OKR stands for Objectives & Key Results and is a simple framework for setting better goals. It describes WHAT you want to achieve (Objective) and HOW you intend to measure that you have achieved it (Key Result). Well-known OKR users are Google and Twitter, but even the artist Bono uses it for his philanthropic focus. OKR is a goal-setting framework with a great focus on WHY – so it is especially useful for you with high ambitions and clear visions.
Each OKR can be linked to a Focus Area, in order to create opportunities for several people (perhaps 1000’s) to strive together towards a common vision. Read more here to learn more about how to create a clear vision for OKRs.
Below are two examples of OKR, we hope it gives you inspiration:
OKR Project Manager, example 1:
Note that in the gray text we have written “Increase deliverability” – this is an example of a Focus Area.
It is important that OKR becomes a supportive way of working for you in your everyday work-life. OKR should help you focus on the most important things, even though there is a lot going on during the workweek. Therefore, after setting up your OKR, it is important to start making brief, recurring comments against it. In OKR’s language, these comments are called “Check-ins”. What opportunities, for example, would this OKR give you for doing insightful Check-Ins, and what kind of feedback would you get from your colleagues at work? Here are a few examples to get you started, as it looks in our tool:
OKR Project Manager, example 2:
This OKR shows examples of where Key Results has been formulated a bit less measurable. “Replace update meetings with morning check-in” is hard to read what half-way-done actually is. So in these cases, you’d often self-assess with a percentage of how far you think you have come. With an OKR tool like Node, you can choose to measure both with numbers (previous example) as well as with per cent.
Key Results can also be used to share knowledge. In “Go from 20 to 60% decision meetings” below, the project manager not only set a measurable key result but also measured how many meetings today that are decision meetings (20%). In this way, OKR is also used to distribute knowledge about important conditions in the initiatives that each person works with, for example:
