ClearPoint Glossary

Quickly learn the key concepts and features of ClearPoint

Dylan Miyake avatar
Written by Dylan Miyake
Updated over a week ago

Welcome to the ClearPoint Glossary! Here, we'll explain some of the key concepts and features to help you out. Whether you're new to ClearPoint or have used it before, this article will make things easier to understand.


Strategic Framework Terms

  1. Scorecard: A strategic tool that bridges the gap between business actions, strategic vision, and goals. It aids businesses in monitoring their performance against strategic objectives.

  2. Strategy Map: A visual representation that outlines an organization's strategic objectives. In ClearPoint, it's an enhanced image providing a live view of strategic progression and status.

  3. Objective: Clearly defined goals that signal how an organization plans to achieve its vision. Often interchangeable with terms like “goals” or “thrusts,” they guide organizational direction.

  4. Measure: A diagnostic instrument used to quantify how well an organization is achieving its objectives. Often labeled as “metrics” or “KPIs,” these tools provide actionable insights.

  5. Initiative: Tailored projects or action plans that aim to bolster measure performance, ensuring the organization moves closer to its strategic aspirations.

  6. Milestone: Significant benchmarks or stages within an initiative. They mark progress, ensure accountability, and track whether initiatives are on schedule.

  7. Action Item: Short-term actionable tasks or steps. They are essential to larger projects but typically don't demand extensive resources or long durations.

  8. Risk: Potential events or circumstances that could undermine objectives. Risks emerge from vulnerabilities and can be either from internal sources or external forces.

  9. Category: Broad strategic areas that objectives target. These areas, sometimes dubbed “perspectives,” help cluster objectives of similar nature.

  10. Status Indicator: Visual icons that provide a snapshot of performance for specific elements, showing their status over designated time periods.

  11. Alignment: The act of synchronizing strategic initiatives, measures, and objectives across different organizational layers, ensuring a cohesive strategic direction.

  12. Reporting Period: The primary time unit designated for assessing and reporting performance, like a month or a quarter.

  13. Reporting Frequency: The predetermined intervals at which results or performance data is presented, which can range from monthly to annually.

  14. Fiscal Year: A specific twelve-month period designated for accounting and budgetary purposes. It doesn’t always align with the calendar year.

  15. Gantt Chart: A graphical representation tool used to depict project timelines. It clearly illustrates the progression of tasks and emphasizes crucial milestones.


ClearPoint Navigation

  1. Support Center: A comprehensive library at clearpointstrategy.com/support, stocked with articles and videos that explain the diverse features and capabilities of ClearPoint.

  2. Control Panel: Situated on the left, this panel in ClearPoint offers a navigation guide, allowing users to smoothly transition between features.

  3. Home: The introductory page that users are greeted with when they access ClearPoint, providing a general overview.

  4. My Updates: A specialized tool that showcases elements assigned within a reporting workflow, enabling streamlined tracking and management.

  5. My Favorites: A section granting swift access to sections and elements in ClearPoint that users frequent or value most.

  6. My Scorecard: A personalized portal that provides users access to elements they own or manage.

  7. My Notifications: A curated space dedicated to updating users on notifications specifically tailored to them.

  8. Documents: A centralized repository within ClearPoint that stores all uploaded documents, ensuring easy retrieval.

  9. Reporting Workflows: A tool designed to craft the 'My Updates' view, dispatch reminder emails, and provide a consolidated view of reporting.

  10. Notifications: Alerts designed to inform users about noteworthy modifications or updates within ClearPoint.

  11. Reminders: System-generated emails dispatched to notify users about alterations in elements they own or favor.

  12. Measure Library: A centralized access point that houses benchmarking data, facilitating comparisons and analysis.

  13. Recycle Bin: This feature keeps a record of deletions for a month and offers the possibility of restoring accidentally deleted items.

  14. Revision History: A comprehensive log that tracks all user activities and modifications made within ClearPoint.

  15. Detail Page: An in-depth view that presents individual elements, ranging from objectives and measures to action items.

  16. Summary Report: A consolidated report that brings together related elements, often referred to as “summary views,” for an overarching perspective.

  17. Default Layout: The basic and initial visual representation users encounter when they visit an element's summary page.

  18. Dashboard: A comprehensive visual display, showcasing an assortment of scorecard measures, providing a holistic view.

  19. Category View: A structured layout that organizes objectives, measures, and initiatives according to their respective categories.

  20. Default Grid: A layout that aligns objectives with their correlated measures and initiatives for an organized view.

  21. Alignment Matrix: A visualization tool that presents objectives and measures from interconnected scorecards, highlighting synergies.

  22. Manage Elements and Manage Reports: Features that enable users to oversee and modify individual elements or summaries within a particular scorecard.

  23. Home Scorecard: This refers to the primary scorecard where a specific element is housed or originates from.


ClearPoint Content Types

  1. Element: Fundamental units within ClearPoint. They encompass objectives, measures, initiatives, milestones, action items, and risks, forming the building blocks of strategy.

  2. Pod: An individual section or field present on a detail page, offering segmented information.

  3. Measure Series: Consists of sequential data points, typically found within the measure data table, providing a temporal view of performance.

  4. Parent: The dominant or primary element, which is often supported or supplemented by subordinate elements, known as “children.”

  5. Child: These are subordinate elements that operate under the umbrella of a primary or “parent” element.

  6. Briefing Book: An interactive PDF report format in ClearPoint. It is enriched with clickable elements, offering an engaging experience.

  7. Owner: Refers to the specific ClearPoint user entrusted with the responsibility of an element's management and updates.

  8. Collaborator: Users who play a supportive role, assisting the owner in maintaining and updating a particular element.

  9. Heat Map Matrix: A visualization tool in ClearPoint that showcases the status of measures over previous periods, offering temporal insights.

  10. HTML Exports: A feature that enables the online publication of detail pages and summary reports, expanding accessibility.

  11. Filter: A search tool in ClearPoint that facilitates the isolation of specific terms or data within summary reports.

  12. Attachment: An interface that displays links related to files that have been attached within ClearPoint.


ClearPoint Functionality

  1. Manage Pages: Comprehensive tools in ClearPoint that oversee element and report actions such as adding, editing, deleting, and more, ensuring smooth operations.

  2. Two-Factor Authentication: An enhanced security layer for ClearPoint user logins, offering an extra verification step to ensure authorized access.

  3. Edit: A feature allowing users to make singular modifications, such as linking different measures together.

  4. Update: Routine alterations or changes made to specific elements, like adjusting status indicators to reflect current states.

  5. Lock: A security feature that places restrictions on making changes to specific reporting periods or scorecards, ensuring data integrity.

  6. Duplicate: This functionality creates exact copies of scorecards or individual elements, aiding in replication for various purposes.

  7. Aggregate: A tool that consolidates results, either from individual measures or from interconnected scorecards, offering a sum total view.

  8. Cascade: A mechanism that forms connections between main (parent) scorecards and their subordinate (child) scorecards, establishing a hierarchy.

  9. Automations: Features that automatically populate specific fields based on predefined input criteria, streamlining tasks.

  10. Integration: This functionality facilitates the confluence of ClearPoint with other third-party applications, enabling enhanced interoperability and functionality.

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