How to Set Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

 

What:

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations align objectives and ensure everyone is working towards the same objectives. Objectives define what you want to achieve. Key Results, on the other hand, are measurable ways to track the achievement of those objectives.

OKR was developed by Peter Drucker and later built upon by Andy Grove, CEO at Intel. John Doerr, author of "Measure What Matters", also worked at Intel during the time, later became advisor to Google and introduced OKRs in 1999. It's now used by thousands of companies worldwide including Netflix, LinkedIn, Twitter and Airbnb.

The Objective is what you want to achieve and should be inspirational to the whole team or organization.

The Key Results track how to achieve it. Like S.M.A.R.T. goals, they should be specific, measurable, and work to a timeline.

 

Examples

Objective: Land more customers than last quarter

Key Result 1: 50,000 click-throughs on our advert

Key Result 2: Achieve 2,000 signups

Key Result 3: 50% lower bounce rate on our landing page.

 

Objective: Reduce our carbon emissions to net-zero

Key Result 1: Finish decarbonization of the final 3 factories

Key Result 2: 100% of employee flights to be carbon-offset

Key Result 3: 60% reduction of employee flights.

 

Here's an example from Gitlab's CEO:

Objective: CEO: Even prouder to work here

Key Result 1: 7 certifications with more than 10,000 certificates issued

Key Result 2: Graduate 2 internal projects from internal limited to public

Key Result 3: Raise monthly contributors from 80 to 150.

 

Why:

Setting OKRs provides clarity and focus on what's important, facilitates alignment across different levels of the organization, and helps track progress towards strategic objectives. It encourages accountability and allows for a transparent view of what success looks like.

 

How:

  1. On the top navigation bar, click on the + icon to "Create Campaign".

  2. Assign a title to your new campaign.

  3. Choose OKR as your campaign template.
  4. Designate a time duration for your campaign.

  5. Upload a banner for image (optional).

  6. Click Publish.

Need ideas? You can use our AI feature to help you generate ideas. Click on the button that says "Use AI to create a new campaign" at the top of the Create a campaign window.

 

Best Practices:

Setting Objectives: Objectives should be qualitative, inspirational, and time-bound. They represent the direction you want your team or organization to head towards. An example of an objective could be "Increase user engagement on our platform."

Defining Key Results: Key Results are quantitative and measurable. They define how you'll measure the success of your objectives. For each objective, you should have 2-5 key results. For example, a key result for the above objective could be "Increase daily active users by 20%."

Tracking Progress: Regularly review your OKRs to track progress. Acclaim Ideas provides features that allow you to monitor and update the status of your OKRs.

Ensure your OKRs are ambitious but realistic.

OKRs should be transparent across the organization to align efforts and foster collaboration.

While setting OKRs is important, reviewing and updating them regularly is equally crucial.

Try not to create more than 5 objectives at a time.

Create 2-5 Key results for each objective.

Make them short and simple.

Make them exciting.

Stretch your team / organization. If you're reaching 100% of all of your objectives, then they are too easy.

Regularly follow-up - OKRs should not be "set and forget".

 

Notes:

In Acclaim Ideas, you can align your OKRs with your campaigns, allowing you to have a clear view of how your ideas align with your overall objectives.

 

Related Links: