What are targets?
Targets are the explicit statement of what a Digital FTE is accountable for, held as a list of items in its Targets tab. Each item has a status, on track, met, missed, or unmeasured, and the evidence behind that status, so a target's state is a reading of the record rather than a claim. The Digital FTE proposes its targets at hiring in the first-run wizard, the manager approves or adjusts them, and any addition the FTE suggests later waits for approval.
The word contract is deliberate. Targets are the terms of the role: what the manager will hold it to, what it will report against, and what the monthly review reads.
How do targets work on ftes.ai?
On ftes.ai the Targets tab is part of the canonical workspace for every role. A Finance Controller FTE's targets might be transactions reconciled daily, exceptions open at day one of close, and days to close; a Search Visibility FTE's, pages published that passed the fact gate and citation presence on the sampled prompt set; a Recruiter FTE's, time to shortlist and share of interviewees meeting hard requirements.
Each item's evidence is drawn from the role's own record: the audit trail, the measurement samples, the pipeline. The morning brief reports yesterday against targets, and the monthly review is the FTE's first-person report against them, stating misses and unmeasured items plainly.
Why does every target need a counterweight?
Every target needs a counterweight because a single metric pursued alone goes wrong. Pages published without a fact-gate pass rate invites thin pages; tickets resolved at first line without an escalation-quality check invites replies that should have escalated; time to shortlist without a hard-requirements match rate invites fast, poor shortlists. The counterweight is a second target that the first cannot be hit by breaking.
Targets also measure only what the role controls or strongly influences. A Search Visibility FTE is held to citation presence it can earn with pages, not to revenue it cannot see.
- Outcome target: what the role delivers
- Counterweight: the quality that the outcome must not sacrifice
- Evidence: where the status is read from
- Scope: only what the role controls or strongly influences
How are targets changed?
Targets are changed at the monthly review, with approval and a logged reason. The FTE may suggest additions, such as a metric it can now measure because a connection was added, and those wait for the manager. A target that turns out to measure the wrong thing is dropped or replaced, and the record shows when and why, so results before and after are not blended.
Targets are never decisions about people. A Recruiter FTE's targets concern speed and evidence, never outcomes for a candidate; those stay with the hiring manager under the never-automated list.
What are targets often confused with?
They are confused with the remit, which is the scope the role works within; targets are the outcomes it pursues inside that scope. They are confused with KPIs, which are the measures a manager reads; targets are the contract those measures report against. And they are confused with missions, which are bounded pushes that may serve a target and then end.
They are sometimes set as aspirations. A target with no evidence source is a wish, and the Targets tab marks such an item unmeasured rather than pretending.
Where do you see targets in the workspace?
In the Targets tab with status and evidence per item, in the morning brief's yesterday block, in the Performance tab's measures, and in the monthly review. Changes are in the audit trail with the reason.
Related terms: remit, KPIs, monthly review, counterweight, mission.
In the first month, keep the list short, three or four items with their counterweights, and resist adding until the evidence sources are connected and the first monthly review has read the record. A role with twelve targets has none, because nobody watches twelve; a role with three that each show their evidence is one the manager can review in minutes and defend to anyone who asks what the role is for.