As a business owner in a competitive environment, you must know what you want to achieve and why it matters.
At the same time, you must work hard and define what success looks like and what it will take you to get there. In this case, you must develop measurable key results.
Traditionally, business teams have relied on objectives and key results (OKRs) to understand theirgoalsand how they can achieve them. Using this success framework, you pair objectives with key results to understand your achievements.
Unfortunately, most business owners have very little or no clue about objectives and key results success framework.
7 Free OKR Templates: Objectives and Key Results
- What is an OKR Template?
- The Benefits of Tracking OKRs using OKR Framework Templates
- 1. ClickUp Company OKR Template
- 2. ClickUp OKRs Template
- 3. ClickUp Strategic Marketing Plan Template
- 4. Google Sheets OKR Tracking Template
- 5. Excel OKR Tracking Template
- 6. PowerPoint OKR Template
- 7. Google Sheets OKR Dashboard Template
What is an OKR Template?
OKR (Objectives and Key Results) templates work as a performance management system to provide a framework for setting team objectives and tracking results.
Whether you’re a small or large organization, it pays to clearly understand your company objectives so everyone is working toward the same goals. To further break it down,objectivesare specific goals you want to achieve, whilekey resultsare the metrics used to measure your progress.
For example, let’s say your objective is to increase sales by 20% in the next quarter. Your key results could be increasing web traffic by 10%, generating 50 new leads, or closing 10 new deals.
If you’re new to OKRs, check out our video for practical writing tips!
The Benefits of Tracking OKRs using OKR Framework Templates
As a business owner, it’s easy to get distracted by shiny objects and other things that aren’t important. With OKRs, you can keep your team focused on the things that matter most. You want to direct your energy in areas that can create an impact on your business rather than wasting time on things that won’t move the needle.
You must ensure that everyone in your organization is aligned with your company’s vision and goals. With OKRs, you can engage your team and get them excited about working toward a common goal.
Improving transparency and accountability
In any team, transparency and accountability are crucial to success. Unfortunately, achieving these things is challenging without the proper framework in place. OKRs assist your team in understanding their roles and responsibilities. It also helps you to hold everyone accountable for their actions.
Additionally, any delay in decision-making can be costly. You want your team to be able to make decisions quickly without sacrificing quality. Objectives and key results play a critical role in facilitating faster decision-making.
Quickly identify the areas that need attention and make decisions accordingly. It benefits to keep your organization agile and responsive to changes in the market.
Boosting performance
The ultimate role of any OKR is toimprove performance. When everyone in your organization understands their objectives and key results, they’ll be more likely to work harder to achieve them.
This framework also allows you to track progress and identify areas that need improvement. Aligning your team’s efforts with your company’s goals will help you to achieve excellent results.
Creating a solid objective and key results framework starts with clearly understanding what you want your organization to achieve and how you’ll measure success. Although business owners will find it easier to establish their business objectives and key results, it’s always a challenge when it comes to putting all your OKRs in one view.
Fortunately, there are OKR templates you can use to align your whole team toward the same vision.
Here are seven free OKR templates you should consider right now!
7 Free OKR Templates in Excel, Google Sheets, & ClickUp
1. ClickUp Company OKR Template
ClickUp is a productivity platform where teams come together to plan, organize, and collaborate on work in one place. And withClickUp’s Company OKRs and Goals template, managers have the option to create tasks and link them to a key result. It will no longer be an administrative burden on team members to send weekly status emails because as the task progresses, it’s automatically tracked within the template!
An OKR system in ClickUp will transform the way teams and senior leadership communicate their top priorities. It tiesstrategic planningto actionable steps so every key result contributor understands how their performance directly affects the outcome. Startnext quarter’s OKR planning today!
2. ClickUp OKRs Template
TheClickUp’s OKRs Templateis an excellent starting point for OKRs. It includes both a pre-defined OKR framework and workspaces to help you start planning your OKRs quickly and easily. The template comes with customizable OKR templates, a goal setting guide, and even sample OKRs. You’ll also get access to the OKR checklist and OKR playbook, which provide best practices for implementing OKRs in your organization. All the pieces of this OKR template work together to help you quickly get up and running with OKRs.
