Commonly asked questions about premenstrual dysphoric disorder
OKR: Objectives and Key Results (Most Commonly Asked Questions)
Transcript of OKR: Objectives and Key Results (Most Commonly Asked Questions)
What are Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)?
Objectives and key results (OKR) is a goalsetting methodology driven by outcomes. In
companies, OKRs are often used to guide outcomebased success. Using outcomes
instead of tasks as a driver, OKRs encourage accountability in every step of achieving
success through metric indicators. OKRs are driven by core valuebased outcomes.
Who created Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)?
Although popularized by Google’s John Doerr, OKRs were actually created by Intel.
Prior to Google’s wide adoption of OKRs, the methodology was first introduced to
companies such as Intel and Oracle some decades ago. As OKRs have become a
widely adopted practice by growing companies like Google, Twitter and LinkedIn, you
will find they are most commonly used in the technology and healthcare sectors.
John Doerr’s successful introduction of the OKR methodology to Google made way for
today’s wide spread goalbased management in new companies. If you’re wondering
whether Peter Drucker’s Management by Objectives (MBO) methodology came before
or after OKRs, the MBO system was actually created prior to OKR. The OKR practice is
generally not based on compensation of employees. The idea is that stretch goals can
be made and completed with transparency across entire organizations, even in different
time zones. Collaboration and focus on core value alignment are of high importance in
the execution of OKRs.
Who were the early adopters of Objectives and Key
Results (OKRs)?
Intel
Spotify
Eventbrite
GoPro
What’s the difference between OKRs, KPIs and
MBOs?
Now that we know MBOs came before OKRs and which companies have been
championing the use of OKRs, we can dive into the difference between OKRs, KPIs and
MBOs. Overall, there are two key distinguishers that make the OKR methodology
unique:
The use of OKRs is not linked to compensation
More often than not, KPIs and MBOs are create by manages and delegated to
employees. These goals are due to be reviewed annually or semiannually depending
on their purpose and used to determine employee compensation. OKRs on the other
hand, eliminates performance reviews and allows employees to set individual stretch
goals that align with departmental objectives. As a result of these ambitious stretch
goals, organizations that use OKRs keep them separate from determining individual
compensation. OKRs are meant to be setup in collaborative discussions with a
recommended quarterly review within departments to ensure alignment and track
progress.
The aim of using OKRs is to achieve transparency across teams and
organizations
While MBOs and KPIs are often kept private within management teams, OKRs aim to
keep all company and team objectives transparent to employees. In this way, OKRs
holds all levels of an organization accountable for OKRs they have created each
quarter.
What are the benefits of using Objectives and Key
Results (OKRs)?
No matter what size the company, one of the looming pain points is always limited
resources to accomplish all objectives they have in mind. That’s why it’s so important to
be able to focus these resources on the right priorities and ensure maximized impact.
OKRs provide the benefit of a performance management framework that allows the
alignment of company driven core values and objectives; all of which are delivered with
transparency—driving employee engagement.
OKRs bring alignment from strategic planning to actual execution
With OKRs, you don’t have to wait until things aren’t working well to jumpstart change.
Transparency breaks the assumption that performance needs to be “managed,” moving
focus on sharing organizational vision. With a deeper understanding of what their efforts
are working to achieve, employees become equals, not slots in a hierarchical tree.
Everyone is able to see how priorities are progressing at an individual level, all the way
up to if the organization is on track as a whole. This creates a visual where teams can
reflect on roadblocks, assess current actions and easily document next steps. OKRs
take the guess work out of how each role impacts the next person. As a result of
increased visibility, each team can create clear expectations for all interactions. This
inspires crossfunctional team growth.
Managers can spend less time crunching numbers and more time coaching employees.
Everyone on the team works towards valuedriven goals; everyone is accountable.
OKRs create an internal platform for ongoing dialog in realtime where employees can
engage in meaningfultothem conversations tied directly to their role within the team.
OKRs bring transparency to organizations
In using OKRs, transparency is inherent. Teams are positioned to know what is
important to the organization at all times, meaning they can become more agile.
Effective adaptability means frequent assessment on priorities and replaces a static,
annual review of strategy. This makes it easy to adjust priorities throughout the year
without having to get caught up in any potential backlogs.
How are Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) created?
