How to Write OKRs like Fortune 500 companies | OKR Examples

The Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is a framework for setting goals that help individuals, teams and organizations reach their goals through identifiable and measurable results.

It helps individuals, teams, or organizations determine how they are going to achieve the goals that they've set for themselves.

An OKR’s objective should be qualitative, actionable and time-bound.

Key results are how you measure your progress towards achieving your objective, and they should be quantitative, measurable and achievable.

We have discussed so much about OKR in our previous articles. In this particular article, we want to show you how to write strong OKRs and also list good examples of OKRs.

How to Write OKRs

Writing Objectives - What you’re going to achieve

Objectives are what you and your team are going to achieve within a particular timeframe. When writing objectives, you should ensure that they’re qualitative and inspiring.

This means that your objectives should be ambitious, inspiring and have the ability to provoke emotions within your team that will make them want to do everything possible to achieve them.

Your team should be excited about your objectives and feel energized to work towards achieving them.

Keep your Objectives to three‍

While the exact quantity of your objectives will depend on your company needs, we recommend having 1 to 3 objectives per team, and per quarter.

You shouldn’t have too many objectives that could take a very long time to achieve. Remember that your objectives should be qualitative, actionable, and time-bound.

Examples of objectives:

• Increase sales growth in Small-to-Medium Enterprises

• Solve our support ticket problems

• Move from monthly release of our product to continuous release process

• Publish a book

Writing Key Results

Metrics to know if the Objective was achieved or your progress towards achieving the Objective

When defining key results, you should define and state them very clearly to the understanding of your team. Defining key results using metrics with numbers makes it easy to measure and communicate the progress towards achieving your Objective.

Keep your Key Results to Five or Less

While the exact quantity of your Key Results depends on your business needs, we recommend three to five key results per objective.

Key Results should be outcome-focused, and describe the optimal outcome that needs to be accomplished to complete the objective. Remember that Key Results should be quantitative, measurable and achievable.

Examples of Key Results:

• Close 10 new SME customers before the end of quarter

• Launch 10 new ad campaigns

• Reach 1M viewers with the new ad campaigns within the next 4 months

Key Guidelines for Writing OKRs

• All teams should create their own OKRs. Each team should create their own OKRs and bring them to the table for the good of the entire company.

• Incorporate feedback from team members, leaders, and management. Feedback should be documented.

• OKRs should be shared publicly for everyone in the organization to see

• OKRs should give purpose to the team and the entire organization

How to Write OKRs

Writing OKRs is collaborative work. It is teamwork, not an individual task.

Below is the step-by-step guide on how to write OKRs with your team.

1. First, have the goal conversation with your team

The first thing you and your team should do is to sit down together and brainstorm.

Ask your team questions such as, “what are the three most important things for us to achieve in the next four months?”

Then, ask them why it’s important to achieve those three things. Then, ask them again why it is important to achieve those three things until they give very satisfying and convincing reasons.

By asking continuously why those three things are important, you will be able to prompt your team to share meaningful details as to why they want to accomplish specific objectives.

You're likely to end up with better objectives and key results if your team collectively understands the “why” or reiterate their reasons on a deeper level.

2. Prepare draft OKRs and share them with the team

The next step is to prepare and publish a draft of objectives and then ask your team for feedback.

Here, what you need to do is to ask for comments and suggestions. Ask your team for suggestions that will improve the objectives that you’ve shared with them. Give everyone the freedom to contribute whatever they have in mind.

Your team can incorporate their perspectives into the objectives and key results that you have drafted.

3. Conduct a team brainstorm session to set Key Results

Next is to conduct a brainstorming session with your team to come out with specific key results.

During the brainstorming session, team members can engage with themselves as well as with you to come up with excellent actionable key results.  Brainstorming engages your team and inspires them to be part of the creation of the OKR.

4) Collectively debate Key Result ideas

When crafting Key Results for each Objective, get out the sticky notes and jot down suggestions.

Your team members should also get sticky notes and also jot down suggestions from other team members. You and your team should debate collectively Key Results ideas so as to come out with the best ideas.

Each team member should share their ideas until you are able to find the right Key Results.

5) Align OKRs development through a bottom-up process

While most executives or business owners tend to align OKRs development from the top management levels, this can be counter-productive.

OKRs development should be aligned from the bottom-up so that employees at every level can contribute their individual thoughts and suggestions.

