OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. The Objective is qualitative, and the Key Results (most often three) are quantitative.
The goal of OKR is to define how to achieve objectives through concrete, specific and measurable actions. It is a simple tool to create alignment and engagement around measurable goals.
OKR has two components, the Objective and the Key Results:
Objectives are memorable qualitative descriptions of what you want to achieve. Objectives should be short, inspirational and engaging. An Objective should motivate and challenge the team
Key Results are a set of metrics that measure your progress towards the Objective. For each Objective, you should have a set of 2 to 5 Key Results. More than that and no one will remember them.
All Key Results have to be quantitative and measurable.
Advantages of using OKR
There are so many advantages of using Objective and Key Results (OKR). A few of them are listed down here.
For team members and employees, some of the benefits include:
- Doing more by doing less;
- Being heard by your leader;
- Getting praise and hearing from your co-workers;
- Having a lightweight task manager for big goals and weekly objectives.
For leaders and managers, the benefits are:
- Quickly knowing what's happening in a team;
- Increasing productivity;
- Making better more informed decisions;
- Guiding your people and giving feedback;
- Measuring work satisfaction;
Example of an OKR
Objective: Delight our customers
Key Results:
- Reduce revenue churn (cancellation) from X% to Y%
- Increase Net Promoter Score from X to Y
- Improve average weekly visits per active user from X to Y
- Increase non-paid (organic) traffic to from X to Y
- Improve engagement (users that complete a full profile) from X to Y.