Objectives are outcomes that reflect current business priorities. They are:
Time based (Due date)
Nonnumeric (Qualitative)
Aspirational (Saying this with confidence sounds hard)
Answers: “What am I working towards without focusing on the tasks that get
me there?”
Empowers and promotes collaboration and crossfunctionality
Has a clear subject, object and journey that the subject goes through
Every objective has corresponding key results that are:
Numerically measured
Utilize a threshold or delta to measure change (from x to y)
They are the end result of a series of tasks, but not the tasks themselves
There’s a baseline measurement to move away from or towards
Answers: “How do I know if I have achieved my outcome?”
Each key result has supporting projects, which have their own todo tasks, but are kept
separate from OKRs. Great OKRs have a clear subject, object, and journey that subject
aims towards.
Here’s an example of an OKR that follows this model:
Objective: Customers consistently find our product useful
KR1: 80% of new customers continue their subscription after 2 months.
KR2: 50% of new users return within 2 weeks.
KR3: Churn rate is < 2% this quarter.
This objective sounds difficult to achieve. This means it’s challenging and aspirational,
but can also have multiple projects spanning multiple quarters so it’s something that can
be worked on continuously. Multiple departments can adopt this OKR creating various
key results that fit their projects. Start writing your own OKRs today with the 7Geese
OKRs workbook!
How do I get started planning Objectives and Key
Results (OKRs) for my company? / Planning Timeline
This timeline view covers suggested best practice milestones to help you through your
first quarterly cycle with objectives and key results. OKRs are unique in that every time
you go through a full cycle, there will be a different structure. They link to areas of
responsibility, business priorities, and stages of your business. Every cycle you’ll
discover new things. You’ll have different milestones based on your priorities and
strategies. This timeline is meant to be a guide to help build great habits so you can
create a frequency that works best for you.
Education and draft OKRs
FIRST QUARTER PLANNING: Have all leadership team members put draft OKRs into
the OKRs review template. Review as a team once complete. Template:
http://bit.ly/DraftOKRs Each team lead can continue to repeat these steps with their
direct teams and reports.
DISCUSSION TOPICS: Grading criteria that will be used at the end of the quarter, what
defines “success” for each OKR, supporting KPIs, and major contributing projects.
PRO TIP! As you create your OKRs, think about how you’ll provide updates. Is this OKR
something you assess weekly or monthly?
Progress updates and checkin’s
A great objective is one you think about in everything you do. Every time you checkin,
you’re consistently turning goalsetting into a natural habit. This changes how
individuals approach engagement at work. Work is no longer a series of tasks, but
higherlevel achievements tied to team success and business impact. This focuses
conversations on what needs to be done next to aim even higher. Every great OKR
incorporates a discussion where everyone gets asked, ”can you realistically commit to
all of this?” Have conversations that answer what success means, how each team will
support the other, and what resources are needed.
CHECKIN: Checkin within your first week to start building a habit. Weekly checkins
also will leave you with 12 snapshots in time at the quarter’s end to reflect back on.
PRO TIP! Download the browser extension to checkin without disrupting where you’re
already working. Click the … in the 7Geese navigation or here: http://bit.ly/7GChrome to
download
STATUS UPDATE: By week 3 add an on/off track indicator. Assess what resources,
priority shifts, or adjustments need to be made. Get through the rest of the quarter with
confidence, feeling empowered. Knowing you have the proper resources (tangible, or in
the form of coaching) increases the likelihood of completion of your OKR.
Roadblocks and planning
Goalsetting coaches concentrate on keeping goals manageable and ontime.
Shortterm goal coaching should focus on the achievable, action oriented component of
longterm achievement. Coaching keeps goals not just realistic, but relevant to the
longterm personal development of the mentee. As a goalsetting mentor, you should
keep goal conversations focused on, “can your goal really be done?” where you break
down longterm goals into shortterm, actionable items.
LEADERSHIP MEETING: It’s important to meet at the halfway mark to discuss where
things are at, provide teamlevel updates on whether OKRs are being understood at all
levels
SUGGESTED DISCUSSIONS: Were we realistic? Any roadblocks? How can we help
each other?
SECOND QUARTER PLANNING: Go over yours and your team’s current OKR
performance and evaluate how things went and why. Document how you plan to ensure
mistakes from this quarter aren’t carried over.
