OKR is a goal-setting framework for individuals, teams and organizations. It sets ambitious, measurable goals and provides a structure for tracking progress over time.
It also helps people and managers to stay focused on strategic priorities and make the most of the unique opportunity they have in their market.
Identify Key Objectives
Objectives describe ambitious goals and a vision that pushes the company to a higher level. Key results are the benchmarks that help to stair-step toward achieving the objectives.
Each department leader should set their own goals within the context of the company’s top objectives, but they should also be able to establish their own objectives with measurable key results that are unique to them. Ideally, teams should set four to five objectives per quarter with 1-3 key results for each. Any more will create too much “intellectual juggling” and make it difficult for team members to maintain focus.
Assign responsibilities for each objective and make sure that everyone understands how their individual goal ties into the overall company mission. Schedule meetings for your team to brainstorm, discuss, and finalize quarterly objectives and key results. These conversations are an opportunity to gain buy-in from each team member and get them excited about their new OKR process.
Identify Key Results
Setting measurable objectives and tracking key results is a powerful tool for any team. However, the OKR framework is not a “set it and forget it” process. It requires consistent goal management to ensure that goals are SMART and aligned to company strategy.
Objectives should be clear and inspiring, and they should push the limits of the team’s abilities. Key results should be measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. They should also support the objectives by providing detailed action items that will lead to them.
Ideally, objectives should be broken up into quarterly, long-term goals and short-term, quarterly initiatives. This will help to avoid sandbagging and having too many objectives per quarter. It’s recommended to never have more than four or five objectives with three key results for each objective. This will require too much intellectual juggling and may cause individual’s to struggle to execute their goals.
Measure Key Results
The biggest benefit of OKRs comes from connecting the daily work and projects teams do to the strategic objectives. This is done through key results, which have many of the same qualities as SMART goals, but also include qualitative measures. The goal-setting process begins with top-level executives choosing their objectives, and then lower level managers identify the key results that will contribute to those objectives.
Typically, these key results are measurable milestones that indicate progress towards making the overall objective a reality. For example, a marketing team might set a key result to boost blog traffic by 50%. Then, the marketers might break that down into a few specific milestones such as landing 5 guest posts and creating 2 infographics each quarter.
Teams will evaluate their confidence in completing the key results, starting at 50 percent at the beginning of each quarter and adjusting weekly or at OKR review meetings. This allows teams to predict problems and change course early on.
Evaluate Key Results
Ensure that the overall framework for OKRs is still in place, and that they’re in alignment with your larger organizational goals, mission, and vision. Solicit feedback from your team about specific goals and responsibilities, and ask about what they need to continue achieving their best work. It’s also a good idea to assign a DRI (Directly Responsible Individual) for each key result to hold people accountable and do regular check-ins.
A quality OKR creates focus, accountability, transparency and alignment across your entire organization. The key is to set measurable goals and then regularly evaluate progress toward those goals with a clear process. By implementing this methodology, you can drive success and impact for your business.
