OKR (lecture notes)
“OKR” stands for Objectives and Key Results. OKRs are an effective goal-setting and leadership tool for
communicating what you want to accomplish and what milestones you’ll need to meet in order to
accomplish it. OKRs are used by some of the world’s leading organizations to set and enact their
strategies. In this article we’ll define an OKR, look at how they’re used and provide some examples of
OKRs.
What is an OKR? OKR Meaning, Definition & Examples
OKRs stand for Objectives and Key Results, a collaborative goal-setting methodology used by teams and
individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results. OKRs are how you track
progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals.
Whether talking about office operations, software engineering, nonprofits or more, OKRs work the same
for setting goals throughout many company levels. They can also work for personal goals and can even
be used by individuals to get things done at places where senior leadership doesn’t use them.
Want to get started on creating OKRs for yourself or your organization? Take our OKRs 101 course!
Objectives and Key Results: The OKR Framework
Objectives
An Objective is simply what is to be achieved, no more and no less. By definition, Objectives are
significant, concrete, action oriented, and (ideally) inspirational. When properly designed and deployed,
they’re a vaccine against fuzzy thinking and ineffective execution.
Key Results
Key Results benchmark and monitor how we get to the Objective. Effective KRs are specific, time-bound,
and aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable. You either meet a Key
Result’s requirements or you don’t — there is no gray area, no room for doubt. At the end of the
designated period, typically a quarter, we do a regular check and grade the Key Results as fulfilled or
not.
Where an Objective can be long lived, rolled over for a year or longer, Key Results evolve as the work
progresses. Once they are all completed, the Objective is achieved.
How to Write an OKR
OKRs are typically written with an Objective at the top and 3-5 supporting Key Results below it. They can
also be written as a statement:
I will (Objective) as measured by (Key Results).
For example, “I will fix the website for the vast majority of people as measured by 7 out of 10 people
being able to get through, a 1-second response time, and a 1% error rate.”
OKR” stands for “objectives and key results.” OKRs are an effective goal-setting and leadership tool for
communicating what you want to accomplish and what milestones you’ll need to meet in order to
accomplish it. OKRs are used by some of the world’s leading organizations to set and enact their
strategies.
OKR Methodology: History & Origin
The OKR methodology was created by Andy Grove at Intel and taught to John Doerr by him. Since then,
many companies have adopted them, including Google, Allbirds, Apartment Therapy, Netflix, and
inspiring nonprofits like Code for America. Explore the complete OKR origin story and learn more about
John Doerr’s *Measure What Matters. *
In the book Measure What Matters, John Doerr writes about “MBOs,” or Management by Objectives.
MBOs were the brainchild of Peter Drucker and provided Andy Grove a basis for his eventual theory of
OKRs. In fact, Grove’s name for them originally was “iMBOs,” for Intel Management by Objectives.
Despite the original name, Grove created some key differences between the two which he passed along
to Doerr.
Grove rarely mentioned Objectives without tying them to “Key Results,” a term he seems to have coined
himself. Other key differences between MBOs and OKRs are that the latter are quarterly, not annual,
and they are divorced from compensation.
Doerr was the one who crafted the name “OKRs.” He introduced the philosophy to Google’s founders in
1999. Gathered around a ping-pong table which doubled as a boardroom table, Doerr presented a
PowerPoint to the young founding team, which included Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Marissa Mayer, Susan
Wojcicki, and Salar Kamangar.
