The OKR goal-setting methodology requires clear objectives and measurable results. The purpose of establishing OKRs in an organization is to ensure that there is a clear path for all employees to work towards a common goal. In the wake of the pandemic, organizations have moved more quickly into a digital-first era. There has been a shift in mindset to accommodate remote and hybrid working models. There is also a greater urgency to become agile. Traditional methods of goal setting and annual performance reviews give way to modern methods of continuous and frequent feedback loops to ensure that everyone stays on track with their individual goals and the organization’s objectives.
An OKR framework can be a powerful tool to accelerate the journey to digital transformation. And knowing that agility helps organizations respond faster to market and be more customer-centric makes OKRs more essential for success. OKRs are iterative by nature and help create measurable and qualitative goals that inspire employees as they align themselves with the organizational strategy. They make everyone in the organization accountable for their work and keep them on track quarter by quarter. Moreover, OKRs also fulfill the need for transparency and enhanced employee engagement. As part of today’s remote work mode, employees need to feel more connected to the organization and seek to align their personal goals to the organization’s.
All the more reason for you to have a good handle on writing effective OKRs – The right OKR can be motivational and be the best way to keep your eye on what is important and what to prioritize. For writing the most effective OKR, there are a few things to keep in mind:
Objectives must
- Specify goals and intents
- Be realistic
- Be tangible and objective; it should be evident whether an objective has been achieved.
Key results must
- Have measurable milestones, when achieved, will advance objective(s)
- Must describe outcomes, not activities.
- Must include evidence of completion.
Here are a few OKR Examples
OKRs for Sales department
Objective: Improve your sales performance across the team.
Key Results:
- Maintain a sales pipeline of qualified leads valued at [amount] quarterly
- Increase close rate from 26% to 29%.
- Increase scheduled calls from each sales rep from 4 to 8 per week.
Objective: Support for the sales team with as many qualified leads as possible.
Key results:
- Create two new case studies targeting new customer segments.
- Revise the older sales deck to reflect updated products/ offerings.
- Offer two sales-training sessions.
OKRs for the Marketing team
Objective: Increase your reach and brand awareness.
Key results:
- Generate two new blogs/ articles per week
- Increase newsletter signups by 250 per week.
- Increase website traffic by 20% from the new geographies you are targeting.
Objective: Improve your SEO
Key results:
- Get 15 new inbound links per quarter with a domain score over 40.
- Improve your website loading speed to increase the speed rate.
- Improve your internal on-page optimization by ten pages per quarter.
OKRs for the HR Department
Objective: Define and promote the organization’s values and culture
Key results:
- Survey all employees on awareness of existing values (expect a minimum of 50 answers)
- With 2-3 separate teams, redefine your company culture.
- Design and promote values on the company intranet and through all communication channels.
Objective: Improve employee engagement
Key results:
- Conduct 3 monthly meetings with leaders
- Get a weekly employee satisfaction score of at least 4.3 points
- Interview 42 employees on what they need to improve work culture.
OKRs for Finance/ Accounting Department
Objective: Improve business planning and annual budgeting
Key results:
- Conduct a planning session with each division manager
- Receive business line budget proposals before [date].
- Have each business line manager start using the unified dashboards
OKRs for the Product team
Objective: Successfully launch version 2 of your main product
Key results:
- Get over 8000 new signups
- Get product reviews published in over ten publications
- Increase the trial-to-paid ratio by over 50%
Basic OKR Templates
While several templates can be customized to your unique business needs and the departments you have in the organization, here’s a basic template that you can use as a starting point.
| Name of the department/ business unit | Quarter/ Year | ||
| Objective 1 | Enter the Objective here | Owner-Individual/ Manager/ Team Lead | Status |
| KR1 | |||
| KR2 | |||
| KR3 |
Essentially, you can use this format to continue with more objectives per department and their respective key results.
Wrapping up
OKRs may seem new and a little challenging to create and implement. They don’t need to be. They can follow a simple format and define objectives based on the immediate need or the goal for the quarter. You can list three or four key results for each of these objectives. If your organization is new to this methodology, you may want to start small and simple. The best part of OKRs is that they can be flexible, and if you think that they need to be tweaked a little mid-way, you can. The overall objective is always in the organization’s and the employees’ best interests, with the desired results as the best outcome for all.