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The Guide to OKRs

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A Brief History

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The Good and Bad of MBOs
The Good The Bad
• Infrequently updated
• Siloed
• Management-driven
• Tied to performance
reviews and compensation
• MBOs ushered in era
of results-oriented
management

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A Brief History

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The OKRs Revolution
• Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are
invented at Intel
• KPCB’s John Doerr brings OKRs to Google
and more
Benefits
• Quarterly vs. Annual process
• Transparent and aligned
• Aspirational
• Not tied to performance
reviews/compensation

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So…
What are OKRs?

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The guide to OKRs
OKRs are a management
methodology that helps
companies focus effort on
the same important
issues throughout their
organization

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Objectives
• Personally significant and aspirational
‒ Should get you out of bed in the morning
• Significant for company
‒ Aligned w/, and supported by, entire org
As measured by…
What I want accomplished

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Key Results
• Clearly make the objective possible
• Measurable
• Limited in number
• Time related
How I will accomplish it

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Why use OKRs?
• Disciplines thinking
• Communicates accurately
• Inspires confidence that
everyone is working together
• Establishes indicators for
measuring progress
• Focuses effort
• Know exactly what you’re
working on
OKRs tell you & your team what you’re doing
THIS quarter & importantly, what you are NOT.
Rick Klau
Product Partner at Google Ventures

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Now that you’re convinced…how
do you actually do OKRs?

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John Doerr’s famous
football example

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General Manager
Head of PRHead Coach
OBJECTIVE
Make $ for
owners
KEY RESULTS
1. Win Super Bowl
2. Fill stands to 88%
OBJECTIVE
Win Super
Bowl
KEY RESULTS
1. 200 yd/game passing
attack
2. 3rd ranked defense in NFL
3. 25 yd punt return average
OBJECTIVE
Fill stands
to 88%
KEY RESULTS
1. Hire 3 colorful players
2. Get 2 Monday night games
3. Highlight key players

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Head of PRHead Coach
OBJECTIVE
Win Super
Bowl
KEY RESULTS
1. 200 yd/game passing attack
2. 3rd ranked defense in NFL
3. 25 yd punt return average
OBJECTIVE
Fill stands
to 88%
KEY RESULTS
1. Hire 3 colorful players
2. Get 2 Monday night games
3. Highlight key players
Offense Defense Special
Teams
Scouts Publicity
Agent
News
Staff
OBJECTIVE
200yd/game
passing attack
KEY RESULTS
75% Completion
OBJECTIVE
3rd ranked
defense in NFL
KEY RESULTS
Less than 100 yd
passing per
game
OBJECTIVE
25 yd punt
return average
KEY RESULTS
3 blocked punts
OBJECTIVE
Hire 3 colorful
players
KEY RESULTS
Visit top 25
colleges
OBJECTIVE
Get 2 Monday
night games
KEY RESULTS
5 ESPN special
features
OBJECTIVE
Highlight key
players
KEY RESULTS
Hire 10 new
cheerleaders

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Some Best Practices to Remember
• Focus on 3-5 objectives at a time
‒ With 3-5 key results for each
• At least 60% of objectives should be
bottom up
- Too much top-down dictation kills
motivation and aspiration
• Performance evaluations should be
completely separate from OKRs
- Keeping the two separate encourages
workers to set aspirational OKRs
- Tying the two together stunts
innovative thinking, and leads to
sandbagging

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Grading OKRs
• Grading and reflecting on past OKR progress is critical for setting future OKRs
• According to John Doerr & Google, a total grade of 60 - 70% = sweet-spot
Larry’s Objective Win Super Bowl Owner Status Grade
• 1. 200 yards a game passing attack Jeff • 250 yrds/game
• 2. 3rd ranked defense in NFL Joe • 9th ranked defense
• 3. 25 yard punt return average Aaron • 10 yrds punt return avg
TOTAL
1
0.7
0.4
0.7

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Taking OKRs to the Next Level
• They have not reached their full
potential
‒ Held back by antiquated
implementation
• OKRs are powerful when they are:
‒ Adaptable and dynamic. Not static
‒ Open and connected. Not siloed
• Fortunately, innovative technologies
and Goal Science™ are bringing OKRs
into the modern age Kris Duggan
CEO of BetterWorks
“OKRs are a timeless framework, but the methods for
implementing them are antiquated. They need to be modernized.”

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Goal Science™ Thinking
Connected Supported Progress-based Adaptable Aspirational
Transparent and
aligned
Social reinforcement
and recognition
Frequent and
measurable feedback
Flexibility to respond
to changing
priorities
Retrospection to
encourage excellence

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Connected
Transparent, aligned and all
individuals participate
People view their
manager’s goals 20% more
often than their own

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Supported
Working transparently
with social reinforcement
and recognition
27% of @mentions are
made by someone other
than the goal owner

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Progress-based
Frequent, measureable
feedback and ongoing wins
Goals updated in the first
month are 3X more likely to
be updated frequently

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Adaptable
Flexibility to respond to
changing priorities and
business needs
88% of stall points are
within the control of the
company

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Aspirational
Retrospection to
encourage excellence
Top-performing department
at an industry leading
energy company:
Average progress: 82%
Average score: 97%

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Why use BetterWorks for OKRs?
Disciplines
Thinking
1
Communicates
accurately
• Lets everyone know
what’s important
• …and supports
everyone with
relevant feedback
2
Establishes indicators for
measuring progress
• …and captures your
progress in real-time
3 4
Focus
efforts
• Know exactly what
you're working on
• And WHY you are
working on it!

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@betterworks
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