Understanding your team’s OKR framework is the key to successful OKR execution. This template helps you quickly establish and configure OKRs that are tailored specifically for your team’s unique needs. This OKR template includes all the visual tools, workspaces, and resources needed to make sure everyone understands their OKRs and is working towards them in an effective way.
3. ClickUp Strategic Marketing Plan Template
ClickUp’s Strategic Marketing OKR Templateprovides a comprehensive OKR framework for strategic marketing teams. It includes OKRs specifically designed to improve the visibility and reach of your brand in the market, build customer loyalty, and increase sales. With this OKR template, you’ll get access to resources such as goal setting guidelines, OKR definitions, OKR templates, OKR checklists, and OKR playbooks. This OKR template is a great starting point for marketing teams wanting to get the best results out of OKRs.
4. Google Sheets OKR Tracking Template
Google Sheets has a simple OKR template to start organizing each key result for the entire organization. It helps managers track the team’s progress toward quarterly objectives.
All you need to do is enter your objectives and a few key results into the appropriate columns. You can then visualize the status of each key result by color-coding the cells. This will help you see which areas need attention. Small business owners are already using this template to improve their productivity and achieve their goals!
5. Excel OKR Tracking Template
Over the years, Microsoft Excel has become one of the most popular tools for tracking OKRs. This is because it’s easy to use and provides much flexibility. You can easily customize your OKRs to suit your unique needs. If you want to track your progress visually, you can use sparklines or charts.
The best thing about using Excel to track your OKRs is you can share your progress with others. You can also use this tool to set reminders and add notes.
6. PowerPoint OKR Template
This is another excellent option for small businesses or startups. The OKR PowerPoint template is easy to use and helps you to track your progress over time.
Using this template, you must enter your objectives and key results into the appropriate slides. You can then track your progress by highlighting the cells achieved. This will help you to see which areas need improvement.
Businesses looking for a planning template that is easy to use and visually appealing can go for the OKR PowerPoint template.
7. Google Sheets OKR Dashboard Template
You must avoid a situation where you must go back and forth between different tools to set reminders or add notes. The Google Sheets template alleviates this challenge by allowing you to do everything in one place.
This tool has been in the market for a while and is known for its user-friendliness. With this template, you must ensure that you enter the objectives and key results in the appropriate columns. After that, you can easily track progress by highlighting achieved cells. Doing this will help identify areas that need more work.
Related Resources:
- Product OKRs
- Marketing OKRs
- Sales OKRs
- OKR Vs. KPIs
Be Better Than ‘OK’ and Start With a Detailed OKR Template
Having a clear approach to assessing your results and determining whether your business is truly performing to expectations is essential for organizational success. An objective and key results framework through an OKR template helps you to measure and assess your results with respect to your objectives.
It lets you know whether you’re making the right decisions and how you can improve your operations to reflect your performance. ClickUp’s Company OKR Template is the perfect place to start!
This easy-to-use template will quickly generate the necessary results for comparison purposes. So what are you waiting for?Sign up for a free ClickUp accounttoday to get started.
Questions? Comments? Visit ourHelp Centerfor support.
FAQs
What are Objectives and Key Results in Clickup? ›
OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is a goal-setting framework that helps a business define individual and company goals while devising a way to measure them.
What is an example of OKR objective key result? ›Top company objectives—OKR examples
Hit company global sales target of $100 Million in Sales. Achieve 100% year-to-year sales growth in the EMEA geography. Increase the company average deal size by 30% (with upsells) Reduce churn to less than 5% annually (via Customer Success)
- Keep it Simple. Focus on objectives you know you can achieve in the given timeframe. ...
- Be Specific. ...
- Cascade Your Objectives. ...
- Make it Measurable. ...
- Don't Worry About Stretch Goals. ...
