Hill Chart
Each piece of work is a dot on a hill. The uphill side is figuring out what to do, with unknowns still open; the top is the moment the team can see all the remaining work; the downhill side is execution. Teams drag their dots once a week, and anyone can see where the work stands, and which dots have not moved, without asking for a status meeting.
Use when you want to see project status without status meetings, and especially to spot work that is stuck in the uncertain phase.
Solves: Task lists and percentages say "80% done" while the hardest unknowns have not even been looked at.
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Step 1: Break the project into a handful of named scopes, parts of the work that can be finished independently (15 min, once).
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Step 2: Draw a hill curve on a shared board and place one dot per scope at the far left.
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Step 3: Each week at a set time, the team moves each dot to where it honestly is: still figuring it out, at the top, or executing (5 min).
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Step 4: Add one line per moved dot: what changed (5 min).
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Step 5: Anyone reviewing scans for dots that have not moved uphill for two updates and asks about those only (5-10 min).
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Step 6: If a scope sits on the hill too long, split it or redefine it so the unknown part becomes visible.
- Push teams to work on the riskiest unknowns first, so the most important dots go over the top early.
- A dot that sits still is information, not failure. Ask what is unknown, not why it is late.
- Compare snapshots from week to week; the movement tells you more than any single position.
- Use it in a live review: each scope owner moves their own dot and explains only the dots that moved backwards or stood still.