What Is an OKR?

An 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 overall 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.

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

Benefits of OKRs

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

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

• Provide updates quarterly or more frequently

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

• Helps with workplace comradery

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

• Allows 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

Learning more with Coursera

OKRs is a goal-setting framework that uses clear objectives and measurable results to track progress and ensure alignment within an organisation. This can help teams think big, stay focused, and achieve ambitious goals.

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