- Break Key Results into Smaller Goals. ...
- Celebrate and Recognize.
KPIs are used to measure performance but they don't tell you what needs to change or improve to drive the growth of those numbers. OKR is a quarterly goal-setting method that helps businesses improve performance and drive change. OKRs are used to decide what needs to be changed, fixed, or improved.
What is the difference between objectives and key results in OKR? ›The objective defines what the employee wants to achieve and the key results outline how the employee is going to go about achieving the goal within a specific time frame. Each overarching objective should be achievable but challenging, sometimes referred to as a moonshot, to keep teams motivated.
What are the 5 smart Objectives? ›Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives is a good way to plan the steps to meet the long-term goals in your grant. It helps you take your grant from ideas to action.
What are the three parts of OKR? ›OKR Methodology Overview
OKRs consist of an objective, a clearly defined goal, and key results, which measure progress toward achieving the defined goal.
- Meaningfully improve your operating excellence in the next hour. kr1. ...
- Win the World Cup. Average scored goals rate of 2.0 throughout the tournament. ...
- Generate 700-meters-per-game passing attack. Pass completion rate of 85%. ...
- Launch website for freelance consulting.
Effective OKRs represent meaningful change, improvement and growth. They're our priorities for the next 30-90 days. Effective Objectives are meaningful, audacious, and inspiring. Effective Key Results are specific and timebound, aggressive and realistic, and measurable and verifiable.
What is the OKR formula? ›John Doerr's OKR formula is to set an objective, which is “what I want to have accomplished,” and the key results, which are “how I'm going to get it done.” Thus, with OKR, a goal isn't just what you want to achieve; it must include a way to measure achievement.
What is OKR format? ›
OKRs stand for objectives and key results, a goal-setting methodology that can help your team set and track measurable goals.
What are the 2 components of OKR? ›OKRs have two important parts: The objective you want to achieve and the key results, which are the way you measure achieving the objective.
What are examples of smart objectives? ›- Specific: I'd like to start training every day to run a marathon.
- Measurable: I will use my Apple Watch to track my training progress as my mileage increases.
- Attainable: I've already run a half-marathon this year, so I have a solid base-fitness level.
- I will speak at five conferences in the next year.
- I will read one book about sales strategy every month.
- I will work with a coach to practise my networking skills by the end of this month.
What is OKR vs KPI vs MBO? OKR is a goal-setting framework that aligns objectives across the organization. KPI helps you track and evaluate the performance of specific processes or activities within an organization. MBO helps managers and employees collaboratively set specific, measurable objectives hassle-free.
What is the difference between OKR and KRA? ›OKRs are the performance tracking and goal setting framework that aids organizations to achieve common goals through actionable plans. KRAs are the qualitative metrics to measure performance as per the diverse job roles or business objectives.
Can a Key Result be an objective? ›The problem with Key Results turning into Objectives
As we know it, that's incorrect. If you decide to create Key Results for this Objective, these Key Results can't really drive progress for the Objective.
While the answer is the same across the board, there may be some nuances depending on an organization's size. Simplicity is always key. To capture the ambitions of your organization, you should have a maximum of three Objectives, each with 3-5 Key Results.
What is the difference between an OKR and a KPI vs balanced scorecard? ›BSC and KPIs emphasize alignment / line of sight while OKRs emphasize agility and autonomy. BSC/KPIs tend to be better for long-term strategy execution and continuous improvement while OKRs are great for individual goal setting, accountability, and action.
What are the different types of OKR Objectives? ›There are two types of OKRs goal: committed OKRs and aspirational OKRs. Both committed and aspirational OKRs define different purposes and have separate methods to achieve them. If you are someone new to OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), this information can be overwhelming.
What are the 7 smarter goals? ›
The process of S.M.A.R.T.E.R goal-setting follows the acronym, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound, Evaluate, and Reward.
What are the three types of objectives? ›Cognitive objectives emphasize THINKING, Affective objectives emphasize FEELING and. Psychomotor objectives emphasize ACTING.
