Strategy execution tools

The strategy execution tool landscape in 2026: what's left and what works

Viva Goals shut down, WorkBoard went quiet, Cascade and Quantive moved on. The tools that survived have one thing in common: they connect goals to the work instead of storing goals on their own.

Free up to 5 users Two integrations free No credit card required
Your data stays in Europe GDPR compliant ISO 27001 certified EU data center
Work Graph Goal at risk
Cut onboarding time to 10 days is at risk - no work has moved under it in three weeks.
Work Graph Task needs attention
Your task Migrate the Q3 key results has not been touched since it was synced in.
Teams that run their quarter on Vindaris
Vindaris Alignment Canvas showing goals connected down to KPIs, projects and synced tasks, with at-risk work flagged Click thru live demo Pre-built workspace. No signup.

One board instead of a tool per layer: strategy at the top, the goals and KPIs beneath it, and the tasks synced in from Jira, Planner, Asana, Google Tasks and HubSpot delivering each one. Click through the live workspace, no signup.

The full analysis

Vendor by vendor, what actually happened.

Which tools left the category, which ones changed shape, and what the teams migrating off them actually needed instead.

The strategy execution software market in 2026 looks nothing like it did in 2024. If you are searching for the best OKR tools in 2026 or running a goal management software comparison, you will find fewer names on the list. Some vendors shut down. Others pivoted into adjacent categories. A handful remain, but their positioning has shifted.

This post maps out what happened, what still exists, and what actually works for teams trying to connect strategic goals to daily execution. We have evaluated most of these tools over the past eighteen months, either through direct use or through conversations with teams migrating away from them.

What happened to the market

Between late 2024 and mid-2026, the strategy execution category lost several major players. The consolidation was not random. It followed a pattern: tools that treated goal-setting as a standalone activity - disconnected from where work actually happens - struggled to retain users. Weekly check-ins and red/yellow/green status updates were not enough to justify another subscription.

The survivors either integrated deeply into existing workflows or expanded their scope to cover planning, execution, and reporting in a single surface. The demand that survived is for tools that surface execution risk, not tools that store goals.

Microsoft Viva Goals: gone

Microsoft announced the sunset of Viva Goals in late 2024 and completed the wind-down in early 2026. The product, originally Ally.io (acquired in 2022), never gained the internal traction Microsoft hoped for. It sat awkwardly between Microsoft Planner, Project, and the broader Viva suite without a clear differentiation story.

For teams still looking for a Viva Goals alternative, the options depend on what you actually used it for. If it was primarily OKR tracking with Teams integration, most replacements will cover that. If you relied on its data integrations for automated key result updates, the field narrows considerably.

WorkBoard: silent retreat

WorkBoard has not made a significant product announcement since mid-2025. Their website still exists, but enterprise customers report difficulty getting responses from sales and support teams. Several mid-market companies we spoke with migrated away in Q1 2026 after failing to get contract renewals processed.

This is not an official shutdown - WorkBoard has not announced anything publicly. But for practical purposes, teams evaluating a WorkBoard alternative should treat the platform as end-of-life until proven otherwise. The lack of communication is the signal.

Cascade: pivot to strategic planning

Cascade rebranded and repositioned itself away from pure OKR execution toward strategic planning and portfolio management. The product still exists, but it serves a different buyer now. If you were using Cascade for team-level goal tracking and weekly check-ins, the current version is overbuilt for that use case.

Their focus shifted toward C-suite strategic planning workflows - scenario modeling, initiative prioritization, resource allocation. This is a legitimate market, but it leaves mid-market teams without an execution-focused tool. If that describes your situation, consider looking at a Cascade alternative that maintains the execution layer.

Quantive (formerly Gtmhub): identity crisis

Quantive went through two rebrandings and at least one major pivot since 2023. They moved from "OKR platform" to "strategy execution" to their current positioning around "strategic intelligence." Each pivot brought new features and deprecated old ones.

