Workpath has an intuitiveDISTRICTDeveloped a template in the form of a spreadsheet that can be used to record the company's vision and mission as well as strategic initiatives. From this, organizations at top management and team level can derive and formulate first annual goals and goals in quarterly cycles (objectives) with the associated key results (key results).
Click here to go directly to the OKRTemplate.
It is not always necessary to invest in new software when a new goal or outcome management framework such as Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is introduced. For many companies, especially smaller ones, a good template is a possible first step to approach OKRs.
What are OKRs?
OKRs are a method of goal setting in organizations. OKR helps companies to implement strategies faster and more effectively by setting measurable goals, improving transparency, alignment and employee engagement.
The name OKR is derived from the two English terms Objectives (goals) and Key Results (key results).
It is important to know:
- OKR connects long-term strategic artifacts and KPIs to the operational level of strategy execution
- They are divided into fixed (quarterly) cycles and can be adapted and improved with each cycle
- Metrics and data can be used to continuously learn from OKRs, they are not rigid but better understood as an adaptive process
- OKRs contain set goals for the organization and the individual teams
- You are independent of individual performance management
How should good OKRs be structured?
The structure of OKRs is simple. Each OKR consists of a goal (objective), which is divided into several key results.
Objectives
They are a desirable, ambitious goal that qualitatively describes a desired result. They provide a clear direction for everyone and should motivate everyone involved to work towards it. The objective basically tells you where you want to go.
Important properties of good lenses at a glance:
- Qualitative:no numbers or percentages
- Ambitious:70-80% target achievement very good
- direction:clear directions for the organization
- Reachable:realistic in the time frame
Key Results
They describe the leverage you will use to achieve the objective. They are measurable results that indicate whether you are on track to reach your goal and whether it has been achieved. Key Results usually have a start and a target value to measure how you are progressing towards the objective. In this way, it is constantly known how close you are to the end goal and also whether you have to do something differently in order to achieve the goal.
Important characteristics of good key results at a glance:
- Measurable:„It’s not a key result unless it has a number.“
- Specific:formulate clearly and understandably
- Relevant:does my key result contribute to the objective?
Process-oriented:Progress must be recognizable
How the Workpath OKR Template can help with goal management
The Workpath template for Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) helps to test OKRs for your company and introduce them to smaller teams. It is ideal for organizations that are new to OKRs as a method of goal and performance management. The template can be used to create an initial list of goals and key results. These can be derived from corporate purpose, strategies and medium-term goals. The template also helps you to regularly measure the progress of the goals at organizational and team level.
Here is a brief overview of the contents of the sheet and how you can work with it:
1. Introduction
In the introduction, we explain step by step how you can work with the template. Important point here: the spreadsheet should be downloaded or duplicated in its entirety for you to edit!
We have also linked many other helpful resources here to help you work with OKR.
2. OKR Input
Here we go! The second tab gives you the input you need to formulate your team OKRs.
3. OKR example
To give you even more security in creating your OKRs, the "OKR example" tab gives you an insight into how OKRs for a marketing team could look like.
At the top of the sheet you have an overview of which OKR cycle you are in and what the overall progress of your team is. This is calculated from the goal progress of all OKRs in the table below.
DANGER:We have already entered some dummy numbers here, which of course also contribute to this value. Of course you have to reset this to 0 or your actual value.
In the part below you enter your priorities, relevant customers, the resulting value and the desired future state, from which the objective can then be formulated. The objective is automatically transferred to your final OKR overview.
You then proceed in a similar way with the key results. The (value) promises take you to your specifically measurable key results, for which you can then define a start and target value as well as a current value. At the end of your regular check-ins, the achievement of your goals will be measured. You can also enter a confidence level (1-10), define owners and add comments to the individual key results.
Particularly helpful: With the color scheme from green to red, you always have a quick overview of your goal achievement.
4. Landing Page
The landing page gives you an overview of all organisation, department and team OKRs, including goal progress. This is particularly helpful for managers to quickly get a good overview or for a brief insight for other teams during cross-team meetings.
5th - 9th organizational and team OKRs
In tabs five to nine you will now find empty templates for your OKRs. On the one hand for the overall OKRs of the organization from which all other team OKRs are derived and on the other hand for the corresponding OKRs of the individual teams. If you work with more than four teams, the sheets can of course also be duplicated. Just don't forget to integrate this into the landing page as well!
Looking for more templates for working with OKRs? In our article"The check-in: Success factor of effective OKR systems"we have prepared some tips and a simple check-in template for you.
OKR Template FAQ
What is an OKR template?
The Workpath OKR Template is a spreadsheet used to capture the company's vision, mission and strategic initiatives. From this, organizations at top management and team level can derive and formulate their OKRs and track their implementation.