What are the 5 R's of goal setting? ›Avoid simply focusing on setting resolutions and turn your attention to the “five Rs” of resolutions: results, reasons, reflections, resources and responsibilities.
What are the ABCS of OKR? ›Objectives and key results (OKR) is a framework for defining and tracking goals and their outcomes. It was first introduced by Andy Grove, the “Father of OKRs”, during his tenure at Intel, and it is now used by many technology giants such as Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Spotify.
What is an OKR vs KPI? ›OKR is the acronym for objective and key results—more specifically, an objective is tied to key results. OKR is a strategic framework, whereas KPIs are measurements that exist within a framework. OKR is a simplistic, black-and-white approach that uses specific metrics to track the achievement of a goal.
What is KPI vs metric vs OKR? ›KPIs are metrics, while OKRs are a systemic goal-setting method. When used properly, the two complement each other. For example, your company might need your website to have an uptime of 99%. This metric represents a critical measurement to maintain.
What are leading indicators for OKRs? ›Examples of leading indicators include user guide usage, calories taken per day and use of safety equipment. Lagging and leading indicators can be used together with the objective and key results (OKR), to determine the outcome of a business organization.
What is an example of a bad OKR? ›| Well-Written OKRs | Poor-Written OKRs |
|---|---|
| Objective: Reduce energy consumption by 20% | Objective: Save energy |
| Key Result: Implement energy-efficient lighting in all facilities | Key Result: Change the lights |
| Key Result: Increase the percentage of renewable energy used by 25% | Key Result: Use clean energy |
A typical OKR is made up of 3 to 5 high-level objectives, under which 3-5 key measurable results are listed. The said key results are measurable through a defined set of indicators or scores (usually between 0 and 1.0. The use of quantitative indicators allows an organization to check or measure progress.
What are examples of Key Results? ›Key Results are the tasks that you complete to achieve the larger objectives. The key results should be significant and measurable by a particular parameter. For example, Increase customer retention by 80-90%.
What are the five recommended categories for OKRs? ›
OKRs provide your business with five important elements: focus, accountability, engagement, transparency and visibility.
What are smart goals in OKR format? ›SMART goals solely craft the objective.
SMART goals provoke the question, “What is the goal?” Yet OKRs ask, “What is the goal and how do we get there?” Objectives and Key Results should connect like puzzle pieces, with the intent being that if the Objective were to be reached, the Key Results must also be achieved.
Yes, KPIs can be used as Key Results in OKRs. KPIs are often used as the basis for Key Results because both are measurable and quantifiable.
How long should an OKR last? ›We used 3-month tactical OKR periods. They work well for enterprise organizations. If you're a small-to-medium company or just starting with OKRs, you will most likely want to start with smaller tactical periods, for example, 6 or 8 weeks. To conduct good check-ins and retrospective borrow the process from agile teams.
What are the stages of OKR? ›The cycle is just three steps, repeated every quarter: Set, Align, and Achieve. The cycle is based on two assumptions: First, to use goals successfully, we can't just “set” them. We also have to Align them with the rest of the organization and work systematically to Achieve them.
Why not use OKR? ›OKRs work only when everyone from the top gets involved in the system. The team has to align from top to bottom. It will be challenging to perform. The top-level can't just design OKRs and implement them and then forget about it.
Does Google still use OKRs? ›Everyone works together to ensure that their company is on track in terms of hitting their targets. Google does OKRs yearly. Annual OKRs are the umbrella objectives where the rest of the individual and team OKRs can be patterned from.
How do you write a key result? ›Key results should express measurable milestones that describe “how” the objective can be achieved. Cross-check them against these criteria to make sure they are defined correctly: Describe outcomes and not activities.
Can you give a few examples of SMART project objectives? ›More Examples Of SMART Project Objectives
Instead of: I want to finish more projects on budget. Try: I will get involved in the estimation workflow, track budget daily, and communicate budget concerns to my teams in our daily meeting to finish my next 3 projects within a +/- 10% range of the original estimate.
