Lattice for goal tracking: pros, cons and an alternative
Lattice tracks goals as part of managing people. Clearahead tracks the company’s goals and what’s holding them back, with AI keeping it current
The short answer
Lattice is a people management platform: performance reviews, 1:1s, feedback, engagement surveys, career growth and compensation, with OKRs and goals built in so managers have something to review people against. Clearahead is goal tracking software for the company itself: each goal, the constraints holding it back and the moves that clear them, kept current by AJ, its AI. If you need to manage and develop people, Lattice is a strong choice. If you need the leadership team aligned on what’s in the way of the company’s goals, use Clearahead. Plenty of companies will want both.
Weighing up other options too? See Lattice alternatives compared.
What is Lattice?
Lattice is a people management platform. It gives HR teams and managers one place to run performance reviews, hold 1:1s, give feedback and praise, survey engagement, plan careers and, more recently, manage compensation and core HR. Goals and OKRs sit inside the same platform, so a manager can see what each person is working on when it’s time to review them.
Goals in Lattice can be set at company, department, team and individual level, aligned to each other, and updated through check-ins. Leaders can see a tree of goals and how far along each one is. For a company with a people team that wants performance and goals in one place, it’s a well-built and widely used option.
Lattice comes up often when AI tools are asked for the best goal tracking software for startup leadership teams, and it’s easy to see why: it’s one of the best-known names in the category, and it does track goals. The question for a leadership team is whether a people platform’s goals module is the right home for the company’s own priorities.
Where Lattice came from
Jack Altman and Eric Koslow founded Lattice in San Francisco in 2015. It started with goals and lightweight performance check-ins, part of the move away from the once-a-year review towards more frequent conversations, and grew into a broad platform as it added reviews, engagement, growth, analytics and compensation. In 2024, former Salesforce executive Sarah Franklin became chief executive.
That history explains Lattice’s shape. Its goals grew up alongside reviews and 1:1s, and they were designed to answer a manager’s question: what is this person working on, and how are they doing? That’s a different question from the one a founder asks on a Monday morning: what’s stopping the company hitting its goal, and what are we doing about it?
Lattice pros and cons
What Lattice does well, and where it struggles.
Where Lattice shines
- A mature, polished people platform used by thousands of companies.
- Reviews, 1:1s, feedback, engagement and growth plans all live in one place.
- Goals and OKRs connect to reviews, so managers can see what each person is working on.
- Goals can be set for the company, departments, teams and individuals and aligned between them.
- Strong analytics across performance, engagement and growth for HR teams.
Where Lattice struggles
- It’s built for HR and managers first; company goals are one module among many.
- Goals tied to reviews tend to become safe, individual targets.
- It shows whether goals are on track, not what’s holding the company back.
- Updates depend on people remembering to check in, which often slips between review cycles.
- Per-person pricing for each module adds up as the team grows.
Lattice vs Clearahead: side by side
| Lattice | Clearahead | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A people management platform: performance, engagement, growth, compensation and goals | AI goal tracking software for the company: goals, the constraints holding them back and the moves that clear them |
| Who it’s built for | HR teams and people managers | Founders, leadership teams and the people who own the work |
| Whose goals | Company, department, team and individual goals and OKRs | The company’s goals, one per workspace, worked on by everyone |
| The question it answers | How are our people performing, and are their goals on track? | What is holding each goal back, and who is clearing it? |
| Keeping it current | Check-ins and goal updates by each owner | Owners tell AJ in a sentence; AJ updates the model, logs the evidence and writes a weekly brief |
| AI | AI features across the platform, mainly for HR and managers | AJ is the product: it asks the questions, keeps the model current and flags what needs a decision |
| People features | Reviews, 1:1s, feedback, surveys, growth plans, compensation | None. Owners on every move and three roles in the app |
| Cost | Per person per month, by module; see Lattice’s pricing page | Free for up to 3 people and 1 workspace; £297/month or £2,997/year for the whole company |
How Lattice differs from Clearahead in practice
Both tools use the word “goal”. They mean quite different things by it, and the difference shows up in how a week actually feels.