How to write good OKRs?
In order to create effective team OKRs, it is important to always keep the overarching business goals in mind. This is the only way to ensure that the holistic strategy is implemented in a sensible manner. When formulating the objectives, it is important to adhere to the basic characteristics of these: they should be qualitative, the achievement of the objectives ambitious, directional and achievable on time. When formulating the key results, on the other hand, it is important that they are measurable, specific, relevant to the associated objective and process-oriented.
What are examples of good OKRs?
An example of a good marketing objective is, for example, “The target audience finds our content interesting (1) and of high quality (2), which makes them want to learn more (3) and attracts other thought leaders (4).” Four key results can now be derived from this: “Interesting” (1) can be made measurable by the click rate, for example. The corresponding key result would therefore be “The click rate increases by 2% per week”.
How do I monitor OKRs?
OKRs can be tracked using appropriate software such as Workpath. This helps to keep an eye on the development of the goals and to take appropriate measures to improve cooperation and goal achievement. However, it is not always necessary to invest in new software when OKRs are introduced. For many companies, especially smaller ones, a good OKR template in the form of a spreadsheet is a possible first step to get to grips with the framework.
Discover more OKR templates and helpful content in theWorkpath Library.
FAQs
What is an example of an OKR goal? ›
Top company objectives—OKR examples
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)
- Understand your company goals. Writing effective OKRs starts with understanding your organizational goals. ...
- Choose the right tools. ...
- Involve your whole team. ...
- Write an OKR objective statement. ...
- Develop key results. ...
- Plan your initiatives. ...
- Track them consistently. ...
- Celebrate 70%
Like MBOs, OKRs are a framework for setting strategic goals. Both MBOs and OKRs involve writing an internal statement of outcomes that an organization wants to achieve. MBO goal-setting focuses on the “what,” while OKRs go one step further than MBOs by including a set of measures of progress.
What is the difference between smart goals and OKRs? ›SMART goals provide guidelines for writing specific, attainable goals. In contrast, the OKR framework offers more of a process to reach for stretch goals that promote higher performance and personal or business growth. In many organizations, SMART goals are also tied to compensation.
How do you write a successful OKR? ›An OKR best practice is to write three to five objectives for each group — company, team, and individual –– each of which should come with two to four key results. “For me, three is the magic number [of objectives], and sometimes you'll end up with a fourth,” Shalabi said.
What are some good OKRs? ›- 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.
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 OKR replace KPI? ›KPIs and OKRs coexist very well and you should use both frameworks in your business, each serving a different purpose. Use OKRs for goal-setting and improving your current state of business and KPIs for monitoring general business performance. KPIs show what should be analyzed to help determine the basis for OKRs.
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.
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 five recommended categories for OKRs? ›
OKRs provide your business with five important elements: focus, accountability, engagement, transparency and visibility.
Do companies still use OKRs? ›John Doerr introduced the OKR method to Google when he left Intel in 1999, and Google still uses the OKR method today — along with companies like Netflix, Uber, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
What is a good OKR objective? ›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 an example of an OKR for an employee? ›PO/HR OKR examples for Hiring / Recruiting
Reduce the average lead time for the vacancy from 45 to 30 days. Increase the % off offers accepted from 80% to 90% Decrease the cost of hire from $1,000 to $700. Increase the % of closed positions from internal recommendations from 10% to 25%
An example OKR
Train 5 days per week with 1 long run each week. Increase mileage by 5 miles per week. Drink at least 3 liters of water every day. Sleep at least 8 hours every night.
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.
Ideally, OKR scores fall between 0.6 to 0.7 (60 to 70 percent). If scoring below 0.6, your team is underperforming. If consistently scoring above 0.7 or completing 100 percent of the results, your goals might be insufficiently ambitious.
How do I start an OKR? ›- Define your long-term business priorities. ...
- Translate business priorities into annual OKRs. ...
- Break down annual OKRs into quarterly OKRs. ...
- Convert company OKRs into team OKRs. ...
- Convert team OKRs into individual OKRs. ...
- Track – tweak – praise – repeat.
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 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 |
What is the 3 * 5 principle in OKRs? ›
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 common mistakes you should avoid when making OKRs? ›- Mistake #1: creating unachievable objectives. ...
- Mistake #2: failing to designate a DRI (directly responsible individual) ...
- Mistake #3: setting only top-down objectives. ...
- Mistake #4: authoring OKRs using vague language. ...
- Mistake #5: failing to track progress weekly.
The difference between OKRs and Tasks
A task is something that you do. A project is an initiative – to complete your project, you have to do various tasks. A goal, an OKR goal or an objective, is what you want to achieve and you usually have to complete a combination of various projects in order to attain your goal.