- S= Specific: The objective is crystal clear.
- M = Measurable: It must be a measurable goal, otherwise, there can be confusion on whether the key result was accomplished.
- A = Attainable Goal.
- R = Realistic Goal.
What is the difference between goals and objectives? ›
What is a goal vs. objective? A goal is an achievable outcome that is generally broad and longer term while an objective is shorter term and defines measurable actions to achieve an overall goal. While different, the two terms are often used in unison when working on a project.
How do I write my objectives? ›- Objectives should be inspirational and easy to remember. ...
- Objectives should be qualitative. ...
- Objectives should be actionable and achievable in a quarter. ...
- Objectives should provide business value.
- Keep it short. Don't add fluff! ...
- Be clear and detailed about the job you want. State the position you are applying for and describe your goals only as they pertain to the job and industry for which you're applying.
- Explain what you can do for them.
Objectives and key results (OKR) is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations define goals — or objectives — and then track the outcome. The framework is designed to help organizations establish far-reaching goals in days instead of months. OKR has been around since the 1970s.
What are Key Result areas and objectives? ›What are Key Result Areas? Key Result Areas (KRAs) are specific, measurable goals that a company or individual sets to track progress and success. They can be used in any context, but are often used in human resources to track employee goals and objectives.
How do you write key and objective results? ›For how to write OKRs, the actual formula is simple: Objectives are goals and intents, while Key Results are time-bound and measurable milestones under these goals and intents.
What is objectives and key results dashboard? ›OKR dashboards allow your team to easily review progress on your objectives and key results. Easily visualize your OKR framework with an OKR Dashboard. An OKR Dashboard improves transparency for your team and creates unity around shared goals.
What is the difference between KPI and OKR? ›OKR is the acronym for objective and key results—more specifically, an objective is tied to key results. OKR is a strategic framework, whereas KPIs are measurements that exist within a framework. OKR is a simplistic, black-and-white approach that uses specific metrics to track the achievement of a goal.
What are the different types of OKRs objectives? ›There are two types of OKRs goal: committed OKRs and aspirational OKRs. Both committed and aspirational OKRs define different purposes and have separate methods to achieve them. If you are someone new to OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), this information can be overwhelming.
What is the OKR methodology? ›The OKR methodology is a shared goals system which creates clarity and aligns your organization, connects everyone to your top business goals, increases performance and drives better results. Think of the objective in OKRs as a “strategic theme,” a broad, overarching, qualitative headline of what is to be achieved.
How do I write my own KRA? ›
- Evaluate how you're performing. ...
- Discuss your KRAs with your manager. ...
- Outline specific tasks for your job. ...
- Determine KPIs to measure KRAs. ...
- Put your key result areas in writing. ...
- Review and revise KRAs regularly.
Different organizations have different KPIs, e.g. KPI of a business entity can be the percentage increase in profit; KPI of a school may be the pass out rate of the students, etc. Thus a KRA may include profit, turnover, customer base, customer attrition, etc.
What are the 5 smart objectives? ›Setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives is a good way to plan the steps to meet the long-term goals in your grant. It helps you take your grant from ideas to action.
What is a good example of a Key Result? ›Key Results are the tasks that you complete to achieve the larger objectives. The key results should be significant and measurable by a particular parameter. For example, Increase customer retention by 80-90%.
What are the three types of Key Results? ›3 Types of Key Results
Your Key Results will usually fit into one of three categories: Inputs, Outputs & Outcomes.
A KPI is a tool to keep track of how a key area of your business is performing. A KPI always contains a metric to measure the performance of that key area. A Key Result is a tool to positively impact the performance of a certain metric. Therefore, a Key Result also always makes use of a metric.
What is OKR Key Result metrics? ›Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are defined as a metric that outlines company and team "objectives" along with the measurable "key results" that define the achievement of each objective. OKRs represent aggressive goals and define the measurable steps you'll take toward achieving those goals.