Guide · C91
Trade off a marketing-objective portfolio
Which objectives can be committed together without exceeding capacity or multiplying fragile bets?
Direct answer
The portfolio cross-checks value, controllability, capacity coverage and evidence quality to make each objective’s specific tension visible.
01Commit, condition, reduce or defer each objective before allocating initiatives.
02The rule, the evidence and the next review date stay visible.
How to use this
Move from the question to the deliverable.
Which objectives can be committed together without exceeding capacity or multiplying fragile bets?
Commit, condition, reduce or defer each objective before allocating initiatives.
Original objective-tension profile
Original chart · SQ-91
See which objectives create disproportionate tension
An attractive objective can be hard to control, underfunded or based on fragile evidence. The tension profile stops everything being committed at once.
Fictitious portfolio of five annual objectives sharing the same acquisition, content and marketing ops teams.
- 01Normalise
Express every objective with a value, a deadline, an owner and a measurable result.
- 02Assess
Score controllability, capacity coverage and evidence quality on the same scale.
- 03Calculate
Combine control shortfall, capacity shortfall and uncertainty into a tension index.
- 04Compose
Reduce or condition the objectives that concentrate the tension on the same bottleneck.
Decision tension profile of the objectives
The ARR objective carries the highest value and a high tension. Retention offers a more robust commitment.
Tension = 40% × (100 − controllability) + 35% × (100 − capacity) + 25% × (100 − evidence)| Objective | Value | Controllability | Capacity | Evidence | Tension | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New ARR · €2.4m | 100 | 48 | 76 | 60 | 39 | Condition |
| Retention · +4 pts | 78 | 72 | 95 | 80 | 18 | Commit |
| Partner pipeline · €1.1m | 66 | 55 | 62 | 45 | 45 | Pilot |
| Activation · 75% | 58 | 84 | 88 | 82 | 15 | Commit |
| Unaided awareness · +6 pts | 42 | 35 | 70 | 38 | 52 | Defer |
01The chart shows the strain index out of 100; an objective above 40 requires a condition or a reduction.
02ARR is kept, but its commitment depends on a capacity gate and on a target range.
03Awareness is deferred: its strain is the highest while its decision value is the lowest.
Fictitious data. The index structures a decision and does not measure the intrinsic strategic value of an objective.
Coherence controls
Minimum conditions before validation.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
The status, the evidence and the owner must be available for review.
Usable deliverable
Original objective-tension profile
Explore the decision further with an interactive control, or start from a structured template to produce your deliverable.