OUTCOME: Commit to next quarters organization objectives + dept. projects.
Focus on breaking longterm OKRs into actionable next steps and how OKRs fit into
their daytoday.
SUGGESTED TEMPLATE: Monthly OKRs 1on1 http://bit.ly/Monthly1on1Template
Grading and coaching
REMEMBER! OKRs, when done great, are a tool for motivating and aligning people to
work together. They spur perspective sharing, moments of discovery and make even
your high performers achieve more. They increase transparency, accountability and
empowerment. They are not designed to be used as a process or tool to use against
your team to keep tabs, micromanage, or couple with negative performance
assessments.
CLOSE OKRS: Individually, have everyone assess their OKRs. A great place to start
with grading is providing a simple expectations assessment: at the end of the quarter,
did you meet the expectations for your OKR that you committed to? Why or why not.
Selfreflect! Team leads should have 1on1s with their direct team to talk career
journey in relation to their OKRs and performance.
PRO TIP! Close your OKRs directly from the home page. Once over due, a close option
appears when you hover over the objective.
SUGGESTED 1ON1 TEMPLATE: Quarterly Performance Reflection—Accessible
here: http://bit.ly/Quarterly1on1Template
What are some Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
implementation best practices?
Set the right cadence for your OKRs
Setting the right cadence for your OKRs is defined by measurable targets that occur
within rhythmic time frames. Quarterly, every three months beginning in January, is
most common. However, objectives on any level can always be stretched quarter over
quarter if the impact on success of an objective is more longterm. While quarterly is
recommended, it is important the cadence matches the culture of the business. The key
to OKRs is the transition from annual assessments to more frequent and transparent
goal setting.
Define realistic team and individual priorities
Every OKR should reflect realistic priorities achievable in a threemonthcycle that are
still challenging. Make sure to have conversations that answer what success means in
relation to how each team needs to support the others. Having OKRs on both a team
and individual level is highly essential for company alignment. One of the key elements
of using the OKR methodology is to align core values and objectives across teams and
organizations.
It isn’t a task list, don’t create too many OKRs
Setting 3 OKRs each quarter is a good place for teams and organizations to start. Most
of these objectives will have 24 results and a clear owner that will be held accountable
for them. By setting a limited number of OKRs, it directs teams to focus on priorities in
order to produce better results.
Can employee performance be partially evaluated by
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)?
Most organizations that practice the OKR methodology use it as their primary
performance management system. However, some do continue to use approaches like
MBOs and KPIs in addition to their OKR process. While possible, it is not recommended
because many have found it to be too time consuming to manage and inefficient in
communicating objectives.
How do you align OKR in departments where performance is directly tied to
rewards like and bonuses (i.e. Consulting, Sales)?
First let us make several points clear…
Compensation is referring to an employee’s base salary. Therefore, OKR can
be linked to incentives where part of a job’s performance metrics is based off
of bonuses or commission but not base salary.
OKRs can be used as part of the compensation structure as a performance
metric, but not as an overall rating system.
If companies find bonuses to be motivating, consider giving the same bonus
to all employees when a company objective is reached. The same applies for
larger teams and departments.
While OKRs are not linked to any incentive compensation process by design, it is
inevitable that some positions and teams track progress and made on Key Results and
heavy correlation to incentive compensation. In most cases, we consider that incentive
pay varies across departments and thus, not all will require their OKRs to be tied to
compensation. However, in the case that they do, here are examples:
When the Key Result 100% tied to incentive compensation
A sales employee who has the Objective “Reach $250k in new sales this quarter” will
likely have a percentage of incentive compensation linked to the Key Result which can
be predetermined. (Performance metric correlated to commission, not base salary)
When the Key Result is NOT tied to incentive compensation
A manager who has the Objective “Conduct 20 facetoface client interviews this
quarter”. In this case, a manager should not have their Key Result linked to
compensation as this is an expectation and not a stretch goal to be reached within their
job function. (Performance metric correlated to base salary)
How often should Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
be set?
Quarterly, every three months beginning in January, is most common. However, this
depends on the culture individual organizations. Quarterly OKRs are most realistic on a
team level, while organizations sometimes set annual objectives and adjust according to
align with longterm goals. It is not uncommon for objectives that take longer than one
quarter to achieve to be retained carried over for next quarter. Similarly, OKRs can be
set on a shorter cycle than quarterly. This is more often done by individual employees
who have shorter time frames in mind for their goals.
