OKR examples to help you achieve your goals

If you’re a business owner aiming for growth, setting clear and specific goals is essential. Instead of vague aspirations like simply “we want to grow,” you need to create benchmarks like “we want to grow by 5% every quarter.” Why? Because specific goals are measurable. And measurable goals provide clarity on whether you’ve achieved them and by how much. While there are various frameworks like SMART goals and KPIs for goal measurement, this article focuses on OKRs (including OKR examples!)

In this guide, we’ll delve into OKRs, their functionality, and their relevance to your business. Keep reading for OKR examples and insights on crafting your strategy.

What are OKRs?

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a method of setting quantifiable goals and aligning everyone in an organization around a shared mission.

John Doerr first developed this technique for the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers in the 1970s. He used this method to help build them into one of the leading VC firms in Silicon Valley and then scaled it throughout the organization in Google. Now, OKRs are in wide use among companies of all sizes.

The objective part of each OKR is a broad goal with no timeframe, such as ‘Increase traffic by 10%’ or ‘Launch product X successfully.’ The key result part is what’s necessary to achieve that objective — how you’ll know when you’ve succeeded.

Who should use OKRs?

Anyone can use OKRs. The only type of person who may struggle with OKRs is someone who prefers a set structure they can follow by the letter rather than a framework for creating something original.

OKRs are beneficial for everyone in every business, but they’re especially important for:

• New managers seeking direction
• Executives looking to get their teams aligned with their priorities
• Employees who want greater autonomy over what they do at work.

In short, anyone who could use more focus or clarity in their professional lives will benefit from these tools. OKRs encourage organizational alignment around long-term goals while allowing individuals to take ownership of projects big and small. This approach to setting and tracking goals works well for everyone, from the executive suite to entry-level employees.

Here are some ways OKRs can benefit different levels of your organization.

1. The individual

OKRs are particularly advantageous for individuals and small teams, as they encourage focus and alignment between the various projects you might be working on at any point in time.

At the end of every quarter, write down your top three personal OKRs for the next quarter and distribute them to your manager, peers, and subordinates, so they know what you’re aiming for.

2. The manager

Managers need full visibility and regular progress reviews — so OKRs make sense. An excellent way to start is by creating an OKR template to outline all of your projects in one place. From there, ask yourself how each project contributes to these larger initiatives, adjusting as necessary.

3. The executive

Executives should use OKRs to give guidance and prioritize initiatives. A good OKR strategy for executives who are just getting started is to list three big ideas that guide their company’s near-term objectives. The next step is to align their team projects around those ideas after building some momentum.

OKR planning

OKR planning provides a powerful framework for setting and achieving goals in organizations of all sizes.  It generally uses the following framework.

Setting objectives

The first step in OKR planning is defining clear and ambitious objectives that articulate what needs to be accomplished. Objectives should be qualitative, inspirational, and challenging yet achievable within a specific time frame, typically a quarter or a year. They serve as the guiding stars that align everyone’s efforts toward a common purpose.

Defining key results

Key Results are measurable outcomes that indicate progress toward achieving the objectives. They provide concrete and quantifiable metrics against which success can be assessed. Key Results should be specific, actionable, and time-bound, enabling teams to track their performance and adjust strategies as needed to stay on course.

Cascading OKRs

OKRs are often cascaded throughout the organization, with high-level objectives broken down into smaller, more manageable goals at each level. This ensures alignment and clarity across departments and teams, enabling everyone to understand how their contributions contribute to the overall success of the company.

Establishing accountability

OKRs foster a culture of accountability by clearly defining who is responsible for what and by when. Each individual or team owns specific objectives and key results, and they are accountable for driving progress and delivering results. Regular check-ins and reviews help monitor performance and address any obstacles or challenges along the way.

Monitoring progress

Monitoring progress is a critical aspect of OKR planning. Regular check-ins, typically conducted on a weekly or biweekly basis, allow teams to assess their performance, identify areas for improvement, and make any necessary course corrections to ensure they stay on track to achieve their objectives.

Iterating and learning

OKR planning encourages a mindset of continuous improvement and learning. Teams are encouraged to experiment, take risks, and learn from both successes and failures. By regularly reviewing and reflecting on their performance, teams can iterate on their strategies and refine their approach to achieve better results in the future.

