Exec­u­tive Summary

Ben­e­fits of OKRs

  • Strate­gic Align­ment: OKRs help teams align their efforts so that every­one moves in the same direc­tion towards desired busi­ness results.
  • Focused Exe­cu­tion: Plan­ning and exe­cu­tion is focused on results, allow­ing teams to pri­or­i­tize results that will gen­er­ate true busi­ness val­ue. It pro­vides a direct line of sight to value.
  • Empow­ered Teams: Teams decide which tasks to focus on. A strate­gic, cre­ative envi­ron­ment is pro­mot­ed, and a sense of own­er­ship is created.

How to write OKRs

  1. Define your goal: what you want to achieve.
  2. Set key results: spe­cif­ic and mea­sur­able results that will indi­cate that you have achieved your goal.
  3. Assign own­er­ship: who is respon­si­ble for achiev­ing the goal.
  4. Set a time frame: when the goal will be achieved.

Com­mon Mis­takes in Writ­ing OKRs

  • Not involv­ing teams in the process of estab­lish­ing OKRs: It is impor­tant to involve the team in the process of estab­lish­ing them. This ensures that OKRs are rel­e­vant and mean­ing­ful to them. It is impor­tant for them to under­stand how their work con­tributes to the over­all suc­cess of the com­pa­ny, gen­er­at­ing commitment.
  • Set­ting too many objec­tives or results: OKRs help syn­the­size the most impor­tant work for the com­pa­ny to teams rep­re­sent­ing all parts of an orga­ni­za­tion. Ide­al­ly, teams should not have more than 5 Objec­tives and between 3–5 Key Results per Objective.
  • Not review­ing and adjust­ing OKRs reg­u­lar­ly: Ensures that they remain aligned with the cen­tral strat­e­gy and remain rel­e­vant. That they are aligned with the over­all strat­e­gy of the company.

Key Con­clu­sions

  • Impor­tant to under­stand the main strat­e­gy of the com­pa­ny before estab­lish­ing OKRs: This ensures that OKRs con­tribute true val­ue to the com­pa­ny’s growth.
  • Empow­er and involve teams to focus on val­ue: Remem­ber that this makes OKRs rel­e­vant and mean­ing­ful to them and makes it more fea­si­ble to achieve them.
  • Use pre­vi­ous OKRs to plan and finance future projects: Ana­lyz­ing what was and was not achieved and why will give us bet­ter con­text when writ­ing new OKRs.
  • Review and adjust OKRs reg­u­lar­ly, using tools designed specif­i­cal­ly for them: Hav­ing a good tool to for­mal­ize this method­ol­o­gy and make track­ing very sim­ple, which is very valu­able for mature com­pa­nies with many projects at the same time.