V2MOM
Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, Measures
V2MOM is a one-page plan built from five questions: Vision (what do you want?), Values (what matters about it?), Methods (how will you get it?), Obstacles (what is in the way?) and Measures (how will you know you have it?). Marc Benioff created it, and at Salesforce the company writes one every year, then every team and every employee writes their own, ranked in priority order and shared openly.
TL;DR
- What it is
- A one-page plan built from five questions: what you want, what matters, how you get it, what is in the way, and how you will know. Created by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff.
- Best for
- Getting a growing company behind one plan for the year, with every team writing its own version under it.
- First cycle
- About a month: a leadership retreat to draft the company V2MOM, a few weeks of feedback, then the team versions.
- You leave with
- One page with ranked values and methods, the obstacles in the way, and a measure for every method.
V2MOM answers five questions in order: what do you want (Vision), what’s important about it (Values), how will you get it (Methods), what’s in the way (Obstacles), and how will you know you have it (Measures).
Its strength is sequence. By naming Values before Methods, and Obstacles before Measures, it forces honesty about trade-offs and risks instead of jumping straight to a task list.
The part most templates leave out is the ranking. Benioff ranks values and methods in order of importance, so that when two good ideas compete the page already says which wins1.
The original V2MOM, in brief
Created by Marc Benioff, who developed it while an executive at Oracle and used it to write Salesforce’s first plan in 1999. He describes it in “Behind the Cloud” (2009) and “Trailblazer” (2019).
V2MOM comes from Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce, who describes it as a management process he developed himself1. Salesforce's own training says he developed it while he was an executive at Oracle, looking for a way to give his divisions a clear vision and goals2. In the first weeks of Salesforce, in 1999, he and his cofounders wrote the company's first V2MOM on a large American Express envelope. Benioff says that page became the business plan1. He set out the method in Behind the Cloud (2009), as a play titled "Use V2MOM to Focus Your Goals and Align Your Organization"3, and returned to it in Trailblazer (2019)4. The version on the Salesforce blog is drawn from both books1.
The core is five questions, answered in order. Vision: what do you want? Values: what is important about it? Methods: how do you get it? Obstacles: what is stopping you? Measures: how will you know you have it1? Two rules do most of the work. First, rank your answers. Benioff ranks values and methods in order of importance, because ranking forces a choice between competing priorities1. Salesforce's training ranks measures too5. Second, measure for real. In Benioff's words, "a subjective yes-or-no judgment doesn't cut it"1.
At Salesforce the chief executive drafts the company V2MOM with his direct reports, tests it in focus groups and at a company kickoff, and changes it on the feedback2. Then every department and every employee writes their own, and all of them are published where anyone in the company can read them1. People update them each quarter, and there is a formal refresh in the middle of the year6.
Common misreadings
- "Values means your company values." In a V2MOM, values are what matters most for this vision, ranked. Salesforce asks for the three most important and how they will guide everyday trade-offs5. A generic list copied from the office wall cannot settle a trade-off.
- "Five boxes of equal weight." Most templates show five unranked lists. The original ranks values and methods1, and Salesforce's training ranks measures as well5. The order is what makes the page useful when two good ideas compete.
- "Obstacles is a list of risks." Benioff asks which obstacles are most critical and how you will resolve them1. Salesforce's training asks what you will do about each one5. An obstacle with no response is only a worry.
- "Anything that sounds like success is a measure." Salesforce contrasts "Dominate the U.S. market!" with a market share target and a date5. Salesforce does allow a measure that is simply "done by a date"5, but Benioff argues a yes or no alone is not enough1.
- "Write it once a year and file it." Salesforce uses it in one-on-ones and budget calls, updates it each quarter and refreshes it mid-year6.
- "It was invented at Salesforce in 1999." By Salesforce's own account, Benioff developed it at Oracle, and 1999 was the first Salesforce V2MOM21.
The V2MOM template
Vision
What you want to achieve. One to three clear, ambitious sentences.
Values
The principles that matter as you pursue the vision, in priority order.
Methods
The specific actions you will take to get there, ranked with the most important first.
Obstacles
The challenges and risks that could stop you, and what you will do about each.
Measures
The numbers and dates that prove each method, and the vision, worked.
V2MOM examples
A 20-person design agency
Moving from one-off projects to monthly retainers.
A 150-person manufacturer
Customers are leaving over late deliveries.
A 60-person software company
Churn is eating new sales.
When V2MOM fits, where it struggles, and what it does not answer
Use it when
- A growing company where people can no longer see how their work connects to the plan.
- You need a plan for the year that says how you will get there and names what is in the way, not only what you want.
- Leaders disagree about priorities and need a format that forces one ranked order.
- You want every team, and even every person, to write a plan that visibly links to the company's.
- A new leadership team or a strategy reset, where the values behind the plan need to be argued out in the open.
It struggles when
- It does not choose a strategy. A vision says what you want, not where you will compete or why you will win. A vague vision still fills the box.
- Lists grow. Salesforce suggests five to eight methods for one person5. At company level the list tends to grow, and the ranking is the only brake.
- The cascade takes time. Salesforce gives new hires 90 days before they publish5 and suggests a team meeting of 2 to 4 hours to review each team draft6. A small company may not need a V2MOM for every person.
- Copying. Salesforce's own training warns that people copy their manager's V2MOM and call it done6. Then the alignment exists only on paper.
- Narrow measures pull attention. Goal-setting research warns that tight, specific targets can pull effort away from what is not measured and invite shortcuts10. Its defenders reply that these are problems of badly set goals11.
- Little outside evidence. No independent study of V2MOM itself was found. See the evidence section.
What it does not answer
- Where to compete and how to win. It records the choices; it does not help you make them.
- How to run the week. It has no meeting rhythm below the quarterly update.
- Which measures predict results and which only report them.
- How to settle a clash between two teams' V2MOMs, beyond going back to the ranked order above them.
Pair it with
- Playing to Win Make the strategic choices first, so the vision and methods have something real to express.
- OKR Turn the top methods into quarterly objectives with key results. The OKR vs V2MOM comparison shows one goal written both ways.
- 4DX Give the single most important method a weekly rhythm and measures the team can move every week.
How to implement V2MOM
- Write the company V2MOM with the leadership team. Draft it together, then share the draft for comments before it is final. At Salesforce the chief executive drafts with his direct reports and tests it in focus groups and at a company kickoff2.
- Rank every list. Put values, methods and measures in priority order5. The ranking is what lets the page settle a trade-off later, so argue about the order, not only the items.
- Answer every obstacle. Name what could stop each top method, and write what you will do about it. Ask which obstacles matter most1.
- Give every method a measure. A number and a date, or at least a clear finish date. Benioff argues a subjective yes or no is not enough1.
- Cascade it, without copying. Each team writes its own V2MOM starting from the one above, then each person does the same. Salesforce warns people against pasting in their manager’s version6.
- Publish it and keep it alive. Share every V2MOM where the whole company can read it1. Use it in one-on-ones, update it each quarter and refresh it mid-year6.
Adopting V2MOM: the first cycle and the rhythm
First cycle. Plan on about a month. Draft the company V2MOM at a one or two day leadership retreat, share it for two to three weeks of comments, then finalize it. Team V2MOMs follow. Salesforce's training suggests a 2 to 4 hour team meeting to review each team draft before people write their own6.
Rhythm. Rewrite it once a year. Bring it to one-on-ones, update it each quarter and do a fuller refresh at mid-year, as Salesforce does6. Anyone who changes role writes a new one5.
When it runs itself. Expect the first year to feel like paperwork. It starts to carry weight when managers use it to decide what to take on, what to fund and what to turn down, which is how Salesforce's training says it is meant to be used6.
What derails it. Unranked lists. Values copied from the wall. Measures that are only yes or no. People copying their manager's page. A retreat that ends with a V2MOM nobody opens again until next year.
How to set V2MOM at your leadership retreat
The decision the session has to produce: The company V2MOM for the year: one vision, ranked values and methods, the obstacles in the way with a response to each, and a measure for every method.
A half-day outline
- Restate where the company stands and what last year’s plan delivered (20 minutes).
- Everyone writes a one-sentence vision alone; read them aloud and merge them into one (40 minutes).
- List the values that matter for this vision, then rank them by asking which wins when two collide (30 minutes).
- Break.
- List candidate methods, rank them, and draw a line under what the team can actually staff (60 minutes).
- Name the obstacles to the top methods and who will handle each (30 minutes).
- Write a measure with a number and a date for every method above the line (30 minutes).
- Agree who shares the draft with the company, and when team V2MOMs are due (15 minutes).
Ask the team beforehand
- A year from now, what do you want this company to have achieved, in one sentence?
- When two of our values pull in different directions, which should win?
- What is most likely to stop us, and what are we avoiding saying about it?
- What would you stop doing to make room for the most important method?
Who should be in the room
The chief executive and the direct reports who will each write a team V2MOM under it. Keep it under ten; the rest of the company comments on the draft afterwards.
Make a full retreat agenda with the free agenda maker.
Common V2MOM mistakes
- Lists with no order. Unranked values and methods cannot guide a trade-off. Benioff ranks both1; most templates quietly drop that step.
- Values copied from the wall. Write the few principles that matter for this vision and rank them. A generic list of company values will not settle a hard call.
- Measures that only sound like success. “Dominate the market” is not a measure. A share target with a date is5.
- Obstacles with no answer. Every obstacle needs a response and an owner, or it is only a worry on paper5.
- Copy-paste cascades. If each team pastes in the version above it, the page looks aligned and changes nothing6.
- Writing it once and filing it. Bring it to one-on-ones and budget decisions, and update it each quarter6.
Does V2MOM work? The evidence
The research for this page found no independent study of V2MOM: no peer-reviewed trial, and no survey comparing companies that use it with companies that do not. The case for it comes from Salesforce. Benioff credits it with keeping the company aligned as it grew1. Salesforce's training says every employee must publish one, and that 95% of its employees say they understand how their work contributes to the company's success6. Those are the company's own figures, with no year or method given, and they cannot separate V2MOM from everything else Salesforce does.
Related research supports some of its parts, not the whole. Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, summarizing 35 years of goal-setting research in American Psychologist in 2002, found that specific, difficult goals lead to better performance than vague "do your best" goals7. That backs the demand for real measures. A meta-analysis by Anita Kleingeld and colleagues in the Journal of Applied Psychology in 2011 found that group goals raised group performance across 49 effect sizes. In teams whose work depends on each other, personal goals aimed at a person's own results hurt the group, while personal goals aimed at their contribution to the group helped8. That is close to what a cascade of personal V2MOMs tries to do, but the authors noted a striking lack of recent field studies in real organizations8.
Naming obstacles has related support at the personal level. A meta-analysis of 21 studies with 15,907 participants, published in Frontiers in Psychology in 2021, found a small to medium effect on reaching goals when people pictured the outcome, named the obstacle and planned how to respond. The authors warned that publication bias may make the true effect smaller9. These were personal goals, not company plans.
The strongest caution comes from goal-setting research itself. Lisa Ordóñez and colleagues argued in Academy of Management Perspectives in 2009 that goals set too narrowly can crowd out what is not measured and encourage shortcuts10. Locke and Latham replied in the same issue that the harm comes from badly set goals, not from setting goals11. Read V2MOM as a sensible, widely copied practice with one company's long use behind it, not as a tested method.
V2MOM compared
| V2MOM | OKR | OGSM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A one-page plan answering five questions | An objective with a few measurable key results | A one-page plan from objective to measures |
| Usual horizon | A year, updated each quarter | A quarter | A year or more |
| Says how you will get there | Yes, ranked methods | No | Yes, strategies |
| Names what is in the way | Yes, obstacles | No | No |
| Names the values behind it | Yes, ranked | No | No |
| Written by | The company, every team and often every person | Company and teams | Company and teams |
Side by side: OKR vs V2MOM
After the retreat: V2MOM in Throughline
What it holds. Each method can become a priority with an owner, a date and a measure. Owners check in from an email in one click; a missed check-in counts as off track and their manager is told.
What it doesn’t. Throughline does not hold the V2MOM page itself. The vision, the ranked values and the obstacles stay in your written V2MOM, and personal V2MOMs for every employee are not stored.
