Objectives & Key Results
WHAT IS OKR?
Objective and Key Results is one such goal‐setting framework that helps in the seamless
execution of strategy. OKR is a simple yet powerful goal‐setting tool. OKRs can be used
by any organization or for any purpose.
Objective – It is what we want to achieve and within a specific timeline.
eg. Increase brand awareness by Q4
Key Result ‐ is a metric and quantitative by which we can measure the progress towards
the objective set.
eg. Increase Instagram impressions to 50%
The big difference from traditional planning methods?
OKRs are frequently set, tracked, and re‐evaluated – usually quarterly. OKR is a
simple, fast‐cadence process that engages each team’s perspective and creativity. OKR
exists to create alignment and to set the cadence for the organization.
FOCUS AND COMMITMENT
OKRs measure what matters to the organization. Challenges leaders to make the right
choices. OKRs increases the commitment to the Department, team, and individual
contributors as well.
Types of Key Results
1‐ ACTIVITY‐BASED KEY RESULTS
This measured the completion of milestone KRs which are primarily tasks and activities.
To create activity‐based Key Results it would help if we start the key result definition
with a verb like a launch, implement, release, test and prepare so on.
 Complete development and release beta version by June
 Create a new training module for the sales team
2‐ METRIC‐BASED KEY RESULTS
This is measured by metric target values. The key result metric can be positive
and also negative metrics. These Key results measure the outcome of an
organization.
 Improve Employee engagement Score from X to Y.
 Maintain Customer Acquisition cost under Y.
 Reduce revenue churn (cancellation) from X% to Y%.
 Increase Net Promoter Score from X to Y.
 Improve average weekly visits per active user from X to Y
Structure of Value based KR
Increase of reduce any metric from X to Y
X is the baseline where it begins and Y is the target which defines what is our
achievement.
Method 2: This method can be used while creating the value‐based key results, where
we can have one metric target
Examples of Metric‐based Key Results
 Maintain XYZ ‐metric in A (When we want to achieve and sustain one metric).

Reach Y on XYZ ‐metric (When we are doing something and have some
destination fixed).
CREATING EFFECTIVE OKRS
Inspirational:
The objective is a simple collection of inspirational words which are very bold and
compel people to stretch beyond. This will push people to think out of the box and
make the objective achievable.
Attainable:
Having an inspirational objective should also be attainable, else it will be a wasted
journey. The objective will demand people to achieve the specific goal at the same time
motivating as well. A study called “Goals gone wild” states how demanding
objectives can drain energy and demotivate people. So the objectives set must also be
attainable.
Collaborative and controllable:
OKRs should be able to control the outcome and work collaboratively with the cross‐
functional teams. The Objectives should not be set in silos then there is no specific
outcome that will be determined other than passing the buck.
Qualitative:
Should specify what we can accomplish and within what timeline. Should be very clear
and drive quality. It will fetch greater results if the objective is framed in positive
language.
OKRs Examples
Objective: Acquire 500 leads by end of Q2
Key Result 1: Achieve 200 leads through email campaigns
Key Result 2: Achieve 300 leads through targeted online campaigns
Key Result 3: Decrease deprecia on cost from 40% to 60%
Objective: Enhance sales effec veness by Q2
Key Result 1: Complete training of 40 field sales execu ves in the north zone
Key Result 2: Develop the sales training module
Objective: Improve our sales department performance by 20%
Key Result 1: Maintain a sales pipeline of qualified leads at a value of XXX every quarter
Key Result 2: Increase our closing rate from 15% to 30%
Key Result 3: Increase scheduled calls per sales rep from two per week to seven
Objective: Achieve record revenues while increasing profitability by the fourth quarter
Key Result 1: Reach quarterly revenue of XXXXXX
Key Results 2: Expand our sales ventures to two new countries
Key Results 3: Increase gross profit margin from 17% to 45%
Objective: Boost engagement on social media
Key Result 1: Blog read via FB to be increased to 30%
Key Result 2: Increase the YouTube view to 10k
Objective: Improve and enhance Digital marketing
Key Result 1: Improve SEO site health from 30% to 80%
Key Result 2: Increase traffic through backlinks from 30% to 60%
Objective: Improve social media branding
Key Result 1: Instagram impressions increase to 50%
Key Result 2: Increase the quora post from 2 to 4 a week
Objective: Improve Existing Web Page Quality
Key Result 1: Add at least 5 target keywords for 15 webpages
Key Results 2: Replace existing images with custom‐designed graphics for 15 webpages
Key Results 3: Add relevant infographics for at least 25 recently added blogs
Getting Started with OKR
Before we go into specifics about OKRs, let’s go over the basic OKR process to give you
some overview about how all this works. The basic OKR structure is rather simple and
streamlined. You can define OKRs in a spreadsheet or special OKR software like
Weekdone.
