The Practical Guide to OKRs: Objectives and Key Results

TL;DR — OKRs in 60 Seconds

• Objectives = What you want to achieve (qualitative, inspiring)
• Key Results = How you measure success (quantitative, specific)
• 3-5 objectives per quarter maximum
• Key Results must be measurable outcomes, not tasks
• 70-80% achievement = success (they are stretch goals)
• Review weekly, retrospect quarterly

If your company works with OKRs, you have probably noticed that people start acting differently toward the end of a quarter. Planning seems to be the most stressful time for companies and Product Managers, right next to the day-to-day business of shipping products.

Over the years, I have learned that understanding the OKR framework deeply and recognizing the patterns of the planning process can eliminate most of that stress. This guide covers everything you need to know about OKRs: what they are, how to write them, and a step-by-step planning process you can adapt for your team.

What Are OKRs?

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It is a goal-setting framework popularized by Intel and later adopted by Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, and thousands of other companies.

The framework has two components:

• Objectives: Qualitative statements describing what you want to achieve. They should be ambitious, inspiring, and time-bound (usually quarterly).
• Key Results: Quantitative metrics that measure whether you achieved the objective. Each objective typically has 2-4 key results.

The power of OKRs comes from their simplicity. They force teams to focus on outcomes rather than outputs, and they create alignment across the organization by making goals transparent.

"There is one metric that really helps drive your entire business." — Ben Yoskovitz, author of Lean Analytics

OKRs work best when connected to your product vision and product strategy. The vision tells you where you are going. The strategy tells you how you will get there. OKRs tell you what you will accomplish this quarter to make progress.

OKR Examples for Product Teams

Here are three practical OKR examples you can adapt:

Notice that each Key Result is specific, measurable, and has a clear baseline and target. This is what separates effective OKRs from vague goals. For more guidance on tracking the right numbers, see 7 essential product KPIs.

The OKR Planning Process (5 Steps)

I have seen OKR planning finished at the end of the first month of a quarter. That is obviously too late. A structured process ensures you finish planning on time so you can kick things off with well-aligned OKRs.

"If every quarter it takes six weeks to have OKRs ready, you're losing six weeks of execution." — Christian Strunk

The following process is based on my experience at multi-product companies. If your organization is simpler, cherry-pick the parts that apply.

Step 1: Create Your First OKR Draft (Engineering Team)

Teams create a draft without knowing exactly whether previous OKRs will be achieved. If you foresee some objectives not being achieved, prioritize them in the draft.

The goal is to look into the next quarter with your team. What will be high priority? What needs to be fixed? What do customers want?

Meeting Setup:

• Owner: Product Manager or Team Lead
• Attendees: Team + 1-2 key stakeholders
• Duration: 1.5 hours

Preparation:

1. Create a new OKR document and share it with the team
2. Send the invite one week in advance
3. Ask attendees to prepare suggestions for the next quarter

Agenda:

1. Review the document and ideas (team discussion)
2. Decide on priorities (team decision)
3. Write them down

Step 2: Create Your First OKR Draft (Leadership Team)

The leadership team discusses priorities for the next quarter, taking previous OKRs into consideration. Choose who should participate wisely. Too many people at an offsite makes teams unproductive.

Meeting Setup:

• Owner: Team/Tribe/Chapter Lead
• Attendees: Team Leads and Product Managers
• Duration: 2 hours

Process:

1. Each member writes priorities on sticky notes (Objectives + Key Results)
2. Present ideas in front of the group (no discussions, pitch only)
3. Review and discuss priorities as a group
4. Team voting on priorities (everyone gets 3 votes)
5. Final review of high-level priorities

Step 3: Share and Adjust OKRs With Stakeholders

Before sharing OKRs company-wide, start with your key stakeholders. Some teams have more dependencies than others. If your company uses value streams like Spotify, squads present their OKRs to the whole tribe.

Follow up with key stakeholders, share feedback with your team, and adjust if needed. This session is for gathering feedback, not making decisions and changing everything.

Step 4: Review and Retrospect the Current Quarter

As you approach the end of the quarter, review outcomes and retrospect.

Measuring OKR Achievement:

If you defined OKRs well, the objective is achieved when all key results are achieved. But what if they are not?

My teams use a percentage rating from 0-100% with a color code:

• Green: 100% (not less)
• Yellow: 99-60%
• Orange: 59-20%
• Red: 19-0%

Remember: 70-80% achievement is considered successful for stretch goals. Google famously targets 70%.

Running the OKR Retrospective:

Retrospectives help you understand why key results were or were not achieved. Spend two hours reviewing the previous three months. My teams typically use one of these formats:

• Start, stop, continue
• Sad, mad, glad
• Went well, to improve, action items

Use an external facilitator (someone outside the team) for best results.

Step 5: Review and Present OKRs Globally

At the beginning of the new quarter, every team should know their priorities. Share results from the previous quarter and plans for the new quarter across the company.

Check one last time if anything has changed that might impact your priorities. Last-minute changes happen at both team and company levels.

Many companies use All-Hands meetings to share company and leadership OKRs. This provides transparency and focus for the whole organization. I recommend using Google Slides or a master sheet containing one or two slides from each team.

Common OKR Mistakes to Avoid

After coaching dozens of teams on OKRs, these are the patterns I see most often:

• Too many objectives: Stick to 3-5 per quarter maximum
• Key Results as tasks: "Launch feature X" is a task, not a result. Measure the outcome instead.
• No baseline: You cannot improve "engagement" if you do not know the current number
• Set and forget: Review OKRs weekly, not just at quarter end
• 100% achievement expected: If you always hit 100%, your goals are not ambitious enough

For a deeper dive into OKR best practices, read my article on 5 best practices to make your OKRs awesome.

Final Notes

Not every company works in the same setup. Some companies do not define company OKRs and allow teams to be fully autonomous. Others are more complicated. The order of steps I proposed is not set in stone. Adapt them to your context.

The alignment part only works for companies of a certain size. If the organization becomes too big, focus on high-level company OKRs as a leadership team instead.

One final piece of wisdom: do not lose focus. If an objective slips into the next quarter with highest priority, keep focusing on it. If it becomes low priority, stop working on it and move on. Sometimes people are tempted to start with the easiest OKR. I have learned the hard way that you always pay the price later.

Successful OKR planning also requires empowered teams who take ownership of their goals. Without ownership, OKRs become just another top-down mandate.

If you want to hear more about OKR planning, check out this podcast episode where I discuss how different companies approach OKR planning.