Objectives and Key Results

What is an OKR?

Creating clear, measurable, and aspirational goals is a core element of strategic planning and alignment within a business. Without them, teams and employees can lack the direction to grow as efficiently as possible.

Knowing where to start can be overwhelming if you're new to setting goals and managing expectations. There are endless acronyms, frameworks, and goal-setting models. So how do you know which is right for your business or organization?

To help narrow it down, we show you the ins and outs of one of those goal-setting frameworks: objectives and key results, also known as OKRs.

Objectives and key results is a practical goal-setting framework that helps organizations and teams align and measure progress towards strategic objectives. OKRs are efficient across your organization, from C-Suite to team level and finally at the individual level. Team OKRs work best when used by the entire company simultaneously, connecting OKRs between levels, and updated regularly.

Peter Drucker introduced the term “objectives” in his book, The Practice of Management (1954), with a work strategy called Management by Objectives (MOB). It was Andy Grove, however, who first discussed “objectives and key results” in his book High Output Management (1983).

Grove developed and implemented OKRs at Intel. He also shared his management method with numerous corporations that flourished thanks to OKR implementation.

OKRs consist of two core elements, one objective, and 2-5 key results needed to achieve it.

Objectives (where we want to go)

Objectives are qualitative, specific, time-bound, and measurable goals. They should feel challenging yet achievable. Aim for ambitious goals and occasional stretch goals.

Key results (how we're going to get there)

Key results are measurable metrics that track progress toward the objective. They provide a clear indication of progress and performance.

Aim for aspirational objectives, but always include measurable results.

Here is what an OKR may look like:

• Objective: Launch the new product successfully.

  • Key Result: Launch product with 95% of target features.

  • Key Result: Receive 900 votes on Product Hunt in the first two months.

  • Key Result: Increase NPS score from 65 to 75.

Writing OKRs with an OKR template helps keep everything organized and on track during the OKR writing session and regular check-ins.

OKR examples

Let’s take a look at an OKR example. The Miroverse OKR planning template from Mooncamp is a comprehensive OKR tool that includes everything you need to conduct an OKR session and write OKRs for your organization.

In the OKR statement, the company mission sits at the top, representing a company-wide objective. Directly underneath are the top-level management objectives and, further down, the mid-level team objectives.

When individual employees create their OKRs, they use company-level OKRs as their source of truth. In the Miro template gallery and the Miroverse, you'll find plenty of OKR examples to work with.

What are the benefits of OKRs?

OKRs measure what matters – that's their iconic characteristic. They involve everyone in the company, therefore closing gaps in silo management.

After company-wide objectives are written, every team and individual write their own. This process eases friction between managers and employees and helps everyone feel a sense of agency and accountability.

To set goals

Growing as a team and company depends on setting goals and subsequently achieving them. OKRs are key in this process, supporting a goal-setting framework and process to follow. Inviting everyone to set goals that align with a company goal improves productivity and the company culture.

To track and measure progress

OKR sessions help teams measure progress and ensure they're on track to reach goals within a specific timeframe. During regular check-ins, teams and employees quickly analyze progress and adjust key objectives as they're met. When individuals and teams achieve their objectives, high-level management and company-wide objectives are met as a result.

To prioritize work and resources

Positive workflow and effective resource management become easy and fluid when management and leadership are OKR-based. Since every employee writes and tracks their OKRs, they spend less time worrying about their performance and more time doing meaningful work. When your organization sets clear objectives and key results, you can prioritize and focus on the most important work.

To align teams throughout the company

One thing OKRs aren't is shy. All OKRs, at every organizational level, are public and shareable. Since OKRs ensure everyone works toward the same goals, they provide organizational transparency. This level of trust promotes accountability and can boost motivation. When individuals align with their teams, those, in turn, align with higher management and ultimately with the overarching company mission.

OKR vs KPI: What's the difference?

OKRs and key performance indicators (KPIs) are goal-setting frameworks for improving productivity and performance, but they serve different purposes that complement each other. Many organizations use OKRs and KPIs to set goals, track progress, and measure performance. They ensure your organization focuses on achieving specific objectives and monitoring progress against key metrics.

OKRs focus on setting and achieving specific, measurable, and time-bound goals aligning with the organization's mission and vision. KPIs, on the other hand, are metrics that measure performance against specific targets or benchmarks.

Let's visualize these differences by focus, ambition, and scope.

• Focus: OKRs focus on achieving specific objectives aligning with the organization's mission and vision. KPIs focus on measuring individual or group performance against specific targets or benchmarks.

• Ambition: OKRs intend to be ambitious and challenging, while KPIs track and measure concrete metrics in areas like operations and finance.

• Scope: OKRs are essential at any level of the organization, while KPIs track performance in specific business areas, such as sales, marketing, or finance.

How to write OKRs

Writing OKRs for an organization is ideally a group activity in two or more sessions.

