July 2023: Objectives and Key Results

Objectives and Key Results are a framework that an individual or an organization can use to pursue their goals.

In this post, my intent is to explain what the elements of the framework are and how they work. Ideally, after you have finished reading this post, you can better organize your approach to achieving at least one of your goals – or at least are more curious about OKRs.

Why you should consider using Objectives and Key Results

Goals can be challenging to achieve.

“Getting a bachelor’s degree” is definitely easier said than done, especially when so many different factors must fall in line over a relatively long period of time. While not every degree program is the same, they follow a general structure:

Before you get a degree, you have to complete several classes over multiple semesters of various courses.

Before you finish each course, you must consume information, complete activities (tests, homework assignments, projects, attend classes), and satisfy whatever requirements your instructor has imposed.

Before you even attend classes, you have to register for them.

Before you can register for them, you (usually) have to pay to attend the school, which may or may not include your housing while attending the school.

Before you have housing, you have to…

…do so many things, all just to “Get a bachelor’s degree.”

Objectives and Key Results can facilitate the emotional and intellectual burden of these gigantic activity sets and enable completion of activities that might take an entire year or more to accomplish.

They can also make managing activities cost less money, time, and effort…

What Objectives and Key Results are

Put simply, Objectives are long-term, decently defined goals. They may or may not be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-Bound.

Key Results are measurable indicators that you are successfully progressing toward an Objective. These should be SMART.

Combined, we can refer to Objectives and Key Results as OKRs, pronounced either as an initialism (“Oh-Kay-Ahrs”) or as an acronym: “Oh’-kurrs.”

This project is an example of an Objective and an associated Key Result:

My Objective is to successfully complete a 72-post series of monthly blog posts.

A monthly Key Result is to successfully complete a monthly post.

An annual Key Result could be to successfully complete 12 monthly posts.

Regardless, Key Results are met with Tasks, which are simply relevant activities.

Aligned with the monthly Key Result example above, relevant tasks could include:

“Select a topic.”

“Draft an outline.”

“Write a first draft.”

“Review and edit the draft.”

“Post the final version online.”

OKRs should logically align as they flow down from Objective to Key Results to Tasks:

If an Objective is “Host Casey’s Birthday Party” and an associated Key Result is “Bring a cake,” then a fitting Task would be something like “Call a bakery.” Meanwhile, a Task that would not align with this Key Result might be “Call a DJ” – even though this particular Task might align with the Objective under a different Key Result.

However it goes, OKRs can help a person or team identify a path from a big, complicated goal down to manageable Tasks.

How to Construct OKRs

I’m going to begin my approach in this section with two elements: Form and Essence.

The Form of an OKR refers to the structure of the statements.

The Essence of an OKR speaks to critical elements of the statements.

The Essence of any OKR statement should include or be framed with the following elements:

An Actor.

An End State.

A Time Constraint.

In my examples above, the Actor has been an implied individual. If you are making OKRs for your personal activities, then maintaining the implied Actor is perfectly fine. In a team or organizational context, however, it may become important to specify an Actor.

The End State should be sufficiently clear so that it is not ambiguous when an OKR is satisfied. This is not a required feature of an OKR, but it is extremely helpful to contextualize the development of associated OKRs.

Consider again our “Bring a cake” Key Result.

If the final Task of that Key Result was “Order a cake,” and an order for a cake is indeed completed, have you (or the responsible Actor) brought a cake for the party?

Maybe, but how do you know?

The Time Constraint is important because Objectives either have deadlines (and therefore must be done at a defined time) or because they do not have deadlines (and therefore may never be done).

Time Constraints also help frame a flow of activities if a logical order is important.

Imagine you want to finish your degree and need to complete a difficult class that requires studying or practice. It does you no good if you have an exam on 15 September and your Task “Prepare for Exam” is not addressed until 16 September – or if you order a cake for a party that is already over.

The Form of an OKR should be consistent throughout your organization to streamline communication. Individually, this is not necessarily so important, but consistency generally keeps processes smooth.

Beyond that, I would recommend the following general structure when writing OKR statements: 

Actor performs Activity to some desired End State by Time Constraint.

“(You) Write Blog Post Describing Topic by End of July.”

“Drill Team Prepare to Execute Successful Half-Time Show  for Homecoming 2023.”

“(You) Bring a Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, Yellow Cake Base, and “Happy Birthday Casey!” in Blue Frosting Written on Top in time for the Birthday Dinner.”

Depending on what medium is being used to write OKR Statements, you might even include a separate space to specify the “Success Criteria” for your activities. You could specify what “Successful Half-Time Show” means in a “Success Criteria” space.

After talking Essence and Form, you want to ensure your OKRs have Alignment…

What Alignment within OKRs supports

Earlier, I mentioned that OKRs can reduce burdens on money, time, and effort, and the end of the last section nudged Alignment as the next thing I intend to talk about.

By investing in some forward planning to develop OKRs, the idea goes that you will have considered the minimum necessary Tasks to reach a Key Result or Objective and can eliminate many Tasks that provide no progress to your OKR. By following OKRs, you can spend less time redirecting your (or your team’s) focus back onto necessary Tasks to reach your goals. The less time you spend distracted, the more time you spend on Tasks that actually capture value and the less time you waste.

By assigning specific Actors to Tasks, you can intentionally select Actors for various reasons:

“I need a program manager to lead this particular project…

– and Jones has done something like this before and we cannot afford to flub this.”

– and Smith needs to gain some experience in this type of thing to be promotable.”

– and Brown needs a low-threat job to get initial exposure to this kind of work.”

By planning so intentionally, you can even generate Tasks for progress checks or preparation:

“Review Jones’ activities once a quarter.”

“Hold feedback sessions with Smith once every two weeks.”

“Ensure Brown has completed XYZ Training by project start date or no later than ,” and “Hold feedback sessions with Brown once a week.”

With good OKR construction, you will likely reduce the delaying impacts of unexpected or unplanned work, which can reduce the strain on your team because expectations are decently built into the system – and such intentions should incorporate available hours, skill levels, family obligations, personnel trends, and more into the calculus.

What you read in this post

So, in this 26th of 72 posts, we got a loose introduction to OKRs: why they can be useful, what they are, how to put them together, and one reason they’re very useful.

You have probably been using OKRs before you knew what OKRs were, but understanding that a structure exists might provide the opportunity to pursue your goals with more intent and/or intensity.

If you are interested in learning more, I encourage starting with John Doerr’s book, Measure What Matters. There’s also an associated website with relevant content, here: https://www.whatmatters.com/get-started. Examining this content will provide a lot more detail on OKRs that will actually help you utilize them rather than seeing some likely irrelevant examples such as the ones in this post.

Finally, I believe a very relevant post to this is my July 2022 post on Time Management. I think it’s a pretty quick read that can help with choosing how to prioritize your Tasks, whether they’re work obligated or self-imposed.