Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

OKRs

Defining Objectives and Key Results

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs): Are an agile leadership and goal management framework. It is a strategy execution tool to guide result-focused work, create alignment and engagement around measurable goals. OKRs consist of one Objective and several Key Results.
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Objectives: Are desirable, ambitious goals, qualitatively describing an aspired outcome. It sets a clear direction for everyone and is supposed to motivate you to work towards it. The Objective basically tells you where you want to go.
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Key Results: Describe the metrics you will use to check if you are on the right track to achieve your Objective. They are measurable results indicating your progress towards achieving an Objective and will tell you if you have achieved it. Key Results usually have a starting and a target value to measure how you progress towards your Objective. Through this, you always know how close you are to your final destination and if you will have to change something to get there.
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The history of the OKR method: the idea of OKRs has come a long way. Already in 1968, back then CEO of Intel, Andy Grove, developed the Management by Objectives framework of Peter Drucker into the model of OKRs. In 1974, John Doerr joined Intel, got to know OKRs and took them with him, when he joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers – one of the first major investors in Google. Doerr introduced OKRs to the founders of Google, who implemented them in their organization, which still uses OKRs today.
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The OKR Cycle: To really make OKRs work, the process component of the framework is just as important as its different parts (e.g. Objectives, Key Results) and the different roles (e.g. OKR Coaches, Program Leads). The process component of the framework is also called OKR Cycle. It describes a sequence of different events that ensure

proper definition
execution
measurement
and continuous improvement

of goals and the overall strategy execution. A clearly defined OKR process with regular events to plan, align, update, reflect and adjust is the heart of a successful agile goal and strategy execution system.

OKR Guide

Workpath‘s Complete Guide to OKRs

The Complete OKR Guide helps you to understand what you need to know about OKRs. Find out everything from a detailed definition over OKR examples and the most frequently asked questions to reasons why you should start working with OKRs.

Download Workpath‘s Complete OKR Guide

OKR Companies

Here you can find a few of the companies that are working with OKRs

Why OKRs

What are the benefits of working with OKRs?

There are plenty of reasons why OKRs are important for you and your company. We have put together an overview about the most important reasons to implement OKRs below.

Plan, learn & adopt more frequently

OKRs help you to create a more frequent rhythm of strategic planning, learning and adopting based on your experience. This will help you to improve performance faster.

Increase the quality of your goals

OKRs help you to shift from output to outcome orientation, improve measurability of success and let you focus on customer and business value right from the beginning, when you set your goals.

Create transparency and engagement

Create transparency and clarity for teams about their strategic contributions. Help them to know exactly how they contribute to strategic goals to increase their sense of purpose and engagement.

Turn every team into a strategy executor

Involve every team in the strategic planning process and benefit from their additional customer insights. Make your strategy development as customer centric as never before.

Maximize resource allocation effectiveness

Allocate your resources to the right strategic priorities and increase portfolio efficiency every cycle. Decrease the time-to-result for every strategic investment.

Bridge the strategy execution gap

Increase the strategic impact of operative teams. Create more strategic focus in your daily work activities by creating the connection between them and their contribution to goal achievement.

Create a learning organization

Create fast improvement cycles iteratively integrating learnings from operative work into strategic decisions. Know when to course-correct, make strategic success predictable.

Establish an end-to-end value creation process

Eliminate gaps and friction between strategy planning and execution. Make all steps of the value creation smoothly integrate with each other.

Create a sustainable organizational structure

Continuously develop for better strategy execution. Generate learnings about the friction between value streams and the organizational structure. And become as fluid as today‘s market demands.

OKR Examples

Practical OKR examples for Product and IT

Our thought-through kits for product and IT teams will support you with your OKR drafting. What you can expect: OKR drafting techniques explained simple and concise, best practices and helpful OKR examples. Download your drafting kit with OKR examples.

Drafting Kit for Product Teams Drafting Kit for IT Teams

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OKR Examples

The right OKR examples for your department

Since OKRs are always very specific to an organization and its context, it is usually best to not just “transfer” OKR examples but rather work with quality criteria. Nonetheless, OKR examples can often be a helpful starting point. This is why we collected some of the best OKR examples for different departments for you.

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OKRs & Related Frameworks

OKRs, Hoshin Kanri, OGSM and related frameworks – how does it fit?

Next to OKRs there are a lot of related frameworks concerned with performance management and the strategy execution process. To not get lost in the framework jungle, we have created a brief overview.

OKRs and Hoshin Kanri

While Hoshin Kanri focuses a lot on formulating and structuring strategic goals, OKRs offer a more holistic process model. Listen to this Superkinetics episode (ger) to learn more.

OKRs and SAFeⓇ

OKRs and SAFeⓇ work with closely related principles, which is why they perfectly complement each other. Use OKRs to enhance alignment in scaled agile environments.

OKRs and OGSM

OKRs are a great complement to OGSM. OKRs take the strategic OGSM framework and provide the necessary strategy execution process for it.

OKRs and KPIs

OKRs and KPIs are two sides of the same coin. While KPIs serve you as a lag metric, OKRs are the lead metric of your success. learn more about OKRs and KPIs in this article.

OKRs and Balanced Scorecard (BSC)

OKRs and BSC are both concerned with strategy execution. However, OKRs take a less administrative, more engaging and inclusive approach. Listen to this Superkinetics episode (ger) to learn more.

OKRs and Smart Goals

While OKRs are an encompassing strategy execution and goal management framework, Smart goals give you guidelines on improving goal quality. Their principles fit together well.

The best OKR content