What are some Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)
measurement best practices?
A one size fits all measurement for OKRs doesn’t exist
OKRs can be very different for different teams and functional positions. It’s important to
consider the difficulty of each OKR when grading and assessing. It’s important to
establish a grading scale before committing to an OKR to ensure expectations
throughout the quarter are clearly defined.
Were expectations met?
A great place to start with grading is providing a simple expectations assessment: at the
end of the quarter, did you meet the expectations for your OKR that you committed to?
Try practicing the traditional 01 scale
When grading OKRs the traditional way, the recommended scale is 0 – 1. For each of
your key results, the highest it can score is a 1, and lowest a 0. OKRs are meant to be
challenging, so every individual should be aiming for a 0.6 – 0.7 in the grading process.
After rating each of your KR, you can then add them all together. Any objective with
cumulative scale of under a 0.4 might be alarming, but a low score isn’t a failure. It’s a
sign you need to reevaluate whether the objective is still worth pursuing, or rethink your
approach. How you chose to assign a grade depends on the circumstances of your
team’s priorities. Perhaps a 0.5/1 is great because priorities shifted halfway through the
quarter.
What metrics should be used for Objectives and Key
Results (OKRs)?
Any metric used in key results should be specific to the business, measurable,
attainable in the given cycle of the objective, relevant to your OKR, and timebound. The
following are several metrics that may fit your company’s OKRs:
Baseline metrics
A baseline metric is a single number that is considered an “acceptable” metric. For
example, having a support ticket response time of 4 hours or less has a baseline KPI of
4. Anything above 4 hours is unacceptable.
Positive and negative metrics
A positive metric is used when you want to increase your baseline metric. For example,
if your average usability score for a core workflow in your product is currently 70% and
you want to increase it to > 80%, you’re moving in a positive direction. Negative metics
are used when you want to decrease your baseline metric. For example, if your average
support response time is 10 and you’d like it to be 4, you’re moving in a negative
direction.
Threshold target metrics
Threshold metrics are a numerical range that is considered acceptable. Here’s an
example: Sales needs to make a minimum of $90,000 in monthly recurring revenue for
the business to stay cash flow even. For the business to be cash flow positive, the
recurring revenue must be over $110,000 per month. This is a threshold target metric
since it specifies an acceptable low and high values, creating a range of metriccentric
goals that are acceptable.
How are Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) reviews
conducted?
OKRs are supposed to be challenging, but also realistic and doable within a quarter’s
worth of time. Aligning conversations is extremely important, especially for operational
goals that are crossfunctional. What one team defines as success may not be another
team’s vision. Sync up to discuss! There should be no lack of understanding on, for
example, how an OKR supports an organizational goal. Utilize the power of a
conversation for 1on1 employee reviews.
Reflect on individual priorities
Every great planning day incorporates a discussion where everyone gets asked ”can
you commit to all of this?”
Assess crossfunctional objectives and results
Have conversations that answer what success means in relation to how each team will
support the other, and what resources are needed to make that support a success.
Discuss outcome of alignment
Clearly discuss how goals will be tracked and how everyone will be held accountable.
Clear expectations are key.
What is important to look for in an OKR tracking
platform?
Once you’ve decided that tracking and measuring OKRs will be critical to your
organization’s performance management process, it is important to find the right
medium to conduct these processes. While many companies start off using Google
docs for this purpose, they soon outgrow spreadsheets and need a platform that
manages and stores past data. Here is what to keep an eye out for when selecting the
right OKR tracking system for you:
Spotlight on setting OKRs
This might seem obvious, but finding the right platform to set company OKRs will help
with the adoption across teams. Not all goal setting platforms are created the same.
Ensure the OKR software you’re looking for is based on OKRs to begin with. Successful
OKR implementation although simple, can be made easier with a software that supports
employees on an individual level when it comes to creating quantitative and qualitative
targets for key results.
Easy to use
Ease of use in a performance management system indicates the adoption rate of
employees as well as the longevity of it living within a company. Ensuring the
performance management system being adopted is easy to use with a trial run is best.
