Most hoshin review templates are a slide per objective. That format guarantees a walk through every row and a meeting that ends without decisions. A review template should be built around exceptions and end with a decision log.
In this guide
Key Takeaways
- →A slide per objective has a built-in agenda: go through the slides. Decisions get the last ten minutes.
- →Ninety minutes is enough monthly when the agenda is exceptions and the inputs arrive prepared.
- →Open with last month’s countermeasure results, not with a status walk.
- →Rows on plan are not discussed. Green needs no meeting time.
- →The quarterly changes the plan: regrades, retirements, additions and reopened targets.
- →An empty quarterly decision log means the plan is being watched, not managed.
Why slide-per-objective fails
A pack with one slide per objective has a built-in agenda: go through the slides. The review spends equal time on rows that are fine and rows that aren’t, and the decisions that matter get squeezed into the last ten minutes. The cadence behind these meetings is covered in Hoshin Review Cadence in Software: Monthly, Quarterly, Annual; this article covers the formats.
The meeting rhythm these formats sit inside is set out in Review Cycles in Hoshin Kanri: Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual Check-Ins.
Monthly review template
| Item | Input | Time | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Last month’s countermeasures | Countermeasure sheet: expected effects | 10 min | Each marked worked, revise or escalate |
| 2. Outcome-lag cases | Four-quadrant chart | 25 min | Diagnosis per case; decision or escalation |
| 3. Persistent reds | Bowler rows red two months or more | 25 min | A3 assigned, or quarterly escalation |
| 4. Owner escalations | Items flagged in check-ins | 15 min | Decisions |
| 5. Decision log | Notes from items 1 to 4 | 5 min | Read back and confirmed |
A 90-minute format. Green and amber rows with countermeasures aren’t discussed.
Items 1 and 2 each have a tool behind them: Countermeasure Sheets in Hoshin Kanri: Tracking Actions on Off-Track Objectives and The Four-Quadrant Chart: Plotting KPIs Against Initiatives in Hoshin Kanri.
Quarterly review template
| Item | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1. A3s completed this quarter | Each A3’s plan-change section | Plan changes accepted or rejected |
| 2. Correlation regrades | Evidence from outcome-lag diagnoses | Grades changed, with reasons |
| 3. Priorities to retire or add | Kill signals fired; new candidates through the gate | Priority list revised; resources reassigned |
| 4. Targets to reopen | Swamping cases; A3 findings | Catchball opened with dates |
| 5. Breakthrough check | Cumulative progress | Flag for annual reset if off trajectory |
| 6. Decision log | All of the above | Dated changes to the plan |
If the quarterly decision log is empty, the plan isn’t being managed. It’s being watched.
How far a mid-year change should go, and what has to be recorded when it does, is covered in Replanning Hoshin Kanri Mid-Year Without Restarting the Cycle.
A worked example: a monthly decision log
Here is a hypothetical monthly decision log, with one owner and due date for each decision:
| Item | Decision | Owner | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing countermeasure | Worked; closed | Head of pricing | — |
| Service network, outcome lag | Diagnosis: adoption. Change measure to calls served locally | Head of service | Next check-in |
| Site B on-time delivery, red 2 months | A3 assigned | Site B lead | Before next review |
| Contract model legal delay | Escalated to quarterly review: possible target reopen | Commercial director | Q1 review |
What the pack costs to assemble
The templates above are free. The expensive part is the week before the meeting. A slide-per-objective pack is assembled by hand: numbers copied from the bowler, charts rebuilt, comments chased from owners, then circulated late enough that nobody has read it. For a plan with twenty-odd rows that is a day or two of someone’s month, every month, and the output is a document that is already stale when the meeting opens.
An exceptions agenda inverts that. Items 1 to 4 are queries rather than slides: countermeasures whose expected effects came due, objectives sitting in outcome lag, rows red twice running, flags raised in check-ins. If those queries can be run against live records, preparation stops being a production job and the pack stops being a pack.
Among published alternatives, OnStrategy lists $200 per month for unlimited users. i-nexus publishes a free Starter tier for up to five users and $28 per user per month at its Standard tier. Seats are the relevant question here because items 1 and 4 are written by row owners across the organization, not by the people in the room.
Profit.co publishes two plans, Essentials and Enterprise, quoting against modules and scale rather than a public seat rate. Hoshin Kanri sits in Essentials alongside OKRs and Goals, Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Roadmap, so the monthly and quarterly agendas draw on the same records the plan runs on. What drives the cost of hoshin kanri software lists the rest to total, and the 30-day free trial covers a full monthly review and the preparation before it.
Review templates and Profit.co
Profit.co provides the inputs these templates need without a pack. The exception queue is item 2: hypotheses that didn’t hold and delivery problems, already listed. The bowler with owners’ check-in comments covers items 1 and 3, and red or amber cells can open a countermeasure A3 directly.
For the quarterly template, A3 Act decisions on correlations are written to each correlation’s strength history, and target changes open catchball sessions with the original kept as baseline. Monthly and quarterly huddles and reviews run on the same platform. More on the Hoshin Kanri software page.
Free Product Demo
Run your next review from live inputs
A 30-minute walkthrough, tailored to your team.
Book a free demo
What happens in the call
How your teams set goals, track progress and review results.
Strategy, performance, projects and engagement on one platform, with AI.
A practical path to align teams, execute faster and drive results.
Questions this article answers
Last month’s countermeasure results, outcome-lag cases, rows red for two months or more, owner escalations and a decision log. Rows on plan aren’t discussed.
Plan changes: A3 findings applied, correlations regraded, priorities retired or added, targets reopened through catchball.
Ninety minutes is a common format when the review focuses on exceptions and the inputs are prepared through check-ins beforehand.
Because it spends equal time on rows that are fine and rows that aren’t. Rows on plan need no meeting time, and the decisions that matter end up squeezed into the last ten minutes.
Last month’s countermeasures, each marked worked, revise or escalate. Starting there means every fix proposed in the previous meeting gets a verdict before anything new is added.
That the plan is being watched rather than managed. A quarter should produce regrades, retirements, additions or reopened targets, each recorded with its reason.