Invite teams at every level; define their OKRs before bringing the executives and everyone together. Understand the OKRs of your team and align them with your overarching vision.

Not all OKRs within the organization will align with your overarching vision. Choose the ones that are of importance to the organization’s growth and are attainable within a specified timeframe.

All OKRs should lead to fundamental change that drives the organization forward.

OKR Examples

Objective: Make sure the company meets revenue targets‍

Key Results:

• Increase the new inbound sales from $50k to $100k per month

• Attract 400 new sales qualified leads

• Attract 200 new sales qualified leads from the new market

Objective: Clarify consumers for the release of the new product‍

Key Results:

• Conduct 10 on-site user-testing sessions to understand TA

• Research and implement 20 new channels where to distribute our content

• Run 20 different ads on Facebook and measure performance

• Prepare the presentation of the new product and test it with 5 users

Objective: Understand our customers and create the CJM‍

Key Results:

• Conduct 10 user interviews with the target audience

• Create the CJM and map the product features to the customer journey

• Validate the CJM with 5 new customers

• Increase the website conversion rate from 6% to 10% based on the research

Objective: Attract new inbound leads to the website‍

Key Results:

• Increase the monthly visitors to the website from 12k to 20k

• Increase DR score from 35 to 45 on Ahrefs

• Decrease homepage bounce rate from 62% to 40%

Objective: Boost customer acquisition on the website‍

Key Results:

• Improve the recommendation engine items CTR from 30% to 50%

• Decrease tip to end funnel churn rate from 60% to 40%

• Improve Net Promoter Score from 8 to 9 points

‍Objective: Achieve record acquisition metrics‍

Key Results:

• Increase the MAU from 15k to 30k

• Increase the trial signups from 500 to 1500

• Increase the new paid customers from 70 to 150

• Maintain the CAC below $30

Objective: Reduce the bounce rate of the website‍

Key Results:

• Increase the CTR from 3% to 6% on the main call-to-action button

• Increase the watch rate of an explainer video from 2% to 5%

• Conduct 10 A/B experiments on the landing page

Objective: Attract new visitors with newsletter‍

Key Results:

• Create the content strategy and the topics for the next 4 months

• Increase the number of subscribers from 2,000 to 10,000

• Increase the open rate of the newsletter from 25% to 35%

Objective: Re-launch the company blog‍

Key Results:

• Increase Twitter followers from 3000 to 8000

• Release 3 own content articles in the leading industry online publications

• Increase the blog subscribers from 3000 to 5,000

Objective: Increase social media audience‍

Key Results:

• Increase the number of subscribers on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube from 10,000 to 50,000

• Increase the number monthly of views on Quora from 2000 to 5000

• Increase the number of monthly leads from social media sources from 500 to 1500

Objective: Boost the social media audience engagement‍

Key Results:

• Increase the number of daily shares from 20 to 50

• Increase the number of daily comments from 140 to 300

• Increase the links CTR from 3% to 6%

Objective: Improve the SEO rating of the website‍

Key Results:

• Achieve #1 place for top 5 relevant keywords

• Add 200 new referral links

• Increase DR score from 30 to 60

• Increase the referral traffic from 4,000 to 10,000 visitors

Objective: Increase the engagement on the website‍

Key Results:

• Reduce the bounce rate from 55% to 20%

• Increase the average time on the website from 2.4 to 5.0 minutes

• Increase the number of pages viewed from 3.5 to 5.0 per session

Objective: Create a leading industry brand‍

Key Results:

• Hire a branding agency within the next 60 days

• Launch 5 new ad campaigns

• Reach 1.5M viewers with the new ad campaigns

• Get 30 media placements and speak/partner at 10 conferences

Objective: Improve product and brand communication‍

Key Results:

• Release 6 regular bi-weekly press-release publications

• Hold 5 webinars with 50+ participants about the new product features

• Increase the community group members from 3,000 to 6,000 members

• Create a brand book for internal and external usage

Objective: Boost awareness with PR campaigns‍

Key Results:

• Publish 10 press pieces in the relevant publications

• Host 5 industry meetups with 200+ participants each

• Speak at 2 conferences each month

• Sponsor 3 events with 700+ visitors in the related industries

• Reach 1M viewers with PR activities

Objective: Improve paid acquisition effectiveness‍

Key Results:

• Decrease the lead cost from $10 to $5

• Test 15 new PPC campaigns and measure impact

• Increase the CR of the PPC campaigns from 5% to 10%