What is OKR?
The Objectives and Key Results, or OKR for short, is a popular goal management framework that helps businesses grow. It directs different teams of one business towards one or more common goals. Everyone working on the same goal is in the interest of the entire business and is crucial in order for the company to achieve optimal growth. The OKR’s give you a reference to evaluate and measure how well did you do in achieving those goals. Whenever someone is starting a business, the goals need to be defined. What it is you want to achieve by the end of next year? Or in the next 10 years? One big, major goal can be presented via smaller, more doable, well-defined goals that will all eventually lead to that one big goal being achieved. Every business will plan their work so that they’re working towards fulfilling that one task.
Why are OKR’s important?
It’s important to write down the objectives and explain them in detail so that you can easily track your development and be able to evaluate just how well you did. If you reached the goal, that means that you’re doing something well. If not, something needs to change. However, goals need to be intelligently composed. If you easily managed to fulfill 100% of your goals, it might be that the goals were not ambitious enough. This way of working and planning is helping you see both the good sides and the bad sides of your company and teams that comprise it. Once you numerically define your goals, it’s easier to measure your progress. There is an OKR Software that can be of great help when you’re trying to define your goals. It motivates members of the team to rethink their choices and helps them stay focused. Also, it helps you measure your progress and leads you towards the completion of your goals.
OKR helps teams make their own goals and plans. When you know what your main goal is, it’s easier to make plans and track how each member of the team is performing. There are a few rules that are set in order to help team members prioritize and focus. The concept of Objective and Key Results as a management framework was developed by Intel. Andy Groove developed MBO which went through some changes and became what we know as OKR. Later, OKR was introduced to Google and is being used there today.
OKR’s are comprised of two things – objectives and key results. The objective is what you wish to accomplish in a certain time frame. It’s a goal that is usually not easily measurable. On the other hand, there are key results. Key results take the form of a specific number and are easily measurable. For example, as an objective, you can put “Prove that the new changes we implemented are welcomed by users”, while a key result can be “Increase conversion rate by 15 percent”. The great success of Intel and Google proved to us that OKR’s are, indeed, extremely useful and bring results. That’s why every company should consider implementing them into their business strategy.
