Introduction to OKRs — Objectives & Key Results
Since you’re here I’m sure you’ve already heard (or read) about how LinkedIn, Intel, YouTube, Bill & Melinda Gates and perhaps most notably Google have used OKRs to achieve exponential growth.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
— Peter Drucker
Beyond delivering growth OKRs has also given them to tools to build a remarkable organisational culture that nourishes performance, collaboration and accountability.
In this article I’ll introduce the OKR management methodology, give examples of good vs bad OKRs and share advice on how you can get started with OKRs.
What are OKRs?
Objectives & Key Results is a management methodology that’s designed to help companies, of any level and at any stage, achieve their most important business goals.
“A management methodology that helps ensure that a company focuses efforts on the same important issues throughout the company.”
— John Doerr, “Measure What Matters”
We can trace its roots back to Andy Groove who developed and perfected it it at Intel. In his book High Output Management he wrote that the purpose of OKRs is to answer two important questions.
- Where do I want to go?
- How will I know I’m getting there?
The OKR methodology has two parts.
An Objective is your organisation’s most important goal. Achieving this goal has to be fundamental to the success of your business.
“Objectives are significant, concrete, action oriented and ideally inspirational. When properly designed and deployed they are vaccine against fuzzy thinking and fuzzy execution.”
— John Doerr, “Measure What Matters”
Now the Key Results.
Key results are milestones that help you stay your course. Key Results outcomes that are specific, measurable and time bound leading towards your objective.
“The key result has to be measurable so at the end you can look and without any…
