writing useful okrs

Whether an OKR is well written or not can mean the difference between knowing what you’re shooting for and whether you’re on pace - or not.

Understanding what you’re measuring

Objectives, key results, and initiatives all play a different role in achieving your goals.

• The objective is the outcome sought.
• The key result is a lag measure. Looking at the key result is looking backwards to understand if you achieved your outcome.
• Initiatives are leading measures. These are the inputs that will contribute toward the key results and roll up to the objective.

More on lag vs lead time measures.

Structure of a KR

A solid format for a KR is: [Verb] [Specific Noun] [Change] by [Target] where [Change] is typically is “from x to y.”

E.g., Increase NPS from X to Y by Sept 30th

References

• OKR, leading and lagging indicators | Perdoo