You can look to replace Google spreadsheets with a performance management
platform that is more organized along with added features and benefits.
Aligns individual, team and organizational objectives (not necessarily
hierarchical)
Look for a performance management system that has the ability to align objectives on
every level of your organization, no matter the structure. It should be flexible enough to
allow for alignment across organizations and not tied to just topdown management
approaches.
Supports employee engagement and recognition
In order to successfully implement the use of OKRs, it requires the adoption of
employees on every level of a company. A tool that supports features like notifications
for weekly checkins, ability for managers and peers to request feedback and provide
individual updates on a common dashboard is essential.
OKR Webinars and Additional Q&As
How can we guide the team/individual to set the right targets? For instance, run
10Km in 50 mins or 45 mins? What is the optimal target? Are there recommended
processes to identify this?
It is important not to set too challenging of a goal. You need to be able to identify, given
our resources, human capital, time etc, what can be achieved. From there, you might
want to push the limit a bit to go above and beyond. One thing to be careful of is too
challenging of a goal will be demotivating for the rest of your team. It is difficult for
employees to find motivation in achieving goals they don’t believe they can reach. Start
with what can be achieved 100% and let’s push ourselves for an extra bit
Can you compare OKRs to the Balanced Scorecard?
Please stay tuned for our next OKR webinar. We will be addressing this question.
By definition, OKRs are always related to “results goals”. What are the best
practices for alignment in departments where performance is directly tied to
rewards like compensation and bonuses (i.e. Consulting, Sales)?
While OKRs are not linked to any incentive compensation process by design, it is
inevitable that some positions and teams track progress and made on Key Results and
heavy correlation to incentive compensation. In most cases, we consider that incentive
pay varies across departments and thus, not all will require their OKRs to be tied to
compensation. However, in the case that they do, here are examples:
When the Key Result 100% tied to incentive compensation
A sales employee who has the Objective “Reach $250k in new sales this quarter” will
likely have a percentage of incentive compensation linked to the Key Result which can
be predetermined.
When the Key Result is NOT tied to incentive compensation
A manager who has the Objective “Conduct 20 facetoface client interviews this
quarter”. In this case, a manager should not have their Key Result linked to
compensation as this is an expectation and not a stretch goal to be reached within their
job function.
How do you quantify objectives like “improve our reputation” or “improve client
communication” down to measurable Key Results?
When it comes to quantifying these types of objectives, you can consider testing
arbitrary metrics. In the case of and objective like “Improve our reputation”, an
appropriate key result might be “Increasing our NPS score by 10%” or “Increasing our
satisfaction rating from 50 to 70%”. These metrics are arbitrary in the sense that it might
not be company wide to start with. It is good to ask the question, “What triggers the
OKR to start with?” For example, “Why are we trying to improve our reputation?” did you
get a bad review, did you see a continuous trend of customer leaving etc.
How do you cope with projectbased objectives where projects may be one week
or one year and any one person may be working on two or three project
simultaneously?
Each OKR should have their own due date. While many organizations have a standard
schedule where lots of their OKRs can be set quarterly there are certainly project based
companies. Consulting is one of the biggest fields where work is very project based. In
that situation, your more functional departments (i.e. Sales, HR) might still following a
quarterly cadence and each of your projects might then have their own individual due
date scheduled as you see fit.
In a agile scrum development process are OKRs or specifically Key Results the
product roadmap? So scrum is the execution process for OKR.
The outcome is what is your product roadmap planning to achieve. For example,
increasing adoption rate of ‘Feature A’ by 10%. Your Key Results are the specific
characteristics of the product roadmap that will lead to increased adoption. For
example, “Launch email notifications on a weekly basis”. The work that your team is
doing on a daily basis will lead to the completion of the Key Result.
How do we communicate to management that the assigned Key Results and
timeline is not realistic?
One of the best ways to communicate to management that assignment Key Results and
timelines aren’t realistic is being more specific with plans and priorities. Often times we
are left with “ASAP” or “next week” for deadlines on various tasks that we’re not sure
which to prioritize. This is where looking at immediate needs and objective alignment
comes in. By asking questions to clarify and making an active effort to schedule
checkin’s and/or status updates on the progress of your Key Results, you’re able to
provide management with a more realistic view of why the timeline does or doesn’t
work.