When work­ing agile, writ­ing good OKRs is crit­i­cal because it helps the com­pa­ny to align their objec­tives with the over­all strat­e­gy, set clear and mea­sur­able goals, increase employ­ee engage­ment, track progress in real-time, and pro­vide a clear path for con­tin­u­ous improvement. 

Effec­tive OKRs can help com­pa­nies improve per­for­mance, increase pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and dri­ve growth. They also pro­vide a frame­work for hold­ing employ­ees account­able and mea­sur­ing suc­cess. Over­all, good OKRs can help a com­pa­ny to stay focused on its pri­or­i­ties, and make bet­ter use of its resources and efforts, mak­ing it a pow­er­ful tool for the com­pa­ny’s success.

Here you can find the most com­mon mis­takes that com­pa­nies make when writ­ing OKRs and try to avoid them.

1- Not align­ing OKRs with over­all strat­e­gy: When the OKRs are not close­ly tied to the com­pa­ny’s over­all strat­e­gy and goals, it can make it dif­fi­cult for employ­ees to under­stand how their work con­tributes to the over­all suc­cess of the company.

2- Not involv­ing employ­ees in the OKR-set­ting process: Employ­ees are the ones who will be work­ing on achiev­ing the OKRs, so it is impor­tant to involve them in the process of set­ting them. This can help ensure that the OKRs are rel­e­vant and mean­ing­ful to them and that they under­stand how their work con­tributes to the com­pa­ny’s over­all success.

3- Not set­ting clear and mea­sur­able key results: OKRs should have clear and mea­sur­able key results, so that it is clear when they have been achieved. If the key results are not mea­sur­able, it can be dif­fi­cult to know if the OKRs are being met, which can make it dif­fi­cult to eval­u­ate the effec­tive­ness of the OKRs.

4- Not review­ing and adjust­ing OKRs reg­u­lar­ly: OKRs should be reviewed and adjust­ed on a reg­u­lar basis, to ensure that they are still rel­e­vant and aligned with the com­pa­ny’s over­all strat­e­gy. With­out reg­u­lar reviews, it is easy for OKRs to become out­dat­ed, which can make them ineffective.

5- Not hav­ing prop­er tools to track the progress: OKRs need prop­er tools to track the progress, and report on the progress, so that every­one is aware of the progress and can take appro­pri­ate actions.

Plan­view has a cen­tral­ized place to cre­ate, visu­al­ize, store, and track OKRs. and align teams to a com­mon goal, some key char­ac­ter­is­tics are:

  • The dash­boards show how objec­tives are con­nect­ed across the objec­tive hier­ar­chy to pro­vide a line of sight across, up and down the organization.
  • It shows how the work items relat­ed to each objec­tive are con­nect­ed, so that teams and their lead­ers have a clear line of sight into all con­nect­ed work.
  • It enables vis­i­bil­i­ty into shared objec­tives and inter­de­pen­den­cies in how com­pa­nies can man­age that white space.
  • Lead­ers can show teams where to go, but let them deter­mine how to get there by allow­ing them to best bal­ance short-term objec­tives with long-term strategy.