1. Set your Objec ves As you begin se ng your first OKRs start by defining 1 Objec ve
for your company. (As you get more comfortable using OKRs, you can add more
Company Objec ves, but you will never want more than 5.) Communicate and explain
this Objective to your functional teams (for example, Product Development, Marketing,
Sales, etc.) and ask the teams to set their contributing Objectives to be aligned with the
Company Objective. Each team should think about how they can help move forward the
company goals. Remember, Objectives should be ambitious, qualitative, achievable in a
quarter, and actionable.
2. Define your Key Results Under each Team Objec ve set 3‐4 measurable Key Results.
The job of Key Results is to measure how close you're getting to achieving your Team
Objective. The company Objectives don’t need Key Results because those goals will be
moved forward by Team OKRs. Measurable Key Results can be set in a different ways:
Increase ______ from X to Y
Reduce ______ by X%
Improve ______ up to X%
Achieve X amount of ________
By moving the needle on Key Results, you're driving the Objective forward. Key Results
can be based on growth, performance, revenue, or engagement.
3. Update your OKRs
While you should set Team OKRs quarterly, it is important to go over your OKRs every
week. This way you can make sure you stay on track with your goals and provide
feedback to team members as necessary.
4. Plan your ac vi es and have weekly check‐ins It is also important to incorporate
OKRs into your weekly activities. Each week think about what projects and plans you
should focus on to achieve those Objectives and write them out. This way you can see
how all your efforts help you achieve your goals. It’s good if once a week you check‐in
with your team to see how the OKRs are progressing and what they have been up to.
You will learn more about weekly plans and how to run good weekly OKR check‐ins in
future chapters.
5. Review your OKRs At the end of the quarter each team should then look back at the
accomplishment of their OKRs. See what you did well and what you can improve. It’s
really important that you mark down your learnings. Even if you failed moving your
Objectives forward percent wise, you might have gained a lot of new knowledge. From
there you can start planning your team’s OKRs for the next quarter. Company wide, you
should have an OKR review 2‐3 mes a quarter to share thoughts and learnings. We will
go over in depth what it takes for a successful OKR quarterly review in a future chapter.
UNDERSTANDING OKRs
The concept of Objective and Key Results (OKRs) was originally
OKR Stands for Objective and Key Results.
A typical OKR plan is composed of 3 to 5 high‐level Objectives. Under these objectives
are 3‐5 Key Results which if achieved, lead to accomplishing objectives. The key results
should be measurable through a defined set of standards, results, indicators, or scores.
Objectives
The O in OKR stands for Objective. Objectives define what needs to be achieved. For the
company, the whole process of setting OKR starts with creating three to _ve (3‐5) key
objectives. These are ambitious goals that can be defined at the organizational,
departmental, teams, and/or employee level.
Key Results
Key Results are signifiers that an objective is accomplished. Ideally, each objective
comprises 3‐4 measurable Key Results. This enables each employee to evaluate
objectives using key results as driving factors. The key results are linked to an
outcome (Key KPI) and effort that will help achieve that outcome.
Getting Started with OKR
Before we go into specifics about OKRs, let’s go over the basic OKR process to give you
some overview about how all this works. The basic OKR structure is rather simple and
streamlined. You can define OKRs in a spreadsheet or special OKR software like
Weekdone.