OKRs should be reviewed regularly, ideally on a quarterly basis. This allows teams to assess progress towards achieving their goals, make adjustments as necessary, and stay aligned with the company's overall strategy.
Do product managers set OKRs? ›The Importance of Product Management OKRs
Setting up objectives and key results within a product team helps everybody stay in line with a strategic direction. One example is to set 3-5 team OKRs per quarter which can be connected to higher-level OKRs (on the Product Strategy).
OKR (Objectives and Key Results) is not a direct part of Agile methodology, but it can be used in conjunction with Agile practices to set and measure goals for teams and individuals.
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 the difference between OKR and scorecard? ›OKRs suggest a goal setting approach with ambitious, qualitative Objectives that are made measurable with the help of Key Results. On the other hand, the Balanced Scorecard looks at which goals should be achieved and measured. This places the Scorecard at the level of lag measures.
What is the difference between OKR and key metrics? ›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.
Are OKRs the same as strategy? ›A company's strategy is always designed for the long term. Successful implementation is not always guaranteed, but it does set a direction for the company. OKRs, on the other hand, are set for the medium term, usually on a quarterly basis. Each OKR Cycle helps to meet this medium-term goal.
Why are OKRs so popular? ›
OKRs Ensure Alignment of Goals
Objectives and Key Results prevent individual goals and priorities from overlapping. It solves the problem of individual goals not being in line with that of the company through cascading alignment.
Here's my response: First, an OKR is comprised of an objective and key results. The objective is a qualitative statement that should inspire you and/or your team. The key results are quantitative measures that might indicate you've reached that objective. An outcome is the result of some actions.
What is the secret ingredient of successful OKR initiatives? ›The secret (or not-so-secret) ingredient is to define clearly what you are trying to do — within your company and within your product.
What are some examples of objectives? ›An Objective has to be quantitative to be effective. For example, 'Make a lot of Money' can't be objective, whereas 'Increase Profit by 20%” is an effective objective as long as it is time bound. How are you going to achieve the Objective?
What is the best practice for setting OKRs in a company? ›3 Main Steps to Setting OKRs:
Define your overarching objectives—what you aim to accomplish. Set a time frame for reaching your objectives. List key results that will demonstrate that you've met each objective. Make them quantifiable, using numbers to make them measurable.
OKRs are typically both less specific and more aspirational than SMART goals, and as such, they often encourage the journey toward cultural change or a breakthrough development.
What is Google's use of OKRs? ›We use OKRs to plan what people are going to produce, track their progress vs. plan, and coordinate priorities and milestones between people and teams. We also use OKRs to help people stay focused on the most important goals, and help them avoid being distracted by urgent but less important goals.
Do CEOs have OKRs? ›OKRs give CEOs a clear view of what they need to accomplish each quarter. This allows them to plan ahead and work on important tasks (such as cost controls and revenue growth) and avoid wasting time on unimportant tasks.
What are individual goals in OKR? ›An individual OKR is a goal set for an employee or manager that evaluates success using metrics that are relevant and meaningful to the person. Individual objectives should be specific, time-bound, achievable (or mostly so) and based on the business impact of their work.
What is an OKR in goal-setting? ›The OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method is a proven method businesses use to set and achieve key business objectives. In simple terms, OKRs help leaders to put structure around a goal so that its achievement can be fast-tracked.
What is a good individual goals for work? ›
Personal development in work
Development goals for work should aim to develop an aspect, of your work life. Whether it's presentation skills, time management skills or technical abilities. You can achieve these upskilling through completion of courses, achieving certificates, or simply by learning a new skill yourself.
First consider what you want to achieve, and then commit to it. Set SMART (specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you and write them down to make them feel tangible. Then plan the steps you must take to realize your goal, and cross off each one as you work through them.
How would you explain what the OKR method is in one sentence? ›OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is a framework that helps a business define its goals, as well as a way to measure them. It's made up of two components: Objectives, which are specific and clearly defined goals, and Key Results, which is how the goal's progress is measured or monitored.
What is an OKR statement? ›OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a collaborative goal-setting framework for companies, teams, and individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable key results. OKRs work the same when used by a team, leadership team, a department within the company or the whole organization.
How do you write work goals examples? ›- Boost your time management skills. ...
- Find new challenges in your role. ...
- Learn a new skill. ...
- Improve your work-life balance. ...
- Foster team collaboration. ...
- Expand your professional network. ...
- Take on leadership responsibilities. ...
- Consume content from thought leaders in your industry.
A Key Result is a measurable outcome required to achieve the Objective. They help you measure progress toward the Objective — like a signpost that shows how close you are to your destination.