Set goals that work for you not against you with the OKRs framework.

Created by Google, OKRs it stands for Objective Key Results and it’s what most of the major tech and product companies are using to achieve their goals and objectives, such as LinkedIn, Medium, Slack, Uber and others.

For about 6 years now I have been using them as individual goals for my work and personal as well, and for about 5 years I have been using the same frameworks for all my team members across the board so it has been tested with over 20 people, myself included, in a span of 6 years and I can truly say that it just works.

The reason why I’ve seen it working is because it’s easy to chunk each Objective down, have a clear breakdown and timeframe, with a realistic outcome. So it’s basically everything that the SMART goal framework should be, but it isn’t. So let’s get into it.

So why OKRs and what are they?

OKRs stands for Objective Key Results and the way it works is one Objective contains between 1 to 5 Key Results. The Objective represents the end goal, while the Key Results or KRs are the steps and actions that need to be taken for the Objective to be achieved. Pretty simple right?

Let’s take an example.

If let’s say my Objective (O1) would be to “Change jobs with at least 20% salary increase and bigger remit” so I’m still being quite specific with a salary increase and a bigger remit, that means that I’m very peaky in terms of the type of companies I want to work for. The KRs that would help me achieve this goal or in our case our Objective, that are in my control are as follows

KR1: Create/update CV - simple right? If I don’t have my CV ready there’s no way I’ll make any progress so this one would be straight forward.

KR2: Connect with recruiters and attend networking events - for me to achieve this I need to put some time aside and make sure every day I spend 1h on LinkedIn to connect with recruiters and set up alerts for meetups and events that I would be interested in going to. We’ll touch base on how we measure these KRs in a sec.

KR3: Shortlist the companies that I’d like to work for and subscribe to their job alerts - pretty easy and self explanatory right? Do my research and be intentional about what would fit my needs.

KR4: Actively target and apply for the companies I’d like to work at - that means getting in touch with their HR and potential hiring managers - this would need some time set aside as well which we’ll get into in a sec.

KR5: Prep for interviews - since I wouldn’t like to be unprepared if the company that I’d been interested in calls or emails back and I’m just a deer in the headlights - and the prep obviously would look different for everyone based on the industry, but I think there are some catch-all questions that most companies would ask anyway such as: walk me through your last role, what’s your biggest challenge or achievement that you’ve encountered, so on and so off.

Not all Objectives need to have 5 KRs like in our example. I’d say that’s a maximum of Key Results that you’d want to make it achievable. Minimum would be 3 KRs, max 5.

Now we have our first Objective broken down into digestible chunks. As I’m sure you’ve noticed we have some KRs that are pretty simple and straight forward such as creating or updating the CV, and others that aren’t super explicit at first glance.

So how do we know when we are done for the Key Results that aren’t super explicit such as KR2: Connect with recruiters and attend networking events. Well, there are 2 questions to ask here: what would success look like? What would we consider as done?

By Asking “What would success look like?” - helps you define it. In the example we looked at, success means creating contacts that will get you closer to your Objective. We can add a number next to it, as it would make it easier to quantity it, such as connect with 10 recruiters per day and attend 1 networking event a week, but the problem with quantity sometimes is that it can be wasted effort if you’re just attending 1 event per week for the sake of it, instead of being the RIGHT event that would align with your needs.

Quantity over quality seems to be a big trend lately for anything really, that’s why I just added a KR without being very specific number wise, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t times when adding a number next to a KR wouldn’t make sense. For example if you want to go to the gym - adding that additional ” 2 or 3 times per week on average” next to it will do wonders.

So be mindful about how you quantify your Objectives and Key Results, and look more towards - What would success look like? What would be the best case scenario for what I want to achieve rather than just adding a number next to it for the sake of it.

The second question was - What would we consider as done?

How do you know when a goal has been reached? Which is another way of thinking about what would the outcome be, what would it look like for this KR? In our case for KR2 - Connect with recruiters and attend networking events - best case scenario, you create connections that will keep you in mind when a new role that might fit you comes up. You leave a memorable impression by having a great LinkedIn note when you connect and a great pitch of yourself at the networking events. I personally got 90% of my jobs in my career over Linkedin and a couple via different meetups and tech events. That doesn’t mean that I’m not still activly applying for roles, but I’m targeting the companies and roles I want to work at.

Now that we clearly know what’s the outcome that we’re looking for, we know what progress will look like too. In our template we’ll see a column for each Key Result to measure progress in % , meaning how much progress have you’ve made so far every time you have a check in. And we’ll go through check ins in a bit as they are a crucial part of the framework.

We talk about what OKRs are, how to measure them, but what about timeframe?

