in product management for a few key reasons. First and foremost, they help you prioritize and work on major goals that are most important to your business. You can clarify what you should be focusing on to create the best product with everything it needs to succeed.

WIGs also help you focus on the bigger picture instead of being sidetracked by daily emergencies as they arise. Being responsive and adaptive to changes is important in product management, but it’s easy to become weighed down by unexpected issues.

However, with WIGs, teams can put their time, energy, and resources into crucial tasks with greater focus. 

Ultimately, WIGs are goals that wouldn’t be completed if you weren’t focusing on them specifically. Clarifying the critical objectives and committing to achieving them will help you create the right product. 

How are WIGS different from other goals?

WIGs differ from other goals in a few ways. Crucially, they’re the most important goals for your team or business to accomplish. Some goals may add to a product’s quality but won’t profoundly impact the customer or user experience. But WIGs do. 

WIGs are the goals that open the door to accomplishing other goals once you achieve them.  

How to identify a WIG

WIGs are:

• Essential to your company’s overall goal

• Challenging

• Achievable despite that challenge

• Measurable

How to set a WIG step by step

1. Sit down with your team and decide two or three priorities you absolutely must achieve. These should be challenging enough to motivate and encourage your team to work at its best. However, they must be achievable. Taking an unrealistic approach could overwhelm your team, hinder their productivity, affect their engagement, and ultimately make accomplishing a WIG harder than it should be. 

2. Assess the impact of the possible goals on your list. Consider how they will affect the product and the business overall. You should then pick the most important goal to your company or team’s overall goal — but it must be measurable. Tracking progress and identifying where tweaks may be necessary to stay on target is vital. 

3. Identify where you are now, where you want to be, and when you want to be there. Setting a practical, doable deadline is critical to avoid rushing the process, but it also shouldn’t be so far away that accomplishing the goal seems less urgent and abstract.

4. Once you have set your WIG, plug it into the following formula:

From (current situation) to (desired situation) by (deadline)

5. Identify and act on a small number of impactful activities that drive progress. Track your progress to understand how well you’re working towards accomplishing the goal, and schedule regular reviews to promote accountability.

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