The product still functions, but long-time users report confusion about the roadmap. Pricing increased substantially in 2025, pushing smaller teams out. If you are evaluating a Quantive alternative, the main question is whether you need their data connectivity features (which remain strong) or whether a simpler goal-to-task connection would serve you better.

ClearPoint: niche stability

ClearPoint has stayed consistent, serving government agencies and large nonprofits with balanced scorecard and strategic planning needs. It works well within that niche. The interface feels dated compared to newer tools, but the reporting depth is genuine.

For organizations outside the public sector, ClearPoint can feel heavy. The setup overhead is significant, and the tool assumes a specific strategic planning methodology that not every team follows. Teams exploring a ClearPoint alternative typically want something lighter that still provides structured goal tracking without the balanced-scorecard rigidity.

What still works in 2026

The tools that survived and grew share common traits. They do not treat goals as a standalone artifact. They connect objectives to the actual tasks, projects, and decisions that drive progress.

Here is what separates functioning strategy execution tools from the ones that disappeared:

Integration with work systems. Goals that update automatically based on work completed in project management tools, CRMs, or data platforms. Manual weekly updates are a tax that teams eventually stop paying.

Lightweight setup. If it takes a consultant engagement to configure the tool, adoption will stall at the leadership layer. The teams doing the work will never log in.

Visible connection between strategy and tasks. People need to see how their daily work maps to company objectives. Not through a motivational poster, but through actual structural links in the software.

Reporting that works for multiple audiences. Executives want a dashboard. Managers want progress views. Individual contributors want to know which of their tasks matter most. One view does not serve all three.

The remaining players

A handful of tools continue to operate credibly in this space:

Perdoo remains focused on OKRs and KPIs for mid-market companies. Their product is stable, the interface is clean, and they have not tried to become something they are not. Limitation: the task layer is thin. You still need a separate project management tool.

Profit.co serves enterprise OKR use cases with deep configurability. Good for large organizations that want to map OKRs across many levels. Limitation: complexity. Smaller teams find it overwhelming.

Weekdone continues to serve small teams with a lightweight OKR implementation. Limitation: it does not scale well past 50-100 people, and the strategic planning layer is minimal.

Vindaris connects strategic goals directly to task execution, designed for the gap that opened when tools like Viva Goals and WorkBoard disappeared. Rather than treating goals and work as separate systems that need syncing, Vindaris structures them as one hierarchy - from company objectives down to individual tasks. The focus is on making the connection between strategy and daily work visible and maintainable without requiring manual status updates.

How to evaluate what you need

Before picking a tool, answer these questions honestly:

How many people will actually use it? If only leadership will interact with the tool, you need a reporting and planning platform. If execution teams will use it daily, you need something that integrates with or replaces their task management.

What broke about your last tool? Most teams we talk to did not leave their previous strategy tool because it lacked features. They left because adoption died. People stopped updating. The data went stale. Whatever you pick next needs to solve that specific failure mode.

Do you need OKR methodology specifically? Some teams want the OKR framework. Others just want clear goals connected to measurable outcomes connected to work. These are different requirements, and not every tool handles both well.

What is your planning cadence? Annual strategic planning with quarterly OKR cycles is one pattern. Continuous planning with rolling objectives is another. Your tool needs to match your rhythm, not impose one.

Where the market goes from here

The pure-play OKR tool is likely finished as a category. What remains is a spectrum: on one end, lightweight goal-tracking features built into project management suites (Asana, Monday, Jira). On the other end, strategic planning platforms for executives (Cascade's new direction, Planview, AchieveIt).

The middle ground - tools that connect high-level strategy to granular execution for the entire organization - is where the actual need exists. That is also where the fewest credible options remain after the 2024-2026 shakeout.

Teams buying today are not choosing between fifteen equivalent OKR platforms anymore. They are choosing between a few distinct approaches, each with real trade-offs.

All posts

Use cases

Built for the moments a goal tool usually loses the room.

Every tool in this roundup was adopted with good intentions. These are the moments that decide whether people keep opening it in month four.

