Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations focus on what matters, and create transparency around progress. Originally developed by Andy Grove at Intel and later evangelized by Google, this approach has become the most common way to set targets and track progress in the tech industry.
Indeed, OKRs have become so popular that many people treat them as a silver bullet to get organizations operating effectively. This reverence has in turn attracted an equal share of criticism as OKRs fail to deliver on such exaggerated claims. The reality is, of course, far less exciting and controversial. OKRs can be very effective for setting goals and increasing transparency if used appropriately and tailored to a given organization. However, they cannot solve fundamental issues with strategy or poor leadership, and may well exacerbate these sorts of problems.
In this article, we will introduce you to the fundamentals of OKRs, provide you with practical templates, and share real-life examples of effective OKRs. So whether you are a lover or a hater of OKRs, this guide will get you up to speed on OKRs, and get them working for you.
What are OKRs
As their name might suggest, at their most basic OKRs consist of a combination of:
- Objectives - an inspiring goal that the team is trying to achieve
- Key Results - quantified measures of progress that allow you to see unambiguously whether you’ve hit your objective or not.
Example OKRs
Here is are two example OKRs:
Team: Growth team
Cycle: Q1 2023
Objective: Create a radically better onboarding experience
Key Results:
- Reduce percentage of users dropping out of onboarding process from 30% to 10%
- Increase new user activation rate (i.e. users purchasing with first 7 days) from 5% to 10%
- Reduce average time for new users to complete onboarding from 600s to 300s
Team: Supply team
Cycle: Q1 2023
Objective: Dramatically increase average scale of sellers
Key Results:
- Increase the average number of items listed by sellers from 20 to 25
- Increase average seller sales from 10 to 14 items (rolling 30 days)
- Increase the average seller revenue from £225 to £340 (rolling 30 days)
OKR template
Our OKR template is a ready-to-go template that you can use for one or multiple teams. Whilst the examples in it have been tailored for product teams, you can use this template for any team within your organization, from Ops to Sales to Finance.
