OKRs are simpler than you think

OKRs too complex? Write down four things:

• What we want to achieve.

• How we define success.

• What we’ll do to get there.

• Who leads it.

That’s OKRs. What you want to achieve is your Objective. How you define success are your Key Results. What you’ll do to get there is your plan, and the person who leads it is the owner.

If your OKRs look like the result of some hefty management framework, they probably aren’t working for you. Keep it simple.

Writing OKRs isn’t the hard part. The hard part is deciding your strategy, planning credibly and getting it done. Good OKRs make you do that work, and that’s a good thing.

Start with strategy

OKRs turn a strategy into results. They can’t create one. If you’re struggling to choose your Objectives, the problem is usually that the strategy isn’t clear enough yet, or your team isn’t aligned on it.

No clear strategy? Write an interim strategy for the next three to six months (you can use the One Page Strategy method), and set this quarter’s OKRs from that. Keep working on the longer-term strategy as you go.

And fewer OKRs is better than more. Before you write new ones, check whether existing OKRs already guide your team’s work. Focus is hard, but it’s how you win.

The four parts of a set of OKRs

• A consistent time constraint (the OKR Cycle). Usually a quarter: long enough to achieve something meaningful, short enough to keep the urgency.

• One to three inspiring statements of what you will achieve in that cycle (Objectives).

• Two to five unambiguous definitions of success for each Objective (Key Results).

• A single person named to own each Objective or Key Result (Owner).

Put together, they read as one sentence: “We will [Objective], as measured by [Key Results], by doing [the plan], led by [owner].”

The owner can be one person for the Objective, or one per Key Result.

An example

In Q4, we will scale up our sales machine, as measured by:

• Increase average monthly webinar attendance from 10 to 100, by running a weekly webinar with partners, led by Mike (CMO).

• Increase initial meetings with qualified leads per month from 2 to 5, by calling every webinar lead within a day, led by Joanne (CCO).

• Increase the conversion rate from qualified lead to sale from 15% to 30%, by rolling out a new sales playbook, led by Joanne (CCO).

• Sign our first customer through self-service onboarding, with no help from sales, by launching a self-service trial, led by Sarah (CPO).

In reality, your plans will be more complicated than one line each, but you get the idea.

Writing Objectives

Use this form: We will [verb] [outcome].

Pick a strong action verb: transform, become, create, exceed, achieve, reach, launch, make. The best outcomes are the ones that matter to your customers and stakeholders. If an Objective could apply to almost any company, it’s too generic.

Test each one with two questions: why this, and why now? If the answers are clear and compelling, you have a good Objective, and the start of the story you’ll tell your team.

The leader writes the Objectives. Take input from your team, but don’t hand them the decision. If you find it hard to choose, they will find it harder.

Writing Key Results

Most Key Results fit one of five forms:

• Improvements: Increase or decrease [metric] from [X] to [Y].

• Quality control: Maintain [metric] above or below [X].

• Operationalisation: Start measuring [metric].

• Project milestones: Deliver [critical milestone].

• Investigation: Test [hypothesis]. Success is knowing whether it’s true.

Key Results must be unambiguous. At the end of the quarter, anyone should be able to look at one and say whether you hit it. If a metric could be read two ways, write down its definition. Does “webinar attendance” mean registrations or attendees? Which webinars count?

Use metrics where you can, and milestones sparingly. Too many milestones turn your Key Results into a task list.

Rolling averages show sustained change. Not “Onboard 247 clients this quarter”, but “Increase the 7-day average of clients onboarded from 13 to 25”. You can see at any point whether you’re on track.

Key Results can be inputs, outputs or outcomes. In the sales example, inputs are things you control, like how many webinars you run or how fast you follow up leads. Outputs follow from them, like qualified meetings or the conversion rate. Outcomes are what you’re really after, like new monthly recurring revenue (MRR). The best outcomes are the ones your customers and stakeholders care about.

• Use inputs when you’re confident about what works, or when your team needs clear direction.

• Use outcomes when you want your team to find the best way. Treat those targets as aspirations, not promises.

How ambitious should you be? It depends on your culture. In some teams, hitting 70% feels like failure, so set targets you can realistically hit and aim for 100%. In others, very ambitious goals get the best work out of people, and 70% is a great result. You know your team. Just make sure everyone knows which kind of target they’re looking at.

Fixing weak Key Results

Every Key Result sits somewhere between two extremes. Make it a list of tasks and you’re micromanaging. Make it too vague and you’re just peddling a vision. The sweet spot varies by team, situation and leader.

If your Key Result is really a task, ask:

• Why are we doing this task?

• How would we know if we were successful?

• How would we tell doing this task well from doing it poorly?

• How will our customers measure our success?

• What other tasks could we do instead, and what do they have in common with this one?

If your Key Result is too vague, ask:

• How are we creating this profit or benefit?

• What value are we creating that we’re capturing?

• What is the input for this output?

• What makes our strategy different from others?

• How could we tell whether a solution was aligned with our strategy or not?

Six things to remember

1. One owner per Objective or Key Result. If everyone is responsible, no one is.

2. OKRs are drafts until there’s a credible plan. The owner writes the plan (you can use the One Page Plan), and only then do you finalise the OKRs.

3. Don’t use OKRs for performance management. They’re there to drive performance, not to assess it.

4. Don’t use OKRs for everything. Run repeatable work on its metrics. Use OKRs for the changes you need to make.

5. Share real results, not scores. At the end of the quarter, show the actual numbers, celebrate the wins, own the misses, and move on.

6. Great OKRs matter less than you might assume. Don’t overthink them.

Don’t spend too long perfecting the goals, or plan every detail. Create the conditions for your team to do their best work this quarter. You have the rest of the quarter to do the work, problem-solving and course-correcting as you go.

Let’s meet

Book a 20-minute clarity call so we can get to know each other a little and explore your goals and what’s keeping you from them. We’ll finish with an invitation to work together, a recommendation to meet someone else, or simply a clearer next step.