Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a mechanism have been around since the concept ofManagement by Objective by Peter Drucker in 1954, and popularised by John Doerr in an OKR form in his book Measure What Matters: OKRs which describes how OKRs were implemented in Intel and at Google among many case studies.

Objectives

Objectives are intended to be short and to the point with a recommended 3-5 objectives as an OKR.

There tend to be two forms of an objective:

• committed objectives - which are intended as firm deliverables and help to provide a clear and concise North Star direction for teams
• aspirational objectives - objectives that are intended as stretch goals or Big Hairy Audacious Goals that are intended to inspire teams to achieve beyond the normal expectation. It is common to expect only 60-70% completion of these goals, but help to foster big thinking in the teams rather than only considering the norms

Key Results

Key Results are intended as quantity or quality measures to help track progress towards the Objectives

See Also

• Measure What Matters, OKRs: The Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth, John Doerr, 2018