An Overview of Objectives and Key Results

A quick summary of everything you need to know about OKRs

What is an OKR?

OKR is an acronym which stands for objective & key results. It is a method of goal setting and tracking made widely popular by Google, and now used by a plethora of companies who swear by the method. Like any framework, companies can — and do — customize their use of OKRs to make them fit company culture and business need.

Google, for example, creates goals which are incredibly difficult to attain — daunting even, and it would be surprising if a team were able to meet every key result. Other companies choose to make a perfect score achievable and therefore more expected. Whichever is chosen, it must be communicated clearly to all employees for OKRs to be successful.

A Brief History of OKRs

OKRs have been around since before Google, tying their debut on the corporate scene to Intel in the 1970s. Andy Grove was CEO at the time and is the godfather of the OKR Method. He upgraded the current goal setting framework of Management by Objectives or MBOs by adding Key Results (KRs), thus ensuring how to meet the objective is both clear and measurable.

Google adopted OKRs early on, in 1999, at the advice of one of their venture capital investors. A VC partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, John Doerr, was familiar with OKRs due to his experience on the leadership team at Intel in the decades prior and suggested Google try them.

Google had around 30 employees at the time, allowing them to successfully adopt and implement OKRs across the entire company. They still use OKRS and the framework is now part of Google’s DNA, woven into the very fabric of how they work. While not the first to use OKRs, Google was the first to tie key results to the quarterly planning cycle and it is Google’s insane growth and overall success that makes anything they do something every other company wants to mimic. By the 2010’s other companies began using OKRs hoping for even a drop of Google’s success. These ranged from tech companies like Airbnb, Atlassian, and Netflix, to social media platforms LinkedIn and Facebook.

Example of an OKR

Objective: Increase awareness of new product line

Key Results:

• Promote new line on all existing assets (e.g: website, packaging, social handles)
• Post daily content to social platforms, see 3X avg engagement rate on twitter for X time period
• Develop 360 degree digital marketing campaign & create assets for launch next quarter to keep buzz going

The above is just an example. There is no perfect way to draft key metrics; what is important is that they reflect what is important to the business that quarter.

Scoring Objectives & Key Results

OKRs are scored on a scale from 0 to 1.0 at the end of the time period they were set for, such as end of the quarter. A score of 1 indicates that the objective was fully achieved or, in other words, that all key metrics were met. Scores between 0 and 0.99 should match the level of achievement against the objective if started yet not completed.

Similar to setting objectives, companies customize scoring methodology to fit their culture and needs. Google, for example, states that “For OKRs, an ideal goal achievement rate is 60–70% . On the other hand, if the completion rate is always 100% , you can say that the OKR setting level is low and you need to set more ambitious goals.” You can find more from Google in their Guide to Setting OKRs, which they feature on their re:Work site. Other companies set objectives they expect employees to hit on the nose. The important thing isn’t the scoring method, it’s that one is in place before companies set their OKRs and it has been communicated to all impacted employees.

In summary, OKRs are an effective tool for setting and measuring goals within a specific timeframe. Though made popular in the business world by Google, I am using the OKR framework for my personal goals in 2024 and will be publishing a piece on how that’s going soon soon.

Olivia Woods is a new writer for Medium, having debuted her first post on February 1, 2024. Olivia has a background in Corporate Communications, Big Tech & Startups. She lives with her husband and her cat. Show a new writer some love and follow Olivia now!