QBR Agenda Template

Most QBRs fail the same way: every team presents green, the deck takes the whole meeting, and nothing is decided. This agenda inverts that. Scores are circulated before the meeting so no time is spent reading them aloud, and the agenda allocates the majority of the room to the goals that missed, where the actual decisions live. Time-box every section and protect the decision block.

QUARTERLY BUSINESS REVIEW — ________  Q_ ____   (90 min)

BEFORE THE MEETING (async, required)
  [ ] All OKR scores entered and shared
  [ ] Each owner adds a one-line "what changed" note per goal

AGENDA
  00:00  Context & headline numbers (10 min)
         Quarter in one slide: what moved, what didn't.
  00:10  Wins worth repeating (10 min)
         The 2-3 results we want to understand and reuse.
  00:20  What missed and why (40 min)  <-- the core of the meeting
         For each missed goal: root cause, not status.
         Decision: continue / stop / change approach / re-resource.
  01:00  Next quarter priorities (20 min)
         Draft the 2-3 priorities that follow from the above.
  01:20  Decisions & owners recap (10 min)
         Every decision has a named owner and a date.

DECISIONS LOG
  Decision: __________  Owner: ______  By when: ______
  Decision: __________  Owner: ______  By when: ______

How to use this template

1. Circulate scores and one-line notes before the meeting. Reading numbers aloud is the single biggest waste of a QBR.
2. Protect the 40-minute block on what missed. That is where decisions are made; everything else is context.
3. For each miss, ask for root cause, not status. "It's amber" is not a reason; "the dependency on platform slipped" is.
4. Close by reading back every decision with an owner and a date. A QBR with no decisions log was a status meeting.

Frequently asked questions

How long should a QBR be?

Ninety minutes for a single team is usually enough when scores are shared beforehand. The discipline is not length, it is spending the time on decisions rather than on reading status.

Who should attend a QBR?

The goal owners and the leader who can actually decide to continue, stop, or re-resource. Adding observers who cannot decide turns the room back into a presentation.