What Is an OKR?

OKR stands for objectives and key results. It's a goal-setting framework that helps organisations, teams, and individuals define and track their objectives and measure their progress towards achieving them. This involves defining clear objectives and inspiring and ambitious statements describing your goal. Key results are set alongside the objectives as measurable outcomes that indicate the objective's success. 

How does an OKR work?

An OKR consists of two key parts:

1. The objective is a concise statement that describes what you want to achieve, providing a clear direction for your efforts. It should be inspiring, ambitious, and aligned with the organisation's goals.

2. Key results are measurable outcomes that define the progress and success of an objective. They are specific, time-bound targets that indicate whether or not the objective has been achieved. Key results are often quantifiable and provide a way to assess performance objectively.

OKRs are typically set every quarter, although you can also define them for shorter or longer timeframes. They are designed to be transparent and promote alignment, focus, and accountability within an organisation or team. Regular check-ins and progress tracking are important parts of the OKR process to ensure continuous improvement and adaptability.

Benefits OKRs

Having an OKR provides benefits beyond simply meeting goals. OKRs can:

• Encourage team members to think big instead of being overly cautious

• Provide updates quarterly or more frequently

• Ensure all team members are clear on the organisation’s priorities

• Help with workplace comradery

• Give team members a voice to comment on what's working and what isn’t

• Allow team members to see their success and the success of others in working towards a common goal  

Related terms

• Sprint plan

• Scope creep

• Gantt chart

• Retrospective

Learn more with Coursera.

OKRs is a goal-setting framework that uses inspiring objectives and measurable key results to track progress and ensure alignment across teams and individuals. Regularly reviewed OKRs promote focus, accountability, and ambitious goal-setting.

Establishing OKRs will set your next project up for success. The Google Project Manager: Professional Certificate on Coursera will inform you about this and other project management techniques. You can build in-demand skills and get job-ready in less than six months.