My Priorities showing one person's goals, KPIs and synced tasks for the week
My PrioritiesEverything assigned to one person, across every connected tool, ordered by impact and due date.
Work Graph alert flagging a goal with no active work beneath it
Work GraphTwelve deterministic and AI-driven alerts watching for slipping work, broken routines and misaligned focus.
Task board showing work synced in from several connected tools, each tagged with its source
Task BoardEvery synced task keeps a tag pointing back to Jira, Planner, Asana, Google Tasks or HubSpot.
Data Studio comparing logged effort against each goal for the quarter
Data StudioQuery every goal, KPI, project and task like a database, then save the view as a scheduled report.
Heatmap showing goal health per team, with one team flagged at risk
HeatmapA colored tile per team, person or goal, shaded by health. Click any tile to drill in.
The platform

The layer the shut-down tools were missing.

Viva Goals, WorkBoard and the rest stored goals in a system separate from the work. Vindaris keeps both in one model, so a closed task moves the goal above it without anyone retyping a status.

01 / Connected model

Goals and work in one graph

Strategies, goals, KPIs, projects and tasks connect on an open canvas with no fixed hierarchy. A goal can serve two strategies, which a cascading tree has no way to express.

02 / Work Graph

Risk that finds you first

The Work Graph reads the edges between a goal and the work beneath it, then alerts the owner when work stalls, a goal has nothing under it, or effort drifts somewhere the plan never mentioned.

03 / Two-way sync

Work stays where it lives

Connect HubSpot, Jira, Planner, Asana and Google Tasks. Sync runs both directions, so no team migrates and every synced item keeps a tag pointing back to its source.

Step 01 | Alignment Canvas

Put the strategy on one board

Define the strategy, goals and KPIs on the Alignment Canvas. Cascade from company level down to teams and individuals in whichever framework you already run, and rename every level to your own language.

  • A goal can serve two strategies, which a rigid tree cannot express.
  • Filter by owner, team or time range to inspect one slice of the plan.
Alignment Canvas: put the strategy on one board
Step 02 | Task Board

Connect the tools your team already works in

Plug in HubSpot, Microsoft Planner, Google Tasks, Asana or Jira. Bidirectional sync pulls the work into Vindaris while your team stays in the tool they know, which is the adoption problem that sank the previous generation.

  • No team migrates. The work stays where it happens.
  • Every synced item keeps a tag pointing at its source tool.
Task Board: connect the tools your team already works in
Step 03 | My Priorities

Map the work to the goals it moves

Vindaris suggests which tasks and projects deliver each goal based on labels, owners and structure. Confirm the mapping once and progress rolls up from real delivery from then on.

  • Suggestions come from the work, not from a naming convention.
  • Each owner sees their own slice, ranked by what it affects upstream.
My Priorities: map the work to the goals it moves
Step 04 | Work Graph

Get told before the data goes stale

The Work Graph evaluates the work behind every goal and flags where it stalls. The tools that lost their users had no way to notice that nothing had moved in a month.

  • Twelve alert types, each naming the blocking work.
  • Scheduled AI summaries land in Slack, Teams or email.
Work Graph: get told before the data goes stale
Customers

What three teams caught early.

1000 Good Things, Kith Spark and rufmacher connect their goals to the work behind them in Vindaris. Each case study walks through the setup and the moment the tool paid for itself.

Try step 01

Write the strategy in plain language, get a canvas.

Describe the plan the way you would say it out loud. Mention a goal, KPI, project or task with @ and Vindaris maps it onto the Alignment Canvas.

Strategy Narrative
Write your @strategy, @goals, @kpis, @projects and @tasks and automatically map them on the Alignment Canvas in one click. Type @ to mention
Mention existing
expand into the European enterprise market
grow ARR to $10M
land 25 enterprise logos
build a repeatable outbound motion
launch the partner & referral program
hire two enterprise account executives
Create new
New Goal…
New KPI…
New Project…
New Task…
Start from an example:
Risk alerts

The Work Graph is the part the shut-down tools never had.