1. Set your Objectives
As you begin setting your first OKRs start by defining 1 Objec ve for your company. (As
you get more comfortable using OKRs, you can add more Company Objectives, but you
will never want more than 5.) Communicate and explain this Objec ve to your
functional teams (for example, Product Development, Marketing, Sales, etc.) and ask
the teams to set their contributing Objectives to be aligned with the Company
Objective. Each team should think about how they can help move forward the company
goals. Remember, Objectives should be ambitious, qualitative, achievable in a quarter,
and actionable.
2. Define your Key Results
Under each Team Objec ve set 3‐4 measurable Key Results. The job of Key Results is to
measure how close you're getting to achieving your Team Objective. The company
Objectives don’t need Key Results because those goals will be moved forward by Team
OKRs. Measurable Key Results can be set in a different way:
Increase ______ from X to Y
Reduce ______ by X%
Improve ______ up to X%
Achieve X amount of ________ By moving the needle on Key Results, you're driving the
Objective forward. Key Results can be based on growth, performance, revenue, or
engagement.
3. Update your OKRs
While you should set Team OKRs quarterly, it is important to go over your OKRs every
week. This way you can make sure you stay on track with your goals and provide
feedback to team members as necessary.
4. Plan your activities and have weekly check‐ins
It is also important to incorporate OKRs into your weekly activities. Each week think
about what projects and plans you should focus on to achieve those Objectives and
write them out. This way you can see how all your efforts help you achieve your goals.
It’s good if once a week you check‐in with your team to see how the OKRs are
progressing and what they have been up to. You will learn more about weekly plans and
how to run good weekly OKR check‐ins in future chapters.
5. Review your OKRs
At the end of the quarter each team should then look back at the accomplishment of
their OKRs. See what you did well and what you can improve. It’s really important that
you mark down your learnings. Even if you failed moving your Objectives forward
percent wise, you might have gained a lot of new knowledge. From there you can start
planning your team’s OKRs for the next quarter. Companywide, you should have an OKR
review 2‐3 mes a quarter to share thoughts and learnings. We will go over in depth
what it takes for a successful OKR quarterly review in a future chapter.
How to Write Actionable OKRs
A goal without a timeline is just a dream.
People believe in this idea, and yet they still approach the goal‐setting process
superficially. Bad goal setting in business means your team may never get around to
achieving much. If you want to set powerful and actionable goals that have an impact,
you need to learn how to set and write them properly from the start. We will cover 4
practical tips that you can use to determine what matters to your business right now, so
you can write relevant and actionable OKRs.
● Rule #1: Identify the problem correctly.
● Rule #2: Keep asking why.
● Rule #3: Come prepared to brainstorming meetings.
● Rule #4: Focus on what matters.
How actionable OKRs help you succeed
Rule #1: Iden fy the problem correctly
To illustrate this point, let’s borrow an example from Teresa Torres, Product Discovery
Coach, and tell you a story. "How do we prevent or treat scurvy?"
Rule #2: Keep asking why
In Five Whys you keep asking yourself “why something is happening”, with every
following “why” being based on the answer to the previous one. This helps you get to
the root cause of the problem.
From the example, you might have noticed that Team Objectives and Key Results: ●
address what matters to the business right now, ● will be executed by a team in
collaboration, ● are set for a quarter, ● should be updated on a weekly basis.
Rule #3: Come prepared to brainstorming mee ngs
Before scheduling a brainstorming meeting, structure your teams' thought process and
ask them to answer these questions:
Rule #4: Focus on what ma ers
Focus your attention on figuring out your current business problems and opportunities
and make sure to tackle them immediately. Don't try to get ahead of yourself and solve
problems that you might or might not have in the future.
Benefits of OKRs
OKR creates intense focus and teaches your team to be result‐oriented.
1‐
Clear focus for the team and company
2‐
Teams take ownership of moving the company forward
3‐
Unified understanding of success
With OKRs, your whole company is aligned and moving in the same direction.
OKRs lead growth, improvement, and innovation.