OKR examples

Here are some OKR examples of common teams, individuals, and use cases your organization might have.

OKR examples for growth

OKR examples for project managers

1. OBJECTIVE: Improve project delivery timeliness

• Key results:
  • Deliver 100% of projects on schedule by adhering to project timelines and milestones outlined in the project plan
  • Reduce average project completion time by 15% through efficient resource allocation and task prioritization
  • Increase on-time delivery rate for project phases by 20% through proactive risk management and issue resolution

2. OBJECTIVE: Enhance project quality and stakeholder satisfaction

• Key results:
  • Achieve a project quality score of 90% or higher based on stakeholder feedback and quality assurance metrics
  • Increase stakeholder satisfaction ratings by 15% through regular communication, status updates, and expectation management
  • Decrease project rework rate by 25% by implementing robust quality control measures and conducting thorough project reviews

3. OBJECTIVE: Optimize resource utilization and budget management

• Key results:
  • Maintain project budget adherence within 5% of the allocated budget by monitoring expenses and identifying cost-saving opportunities
  • Improve resource allocation efficiency by optimizing team capacity utilization, resulting in a 10% reduction in resource wastage
  • Enhance project profitability by achieving a 15% increase in the return on investment (ROI) for projects through effective resource management and cost control measures

OKR setting best practices

The good news is that there’s no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to create OKRs. The key is to try different approaches until you find one that works best for everyone involved. That said, here are a few basic guidelines you can follow when tinkering with your process.

How and when to use OKRs

• Create your OKRs from the top down. Start with your overarching organizational goal(s) — then break them down into department, team, and individual objectives.
• Don’t build OKRs without considering other projects and goals. When defining your goals, consider the entire business.
• Use OKRs when your business wants to grow fast. They help provide momentum and direction.
• When creating your OKRs, decide if you want them to be aspirational or realistic. If you’re an early-stage company just trying to keep up with customer demand, you probably don’t have the luxury of being too ambitious. However, if you have some breathing room in your development cycle and know there are certain things that need to get done, feel free to use larger goals.
• Don’t place too much emphasis on numbers or statistics; instead, trust personal progress reports and qualitative feedback. Only use metrics as an aggregate score after completing multiple checkpoints — not a condition for opening up a dialogue.
• Encourage employees to do their own research. Give them a week or two to experiment with different ideas, and then gather everyone together for a brainstorming session.

Managing your OKR strategy

• You can experiment with OKRs before adding them to company policy. You can use OKR examples from other companies and run trials within your organization’s own structure.
• Remember that you don’t need to follow the model exactly as it is so long as everyone agrees on what you’re trying to achieve and why. The trick is finding the right balance between too little guidance and too much micromanagement, which may vary depending on your leadership style.
• Take the time for regular check-ins. This gives everyone a chance to air grievances, convey concerns, and discuss potential roadblocks together. It also provides an opportunity for managers to coach their teams on how best to achieve their goals.
• Use project management software to help you manage your OKRs. OKRs are very time-sensitive. The whole process is meant to be done quarterly, and each quarter should start with a fresh set of goals. Project management software can help ensure that nothing slips through the cracks because all your tasks, metrics, and goals are in one place.

OKR tools

Setting objectives is vital for growth: if you don’t, you’ll drift along and never accomplish what you set out to do. But if your objectives are too lofty and difficult, your team will feel undue pressure. By setting achievable objectives, managers can help support their team’s success while ensuring they remain engaged with their work.

The worst thing you can do when setting OKRs or KPIs is to create a list of goals, then hide it away on the server, never to be seen again. Our tip? Make goal-setting a collaborative effort. And the best way to do that is to track goals on your project management software.

With Backlog, our own project management tool, you can set OKRs and share them with the wider team. As people complete jobs, the software automatically tracks progress and sends notifications when team members reach key milestones and objectives. This means you can stay on top of your team’s OKRs and remain involved — but not too involved — as things go along. And when the quarter or year is over, you’ll be able to look back on your goals and see just how much you’ve accomplished.

This post was originally published on February 11, 2022, and updated most recently on May 15, 2024.