Every tool in this roundup could store a goal. Almost none of them could tell you that nothing was happening underneath it. Vindaris reads the edges between goals and work and names the problem with the reason attached, which is execution risk caught while there is still time to act.

Work Graph alert showing a goal with no work attached to it
Work GraphThe alert names the goal and how long it has been sitting without work beneath it.
Alignment Canvas showing tasks with no goal above them
Alignment CanvasWork with nothing above it shows up as an orphan on the canvas, not as a surprise at quarter-end.
Email alert notifying an owner that a goal review routine has lapsed
Email alertCadence alerts arrive by email, Slack or Teams, on the owner's own schedule.
Data Studio table comparing effort logged against the goals it was meant to serve
Data StudioSave the comparison as a view and have it delivered before the next review.

Twelve deterministic and AI-driven alerts watching for slipping work, broken routines and misaligned focus.

Built for the way you work

Your framework, your language, your data in Europe.

Vindaris adapts to the operating model and compliance posture you already run, instead of asking you to adopt a new one.

Whatever framework the old tool imposed

Several of the tools that shut down assumed one methodology and made everything else awkward. Vindaris ships without a prescribed framework: run OKRs, EOS Rocks, OGSM, Hoshin Kanri or a plain set of KPIs, and rename every level to match the words your company already uses.

OKRs EOS OGSM KPIs SMART Goals Hoshin Kanri

Your data stays in Europe

Vindaris runs in a Hetzner data center in Nuremberg and was built around European data sovereignty from the start. Procurement and your DPO will find the answers they need in the trust center.

Hosted in Germany, ISO 27001 certified data center GDPR compliant, DPA available on request TLS 1.3 in transit, AES-256 at rest No data transfers outside the EU/EEA

Read the full trust center

Pricing

Free forever, including two integrations.

Start free with full goal, KPI, task and project management. Pay only when you add more than four people, more integrations, or more automated AI summaries.

Free
€0/forever

Best for individual contributors, small teams or startups. No credit card required.

  • All views: Canvas, My Priorities, Heatmap, Data Studio and Task Board
  • Two integrations of your choice
  • Up to four additional members
  • Five ad-hoc AI risk summaries per month
Sign up for free
Pro
€20/user/mo

Best for multiple teams, exec teams, Chiefs of Staff or full-org deployments.

  • Everything in Connect
  • Unlimited users in one organization
  • Direct human support, 24h response
  • Human-led onboarding
Start with Pro

See full plan comparison →

Free tooling

Free tools and templates for evaluating what you need.

Real PowerPoint and Excel files and browser tools that work without an account. Take them even if you pick a different vendor.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions, answered

What is the best alternative to Viva Goals in 2026?

It depends on your primary use case. For OKR tracking with Microsoft 365 integration, Vindaris and Perdoo both offer connections to Microsoft ecosystems. For enterprise-scale goal cascading, Profit.co is worth evaluating. For small teams wanting simplicity, Weekdone remains viable. The key question is whether you need goal tracking alone or goal-to-execution connectivity.

Is strategy execution software still worth buying?

Yes, but only if it integrates into how your team actually works. The tools that failed were the ones that existed as a separate system people had to remember to update. Tools that connect to work systems and provide value to execution teams (not just leadership) still justify their cost.

What happened to the OKR software market?

The market consolidated between 2024 and 2026. Microsoft exited (Viva Goals), WorkBoard went quiet, Cascade pivoted to strategic planning, and Quantive shifted positioning repeatedly. Several smaller players also disappeared. The remaining tools are either deeply integrated execution platforms or lightweight goal-tracking features within larger suites.

How do I prevent adoption failure with a new strategy tool?

Choose a tool that provides value to the people updating it, not just the people reading the reports. If your team leads and individual contributors see their daily tasks organized and prioritized through the tool, they will use it. If it is purely a reporting layer they fill out for someone else's benefit, adoption will decay within two quarters. ---

Get started

The category thinned out. The problem did not.

Connect your first tool in 90 seconds. Free forever for goal and KPI management.

Start free, no credit card

No credit card | No migration | No minimum contract