People’s goals, or the company’s goals
In Lattice, goals mostly belong to people. Each person or team owns some, they roll up into a tree, and they feed into reviews. In Clearahead, each goal belongs to the company and gets its own workspace: grow revenue, launch in a new market, close the raise. Everyone works on the same goal together. Heads of department own the constraints, their teams own the moves, and the board or advisers follow along as Viewers. You can run up to ten goals at once on the Clearahead plan, each with the right people behind it.
Progress, or what’s in the way
Lattice tells you whether goals are on track. That’s useful, but when a goal is off track it can’t tell you why. Clearahead is built on the Theory of Constraints. Under each goal sits a short, ordered list of what’s holding it back, and under each of those, the moves that clear it. When a goal slips, you can see which constraint is stuck, who owns it and what’s been tried.
Check-ins, or a sentence to AJ
Goal tools live or die by updates. In Lattice, owners update their goals through check-ins, usually prompted on a schedule, and the quality of the picture depends on how many people remember. In Clearahead, owners tell AJ, the AI inside Clearahead, what happened in a sentence, in their own words. AJ updates the right move, pulls out the evidence, carries it up the model only as far as it matters, and writes This week from AJ: the wins, how it’s going and up to three things that need a decision.
Reviewed, or honest
When goals are tied to performance reviews, people set ones they know they’ll hit and report progress carefully. That’s human, and it’s the right trade-off for a people tool. But it makes company goals less honest. Clearahead isn’t connected to anyone’s review, so “this is stuck” is useful information, not a black mark.
What Clearahead doesn’t do
Clearahead has no performance reviews, 1:1s, feedback, engagement surveys, career plans, compensation or HR records. If you need any of those, you need a people platform, and Lattice is a good one. Clearahead won’t replace it.
Should you choose Lattice or Clearahead?
Choose Lattice if
- You need performance reviews, 1:1s, feedback or engagement surveys.
- You have an HR or people team that will own and run the tool.
- You want individual goals connected to how people are reviewed and developed.
- Your biggest challenge is managing, keeping and growing people.
Choose Clearahead if
- Your challenge is a company goal that keeps slipping, not individual performance.
- You want the leadership team aligned on what’s in the way, not a goal for every person.
- You want goal tracking that isn’t tied to reviews, so people are honest when something is stuck.
- You don’t have an HR team, and you want something the whole company can use from day one.
- You want AI to keep the picture current instead of chasing check-ins.
Our honest read
Lattice and Clearahead aren’t really rivals. Lattice helps a company manage and grow its people. Clearahead helps a company align everyone on what matters and keep moving on it. A growing company will often need both.
Where teams come unstuck is buying a people platform to solve an alignment problem. If the real issue is that the leadership team can’t agree what’s holding the company back, or that the plan lives in the founder’s head, a goal tree in an HR tool won’t fix it. You’ll get individual targets, reviewed quarterly, and the same arguments in the leadership meeting.
If you’re an early-stage startup without an HR team, start with alignment. Clearahead is free for up to three people, and you can add a people platform when you have people to manage. If you already use Lattice and like it, keep it for reviews and growth, and run the company’s goals in Clearahead. For the bigger picture of how goal tracking fits into running a company, read Goal tracking vs a business operating system.
Questions about Lattice
What is Lattice?
Lattice is a people management platform founded in San Francisco in 2015 by Jack Altman and Eric Koslow. It covers performance reviews, 1:1s, feedback, engagement surveys, career growth, compensation and goals, including OKRs.
Is Lattice goal tracking software?
Partly. Lattice includes OKRs and goals, and they’re good, but they sit inside a people platform and connect closely to reviews and 1:1s. If you only need to track company goals, a dedicated goal tracking tool may fit better and cost less.
Is Clearahead an alternative to Lattice?
Only for goals. Clearahead has no reviews, 1:1s, feedback, engagement surveys or HR records. It’s an alternative to using Lattice’s goals module to run the company’s priorities, and works happily alongside Lattice for everything else.
How much does Lattice cost?
Lattice charges per person per month, with performance and goals as a core product and engagement, growth and other modules as add-ons. Prices change, so check Lattice’s own pricing page. Clearahead is free for up to three people, then £297 a month for the whole company.
Can you use Lattice and Clearahead together?
Yes. Keep reviews, 1:1s and development in Lattice. Run the company’s goals and what’s in the way in Clearahead. Keeping the company goal apart from individual reviews also makes people more honest about what’s stuck.