Well, the way I found OKRs as a goal framework works best is to have a timeframe for the Objective - let’s say we would start now and we would give ourselves until the last day of Q2 so 31st of June to complete it, while each of the Key Results will have a DEADLINE. Not a timeframe, but a deadline attached to each of them.

For KR1: Create/update CV that would be easy - I’m giving myself a couple of days to create it from scratch and then next day to re-review it. So I’ll be adding the exact date in. And I’d go through each of the KRs and add a date for it that will act as the deadline.

Now let’s address a big part of life in general - Dependencies.

We can plan and execute as much as we want but if we aren’t aware of the dependencies that would come up, there’s a 50/50 chance to be disappointed when the timeframe for the Objective comes to an end and the Objective is not completed or achieved.

If we take our Objective to “Change jobs with at least 20% salary increase and bigger remit” an obvious dependency would be the job market and macroeconomics in general, so that will affect your timeframe. Another one is the time of year. If you start in December and give yourself 2 months, that’s just unrealistic altogether. So make sure you are mapping your dependencies and adjust accordingly.

A few self coaching questions to ask are: What are the obstacles that would prevent me from achieving this Objective or Key Result? What are the Opportunities that I have? What are my options to achieve it?

To have a quick recap - we have the OKRs frameworks which stands for Objective Key Results. Each Objective will have between 3 to 5 Key Results. And each Objective will have a timeframe and dependencies attached to it while the Key Results will have deadlines and a % tracker to keep the progress going. Makes sense?

And final step - which is a crucial step - the check ins.

Once every 2 weeks or once a month (up to you, I usually go once a month, but if you're new to this framework, I’d recommend to start with twice a month ) do a check in. Set time in your calendar to seat down and go through your goals and see where you are with them. In our template you’ll see a status column, so update the status for each of the Objectives, and the progress for each KRs. Make a habit of it at the beginning of the week to have a quick checkin.

However be open to pivot, change, drop, adapt as you go along. Life happens and there’s no point to just kick ourselves because we missed or failed to achieve a Objective or KR. If an Objective or KR is no longer applicable just update it as such. That’s why we also included in our status column - Not applicable. We know life can throw curveballs, so we need to factor it in.

Let’s look at a few case scenarios

Let’s say that while connecting with recruiters I’ve started a conversation with a recruiter that fast forwarded my application and all of a sudden I have a final stage with one of the companies that I was planning to actively target. That means that I didn’t get to work on my KR 4: Actively target and apply for the companies I’d like to work at, so if I get an offer and accept it, that just means KR4 is not needed anymore (aka not applicable), and that’s fine.

Or let’s take another example.

The Objective would be to “Strengthen the body”. I’m not in the best shape, I sit at the desk or on the sofa most of the time, and I want that to change. My Key Results would be as follow:

KR1: Build body strength by going to the gym 2 times a week

KR 2: Attend yoga class one a week - since my back hurts and to stretch my muscle properly after weight training

KR 3: Eat healthy meals on average 4 days a week - so I can cater for dinner with friends, or working late nights, but will have enough space to plan on average 4 days of healthy meals. Some weeks I might do 3 days, some maybe 5 days, that’s why we say on average. To cater for life.

Now I actually had this Objective a couple of years ago and because I didn’t realise how weak my muscles were and I was training by myself like I used to, I’ve suffered a knee injury. For those of you who don’t know, when you have a knee injury any stretching or bending is a big no no. So off with KR2 - no yoga for me. Just like that KR2 was not applicable anymore. But the Objective still was applicable, now more than ever. So I’ve pivoted. KR2 turned into “Attend physio therapy twice a week”.

And guess what - Objective completed.

One thing to note about the OKRs framework are the common pitfalls. When setting the Objectives and Key Results, keep it as simple as possible, as clear as possible and realistic. A lot of the times, people over engineer or over complicate their Objectives or they just set them once and forget about them. Make sure the framework works for you, and you don’t just try to fit things into the framework for the sake of it.

Final recap:

We have Objective Key Results or OKRs that can be tracked via our status column and KR % progress column
We have dependencies that help us understand how to set the OKRs for success and how realistic they are
We have timeframes and deadlines to make it easy to achieve them
We have regular check-ins to keep track, adapt and pivot if needed.

It’s simple and effective, tested and refined!

If you want to get started with our template you can access it for free here:

Let us know if you’ve used OKRs before and what worked for you and what didn’t. Or if you’re new to the framework, let us know if you have any questions or if it helped you achieve your goals faster, what did you like about it or you didn’t like? We’re always excited to hear from you.

Remember—great leadership starts with you. Start casual and keep going, keep growing!