V2MOM glossary
- V2MOM
- Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, Measures. The "2" stands for the two words that start with V.
- Vision
- What you want to achieve, in one to three sentences5.
- Values
- The principles that matter most as you pursue this vision, in ranked order. Not necessarily the company's published values.
- Methods
- The actions you will take to reach the vision, ranked with the most important first.
- Obstacles
- What could stop you, and what you will do about each.
- Measures
- The numbers and dates that show whether you succeeded.
- Progress measure
- A target number or percentage to reach by a date5.
- Completion measure
- Whether a piece of work is finished by a date5.
- Cascade
- Each team, and then each person, writes its own V2MOM, starting from the one above2.
Free tools that help
V2MOM: frequently asked questions
- What does V2MOM stand for?
- Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles and Measures. The “2” stands for the two words that start with V. Each part answers one question: what you want, what matters, how you get it, what is in the way, and how you will know.
- Who uses V2MOM?
- It originated with Marc Benioff and runs Salesforce, where every department and every employee writes one each year. It is also widely used by startups and teams that want a single page connecting vision to measurable results.
- How is V2MOM different from OKRs?
- OKRs cover the objective and its measures. V2MOM wraps more around them: explicit values, ranked methods and the obstacles in the way, which makes it a fuller planning document rather than a pure goal-tracking format. Many teams use both.
- How often should you write a V2MOM?
- Typically once a year at the company level, then cascaded so each team and individual writes their own aligned V2MOM. Salesforce updates them each quarter and refreshes them at mid-year.
- Are V2MOM values the same as company values?
- Not necessarily. In a V2MOM, values are the few principles that matter most for this particular vision, ranked, so they can settle trade-offs. They should fit the company’s values, but a copied list rarely helps you decide anything.
- How do you write good V2MOM measures?
- Give each one a number and a date, like “late deliveries from 12% to 4% of orders by the end of Q3”. Tie each measure to a method, so you can see which part of the plan is working.
- Does V2MOM work?
- There is no independent study of V2MOM itself. The evidence is Salesforce’s long use of it and research on its parts: specific goals, goals aligned to the group, and planning for obstacles. Treat it as a sound practice, not a proven method.
Sources
- Marc Benioff, "Create Strategic Company Alignment With a V2MOM," Salesforce blog, first published 2013, republished December 2024. salesforce.com
- Salesforce, "Create Organizational Alignment Through the V2MOM," Trailhead module Organizational Alignment (V2MOM). trailhead.salesforce.com
- Marc Benioff and Carlye Adler, Behind the Cloud, Wiley, 2009. Play #100, p. 225. wiley.com
- Marc Benioff and Monica Langley, Trailblazer, Currency, 2019.
- Salesforce, "Write a V2MOM," Trailhead module Organizational Alignment (V2MOM). trailhead.salesforce.com
- Salesforce, "Manage the V2MOM," Trailhead module Organizational Alignment (V2MOM). trailhead.salesforce.com
- Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, "Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation: A 35-year odyssey," American Psychologist 57(9), 2002, pp. 705 to 717. doi.org
- Ad Kleingeld, Heleen van Mierlo and Lidia Arends, "The effect of goal setting on group performance: A meta-analysis," Journal of Applied Psychology 96(6), 2011, pp. 1289 to 1304. doi.org
- Guoxia Wang, Yi Wang and Xiaosong Gai, "A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Mental Contrasting With Implementation Intentions on Goal Attainment," Frontiers in Psychology 12, 2021. doi.org
- Lisa D. Ordóñez, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Adam D. Galinsky and Max H. Bazerman, "Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting," Academy of Management Perspectives 23(1), 2009, pp. 6 to 16. doi.org
- Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, "Has Goal Setting Gone Wild, or Have Its Attackers Abandoned Good Scholarship?," Academy of Management Perspectives 23(1), 2009, pp. 17 to 23. doi.org
V2MOM was created by Marc Benioff and is the planning process of Salesforce, Inc., which owns the Salesforce name; Throughline is not affiliated with or endorsed by Salesforce or Marc Benioff. Written by Tom Olajide, Founder. Last reviewed September 24, 2026.