Objectives and Key Results system(OKR) | Overview
“The idea is simple enough: tell the team what you need them to accomplish, and how the results will be measured, and let the team figure out the best way to solve the problems.” by Marty Cagan.
“The OKR approach to setting goals has been used at Google, Linkedin, Zynga, General Assembly and beyond and is spreading like wildfire across successful Silicon Valley companies.” by Christina Wodtke.
As these people said (and more), the OKR system is here to help you grow the business and it is a big help to measure defining and tracking objectives and their outcomes.
Setting OKRs is not so easy. You MUST have a hard look at your company and the strategy. OKRs can be used as a “team fortifier”.
Let’s jump into the OKR system using an example
Suppose you are working on a Product with an Excel import of data to feed it. This process currently requires 2 days. This time is not suitable for the company ambitions regarding product performances.
The first OKR should be something like that “reduce the time it takes to implement new data.” The associated key result would be “Average feed product time less than 1 day.”
All kind of companies and/or teams can use this system (in your personal life too btw). The company size will probably change the number of OKRs you will need to work correctly and to have useful measures.
Usually, companies use OKRs quarterly, but you can go annually if it’s more suitable for you.
Focus on 1 objective, and it should have 3 Key results. You can manage it as you want, this is just advice. ;)
OKRs can be used for more than your product/project. Check the following screen.
How to define Objectives
The Objective should be your FOCUS.
Why are coming every day to work? What are you doing these tasks every single day?
- Objectives should be hard to reach to help your team to go beyond.
- If you have 100% success. This means your objectives aren’t enough ambitious.
Some examples:
- “Improve product’s quality”
- “Increase the number of users by 3%”
- “Be present at the 5 most important product conferences”
- “Increase the rate shop by 2% in 3 weeks”
How to define Key results
Just ask a question: “Which element will help us to measure if we are on track regarding the main objective?”
“Improve product’s quality” might have KR’s of
- “Launch 10 new features to all users”
- “Optimize performance by 10%”
- “Secure tech architecture to build 10 feature from Q3”…
Score
At Google, OKRs are usually graded on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, 1.0 meaning the objective was fully achieved.
Every key result must be graded to identify how the team is going on.
Your score will represent the “completion” of your key result. You have to be honest. If your score is low is not a problem, it remains progress! Keep doing it again and again and you will be proud of the result.
If we keep using the previous example “ Launch 10 new features to all users” and the graded element on it is 0.4 (40% in this case), that means you developed and implemented correctly 4 features from the initial 10 asked.
In theory, to be “satisfied” you should have an average of all the Key Results equal to 70% =)
OKRs are used to encourage you and the team to shoot for the stars so don’t be afraid with the score and do your best every time to reach the goal.
Tips
- Set only 1 Objective linked with 3 Key Results for the company (if you are a big company, you should adapt it).
- At least 3 months for an OKR seem better than a week…
- OKR aren’t tasks.
- Set company OKRs FIRST.
- OKRs can come from everybody, not only bosses ;)
- Communicate more than you can about your OKRs.
Check this example if you need to start with OKRs, that can be a great help ;)
Google video if you need more OKRs explanations
Thank folks for reading, feel free to share and to follow me for more new content. ❤ Love.
In addition to this article, feel free to check my list of articles 👇🏻👇🏻 , I am sure it will help you to structure, anticipate & organize ;)
You can find me on Linkedin, Twitter or Substack.
About Alessandro
With 10+ years of experience, Alessandro is an experienced Product Manager specialized in driving vision and roadmap for businesses. He has demonstrated his ability to work in a start-up or large organizations with a positive mindset, always aware and try new things to improve products/processes.
Accustomed to the pressure and making of important decisions, He had to manage the strategic product choices and participate in the company's strategic decisions.
Alessandro is today, VP Product & Design Hivency.
