Nudges are how the AI Companion reaches out to your users proactively, instead of waiting for them to start a conversation. The Companion reviews your teams' data on a schedule and sends each person timely, specific feedback — while they draft their OKRs, and while they execute on them.
Note: This feature requires a Program Lead Skill Set Admin Seat.
What you can use them for
Nudges take the operative, repetitive side of running an operating rhythm off the plates of your OKR coaches and program leads:
- During drafting — remind teams to draft their Goals, and coach them to iterate so their OKRs match your organization's expectations.
- During execution — remind teams to keep progress up to date, document the "why" behind changes, and prepare for milestones such as check-ins and business reviews.
The two kinds of nudges
Drafting nudges run before and at the start of a cycle, to get OKRs in shape. By default they:
- Encourage each team to draft at least one Goal, give every Goal 3–5 measurable Key Results, and align Goals to parent or sibling teams so the contribution to strategy is clear.
- Steer Key Results toward outcomes rather than activities (work-style items belong in Initiatives), and prompt for Initiatives that lay out a concrete plan to hit the Key Results.
- Stay timing-aware: no pressure to "finalize" before the cycle starts, only nudge people who actually own Goals, Key Results or Initiatives, and skip anything already complete.
Execution nudges run during the cycle, to keep things on track. By default they:
- Put documentation first — they prioritize capturing the rationale behind a confidence drop or an unresolved risk over simply telling people what work to do.
- Stay deliberately sparse and high-confidence — only the few items that genuinely need attention (slipped Initiatives, stalled progress, cross-team dependencies, Goals or Key Results falling behind pace), and stay quiet, even sending zero nudges, when nothing warrants action.
- Adapt to the cycle stage — early on they look for first signs of life, mid-cycle they weigh pacing most heavily, and late-cycle they focus on the final push and closing out documentation.
Sensible by default — customize only if you need to
You don't have to configure anything for nudges to be useful. Out of the box they already cover standard OKR practice, as described above. You only need to customize them if your organization's methodology differs from that standard — for example, if you expect a different number of Key Results, or follow a non-standard cadence.
When you do customize, your Organizational Context is applied on top automatically, so nudges reflect how your company actually works.
How to set it up
- Go to Organization Settings → AI Companion → Nudges.
- Enable Drafting nudges, Execution nudges, or both.
- To tailor the behavior, open a nudge and edit its Custom instructions. Leave them empty to use Workpath's defaults.
Where nudges are delivered
By default, nudges arrive by email. If your organization uses Workpath for Microsoft Teams, nudges are also delivered as cards in the Teams Chat — as long as the user has installed the app and signed in to the Workpath Chat at least once. Each card shows the Goal, Key Result or Initiative it concerns, with a one-tap button back into Workpath to act on it.
💬 Open the Workpath app in Microsoft Teams
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can set up nudges?
Only users with a Program Lead Skill Set Admin Seat can enable and customize them.
Do I have to customize them?
No. The defaults are well-rounded and cover standard OKR practice. Customize only if your methodology differs.
Will users be flooded with nudges?
No. Execution nudges in particular are deliberately sparse — they only flag the few items that genuinely need attention, and send nothing when nothing warrants action.
Is this available to all customers?
Nudges are part of the Program Lead Skill Set, a paid add-on. Contact your Workpath account manager for more information.