How to Write Objectives and Key Results
The right formulation of objectives and key results is one of the most widespread difficulties when starting to work with this methodology. If they don’t fit the criteria, the possibility of their achievement is reduced to nothing.
If we do not focus on essential things and a clear understanding of where we are going and the way we will measure our success, we get something unclear that leads us away from success.
When we use the neatly formulated OKR, we get:
- Common ground. The more clearly all the statements are written, the less misunderstanding and discrepancy arises within the team working on the OKR achievement.
- Full concentration. Performers are focused on numbers and precise actions instead of wasting time on discerning what the author meant.
- Achievement. It’s not a secret that unity and focus lead to a higher chance of achieving your goals.
As we’ve discussed, the formula for building OKR is:
“I will [objective] as measured by [this set of key results].”
Writing the right objective:
An objective is a brief, precise and ambitious formulation of what you’d like to achieve.
A well-formed objective is:
- Significant. Since the company will keep it in focus for the next quarter, your objective should contain the most important things for business development and transition to a new level. These are not usual routine tasks, but rather something difficult to achieve. Success will bring brand new results.
- Challenging. Goals in OKR are set by the BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) principle. This is done in order to get rid of understated KPI and increase a person’s ability to achieve more.
Keep in mind that completing 70% of a goal is already a great outcome. We overstate our desired result and do our best to achieve it.
- Easy-to-understand. Objectives should be interpreted unequivocally and without differences of interpretation.
- Significant. It should bring you closer to achieving the objective related to it.
- It has a deadline. We should be clear about the terms of key result accomplishment.
- Attainable. Besides the BHAG principle, it is necessary to keep reality in mind and set key results that can be completed.
Note! Objectives and key results should be restricted to three to five for one unit (company, department, team, performer) in order to maintain focus.
Let’s proceed to examples:
OKR for a company:
O: Achieve record revenues while increasing profitability
KR: Run sales in 2 new regions of the country with overall yield of $100000
KR: Increase profit for each direction from 30% to 60%
KR: Provide monthly income of $5000000
OKR for Sales:
O: Increase recurring revenues
KR: provide quantity of contacts with potential clients (6500 quarterly per person)
KR: Get not less then 250 demo calls from one employer quarterly
KR: Provide conversion not less than 20% per sales manager
OKR for Marketing:
O: Increase in quantity of incoming leads through website
KR: Make it in the TOP-5 by target key requests
KR: Achieve website traffic of 1 million users per month
KR: Provide conversion rate of lead forms not less than 15%
OKR for HR:
O: Hire new employees of given qualification
KR: Gather 5000 potential candidates in LinkedIn
KR: Get not less than 6000 responds from job seekers on posted announcement
KR: Hold not less than 1000 interviews with candidates
