[Jira tips for all teams - pt 1 of 3] Connect goals, teams, and work

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In this three-part series, we’ll be sharing powerful tips for how Jira can help all teams plan better and achieve greater outcomes in 2025. Whether you’re a Jira expert leading tech teams or a marketer who’s done with static spreadsheets, read along, learn something new, and share your thoughts in the comments!

• 📍YOU ARE HERE | Part 1: Connect goals, teams, and work
• Part 2: Top Jira automation tips for marketers
• Part 3: Coordinate product releases with marketing launches

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Defining and communicating goals is critical to an organization’s success, but it’s also just the first step! Teams need to translate goals into the work required to achieve them and factor in any dependencies that may get in the way. However, a ton of valuable context is often lost in translation. Here are some ways that Jira helps cross-functional teams stay connected to the who, what, and why behind their work.

1. Goals 🔗 work items

Any goals created on the Atlassian platform can be connected to work in Jira. Simply enable the Goal field in your Jira project and link the associated goals to relevant work in the list view or directly within the work item details.

This provides instant visibility across all levels of the organization. Leadership can see how goals are progressing overall and drill into the associated work when needed. Teams can see how they contribute to company goals and prioritize their work effectively.

Every organization may have different terms for goals and work. Atlassian’s system of work embraces this! Whether you measure outcomes in the form of OKRs, KPIs, SMART goals, or other frameworks; whether these outcomes break down into programs, initiatives, or any other big chunk of work; whether that work involves product, marketing, HR, legal, or all of the above; Jira is here to help plan and track it all!

For example, you can have a revenue goal with several contributing sub-goals, initiatives, and teams across the organization.

2. Define your own work hierarchy

Carrying over the example above, the work likely doesn’t stop at the initiative level. Initiatives could be comprised of smaller chunks of work such as epics, campaigns, or something else! In Jira, organizations can customize their work hierarchy and allow teams to customize and assign different types of work at each level. This allows you to connect everything from the loftiest goals down to the finest details, ensuring all teams and their work are headed in the right direction.

For example, a marketing team may have their own sub-goal for driving signups in support of the company’s revenue goal. This sub-goal is supported by marketing initiatives that break down into campaigns and tasks.

• Company goal: achieve $X revenue

  • Marketing sub-goal: drive X number of signups

    • Initiative: increase brand awareness

      • Campaign: SEO, social, paid, email, events

        • Tasks: identify target audience, competitor research, craft messaging, review images and copy

3. Get a bird's-eye view with Jira Plans

Company-level goals are an org-wide effort! Marketing in the previous example is likely working with other teams to achieve their revenue target, which means there are tricky dependencies to navigate as well. Fortunately, Jira Plans helps cross-functional teams visualize all their goals, work, and dependencies in one place.

In Jira, create a plan to combine all related projects and group by goal to see how all the contributing work is tracking and identify underlying dependencies that need to be addressed. Any view you create can be saved and shared with stakeholders for easy, real-time reporting.

For example, if providing a quarterly update to leadership, a program manager can create a plan with:

• Sources: a marketing project, a scrum board, a filter for initiatives linked to goals

• Create a new view within the plan with:

  • Filter: hierarchy to exclude tasks and subtasks (given the audience)

  • View settings:

    • Group by goals

    • Visualize dependencies as lines or badges

  • Timeline: adjust to months, quarters, or custom range

• Embed the view on a Confluence page using the smart link

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👍 Like what you’re reading and want to learn more? Come to our “Jira for all teams” ACE Roadshow to connect with Atlassians and other Community members.