About OKRs

A tool to maximize alignment and transparency to help meet ambitious goals.

Introduction

“OKRs” stands for Objectives and Key Results. They are a tool used by individuals, teams, and companies for setting goals to maximise alignment and transparency when pursuing ambitious goals. Adobe, Google, and Netflix are all great companies known for their use of OKRs—and their audacious goals, alignment, and transparency. These are the inputs to those performance qualities.

What are Objectives and what are Key Results?

An objective is what you want your team to achieve. It acts as a “North Star”, a guiding light that pulls everyone in the same direction. A key result explains how you will follow this star. An objective is significant and action-oriented. A key result is specific, time-bound, and measurable.

How often do you track OKRs?

OKRs are typically calendar-based. An “OKR cycle” is often quarterly, but it can also be monthly.

Because of this inherent emphasis on time and measure, an OKR’s progress can be tracked throughout the OKR cycle. It creates a common framework when setting an objective to talk about how to achieve big goals, track progress, and get measurable results. OKRs are more than wishes. They are rooted in reality. OKRs are calendar-based because tracking them regularly is like "working out”—you have to do it a repeatedly and regularly to make measurable progress in business goals throughout company levels for high output management.

What is a good example?

Examples of good OKRs go like this:

O: Build the world’s longest bridge.

The longest bridge in the world is currently the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, which spans 102.4 miles (165 kilometers). So to accomplish our objective, the bridge we are constructing needs to be longer. To do that, our key results would be this:

K1: Bridge has more than 103 miles of infrastructure. K2: Architecture plans to be completed by January 2020. K3: Federal environmental approval to be completed by July 2020. K4: Construction to begin by October 2020.

While there are four key results here, you should have no more than five. There can be more than one objective, but less than seven. Fewer is better. Every objective should fit on one line.

OKRs are that simple. Yet, because of their simplicity—thinking through HOW goals will be accomplished and measured—they can seem magical.