session · cadence
Quarterly portfolio review
90 minutes. Leadership + PO + Tech Lead. Three artefacts on the table: SLA performance, VRI trends, root-cause patterns. At least one kill — the discipline that keeps the portfolio honest. A review that produces only "keep" decisions is not a review.
When
- Quarterly — calendar-locked at the start of the year.
- Two weeks after Direction setting — direction is the field; portfolio decisions are moves on the field.
Who
- Leadership — owns the bet at the portfolio level.
- PO — brings the brief-level evidence per initiative.
- Tech Lead — brings the technical/operational reality (DORA, ADRs).
- (Optional) Client for engagements where the relationship supports it.
Time-box
90 minutes. Held in one block, not split.
Inputs
- Pre-read pack sent 48 hours before: SLA performance · VRI trends · root-cause distribution · one row per active initiative (template).
- All current Initiative Briefs (with kill criteria).
- The last quarter's signal readings.
Agenda
| Time | What |
|---|---|
| 0–5 min | Opening. Leadership states the quarter's bet in 5 sentences, in their own words. Not from slides. If they can't, that's the first finding. |
| 5–20 min | Read the three artefacts. SLA — met/approached/breached. VRI — what's moving? Root cause — what level is concentrating? One paragraph of reaction per artefact. |
| 20–50 min | Walk each initiative. ~5–10 min per row. Per initiative: bet, kill criterion, current signal, decision — KEPT · SHARPENED · KILLED. |
| 50–55 min | Concentration check. Active initiatives, first-cycle vs sustaining, against the half-capacity limit. If violated, force a kill or delay. |
| 55–75 min | Investment shifts. What does the root-cause pattern tell us about where to invest in the chain itself next quarter? E.g., L2+L3 concentration says: invest in Discovery rigour. Concrete actions, dated. |
| 75–85 min | Sign the outcome. Initiatives kept, sharpened, killed (at least one). Investment shifts named. |
| 85–90 min | Next review date confirmed. |
Outputs
- Signed outcome doc — published, archived next to prior quarters'.
- Kill briefs for any killed initiatives — filed alongside the Initiative Briefs they retire.
- A short investment-shift commitment — what changes in how the chain works this coming quarter.
What good looks like
The review produces at least one kill every quarter — without drama. Killing is the chain's most disciplined act; the team that kills initiatives at the right time has already saved more than they would have spent finishing.
The investment-shift conversation is specific. "Forty percent of high-severity bugs are scenario-gap this quarter. The investment is: amigos template refresh, Q3 PO training on scenario boundaries, one cycle audited for amigos quality." Not "we should invest in quality."
Anti-pattern
No initiative is killable. Either the portfolio is too small, or the team is over-attached. Fix: pick the lowest-conviction; kill. The discipline matters more than the optimal choice. A review that doesn't kill is a status meeting.
A second anti-pattern: VRI trends are all n/a. Measurement isn't in place. Fix: that is itself a portfolio-level decision — invest in VRI capture next quarter. Name it; date it.
A third: the bet cannot be stated in 5 sentences. The bet has decayed. Fix: pause; reconstruct the bet before walking initiatives. Otherwise the review is judging initiatives against an unstated standard.
See also
- Canon — After We Build · The Portfolio · Client trust and when to stop
- Template — Portfolio review
- Area — Quarterly portfolio review
- Practice — Quarterly portfolio review · Kill criterion
- Adjacent session — Direction setting (upstream, two weeks earlier) · Quarterly SLA review (parallel)