Write the company mission and directly related top-level objectives for the first session. In a second session, or smaller sessions within teams, write the OKRs for all areas of the business. Encourage individual employees to write personal OKRs that align with the company mission.

1. Find a platform to create and share your OKRs

OKR maps form and adapt during OKR planning workshops. You need a platform where to create, map and share your OKRs. Some performance management platforms include OKR options in the system. Check that first.

Alternatively, you might prefer a contained OKR management software with tracking tools and OKR-directed KPIs. Smaller teams can use digital OKR maps like Miro's OKR Planning Template.

When researching to find the ideal OKR solution for your business, look out for these features:

• Ease of use

• Flexibility

• Collaboration options

• Access to ready-made templates

• Customizability

An ideal OKR solution offers a collaborative place to develop objectives and key results while adapting to regular adjustments and updates. The best tool for your company is the one that supports ongoing and transparent OKR development.

2. Identify the objectives

With a platform ready to go, it's time to identify the objectives. Objectives are specific, measurable, and time-bound goals that feel challenging yet achievable.

Conduct an OKR session with the C-suite and management to identify executive goals. Use brainstorming techniques like braindumps and mind maps to develop the ideal objectives.

You can also use a SMART Goals Template as support to convey endpoints and clear outcomes.

Here are some C-suite level objective examples:

• Sell $10M in subscriptions

• Grow to 15M users

• Strengthen our company culture

Use the high-level objectives to choose team and individual objectives. Here are some example team objectives:

• Improve our SEO

• Launch a new brand community

• Improve sales by 25% in a certain region

There's no set number of objectives, but ideally, you don't want more than five per quarter. The trick is to settle on objectives that your teams can comfortably manage without creating OKR management bottlenecks.

3. Determine key results

Each objective needs 3–5 key results that indicate progress towards achieving the goal. Key results provide clear performance indicators, so they must be measurable, specific, and quantifiable while being realistic and achievable.

Here are some examples:

• O - Strengthen our company culture

  • KR1 - Incorporate an ongoing two-way feedback system with regular check-ins

  • KR2 - Reach and maintain an employee satisfaction score of eight or more

  • KR3 - Launch a mentorship program by the end of this quarter

• O - Improve our SEO

  • KR1 - Get 12 inbound links from relevant sites to our blogs and landing pages

  • KR2 - Optimize 25 existing pages

  • KR3 - Lower the website loading speed to 2.5 seconds.

To write key results, think of them as measurable milestones. To know if a key result is achieved, rate it as yes/no or with a numbered rating system. Avoid low-value objectives and aim for tangible results that'll impact attaining the goal.

4. Prioritize your OKRs

OKRs need regular monitoring. Prioritize OKRs based on their importance and the resources required to achieve them.

Here are some tips and resources that'll help:

• Determine the level of impact with a RICE Prioritization Template.

• Separate short-term and long-term OKRs into visual sections and color code them.

• Prioritize OKRs that have the greatest impact in the short-term while also making progress toward long-term goals with a Bull's Eye Diagram.

• Outline and calculate the effort/resources required with a Priority Matrix Template.

These techniques also help identify the objectives you'll be concentrating on in the next quarter. Remove objectives that don't fit the priority for the period and add them to a backlog. Next quarter, revisit those objectives to assess if they can be incorporated into the next time frame.

5. Assign responsibility

Some OKRs are drafted in groups while others are made individually. For group OKRs, you must assign responsibility for achieving the objective through the key results. In the case of individual OKRs, each person is responsible for their own.

Just as how OKRs are public and transparent, so should task and responsibility assignments. Doing this guarantees that everyone is clear on their role and is accountable for achieving the objectives on time and effectively.

Follow this checklist to assign responsibilities:

1. Identify who's involved.

2. Define their roles and responsibilities.

3. Review capacity and resources.

4. Assign accountability.

5. Set timelines and roadmaps.

6. Share your OKRs with the relevant stakeholders

The creation and maintenance of an OKR map are best done collaboratively. Share your OKR implementation with relevant stakeholders and any moment, from brainstorming to future updates. OKR collaboration allows everyone involved to review the OKRs, provide feedback, and ask questions.

With Miro, this process is easy. Share your OKRs and have collaborators leave comments and add sticky notes directly on the map.

7. Review and adjust your OKRs

Regular progress and review check-ins are critical for effective OKR management. Ensure you're on track to achieve your goals by scheduling short meetups between OKR facilitators and employees.

During review sessions, provide opportunities to learn and improve while celebrating achievements and milestones. When all key results and objectives are achieved, replace them with the ones in the backlog until the end of the allotted time frame.

Sometimes OKRs will need adjustments due to external factors and unexpected situations. The good thing about OKRs is that they're adaptable and can redirect progress easily.

Use Miro to create and share your OKRs

Now that you’ve learned what an OKR is, the benefits of OKR’s and how to write them, it’s time to create some yourself. And whether you're a solopreneur or a manager in a corporation, Miro makes strategic planning easy and effective.