What is an OKR
OKR is a goal-setting method that separates where you want to get to (the objective) from how you will know you got there (the key results). The most common mistake is confusing a key result with a task.
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OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. The method was formalized by Andy Grove at Intel in the 1970s and became widely known after John Doerr brought it to Google in 1999.
The structure is deliberately simple: one qualitative, memorable objective with a clear direction, paired with two to five numeric key results that prove whether the objective was reached.
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Objective
Qualitative and inspiring. Answers "where do we want to get to?". Carries no number.
Key result
Quantitative and verifiable. Answers "how will we know we got there?". Always carries a number.
Initiative
What you will do to move the key result. Not part of the OKR, it is the execution plan.
Cycle
Usually quarterly, with a light review every week or two.
The mistake almost every team makes the first time
The mistake is writing tasks as key results. "Launch the new onboarding" looks like a KR, but it is not: it is an initiative. It can be 100% complete without anything having improved.
A key result describes the effect, not the activity. "Raise onboarding completion from 42% to 65%" is a KR, it can fail even with the launch shipped, and that possibility of failing is exactly what makes it useful.
The practical test: if someone can mark the item complete without consulting a number, you wrote a task.
A complete example
An example from a product team, with the distinction between the three layers made explicit:
- Objective: make the first day in the product something the user completes on their own.
- KR 1: raise setup completion from 42% to 65%.
- KR 2: cut median time to first task created from 11 minutes to 4.
- KR 3: cut support tickets asking "how do I start?" from 90 to 30 per month.
- Initiatives (outside the OKR): rebuild the welcome flow, write three help articles, add a checklist to the first session.
Build that example as a collection
Objective, key result, starting value, current value and target in separate fields, with a dashboard adding up the cycle's progress and initiatives in a related app.
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OKRs are not performance reviews
This is the costliest distortion. When OKRs become the basis for bonuses or reviews, the incentive flips immediately: people start writing goals they know they will hit. A method that existed to provoke ambition becomes a protection mechanism.
That is why many organizations explicitly separate OKRs from compensation, and use the score as conversation material rather than a grade. A cycle where every OKR was fully achieved usually signals conservative goals, not excellence.
How to track without bureaucracy
Healthy tracking is short and frequent: a weekly or biweekly review, updating the current number of each KR plus one sentence on what changed. If the review requires building a presentation, it will be abandoned before the quarter ends.
Less is more on quantity: three to five objectives per team, with two to five KRs each, is plenty. Longer lists usually mean the team did not prioritize, it just recorded everything it intends to do.
How to set up the tracking in practice
The part that fails most is not writing the OKR, it is keeping it alive. A text document ages because updating it means opening the file, hunting for the line and editing inside the prose. A table with one record per key result fixes that, because updating becomes typing a number into a cell.
The minimum schema that works has seven fields, and none of them is optional in practice:
- Objective, short text, repeated across the KRs of that objective.
- Key result, text describing the effect rather than the activity.
- Starting value and target, two numbers, recorded at the start of the cycle and never touched again.
- Current value, the only field that changes at the weekly review.
- Owner, one person per KR, not a team.
- Cycle, so you can filter by quarter and compare with the previous one.
- Initiatives, in a related app, so the execution plan never gets mixed up with the goal.
What this looks like on screen
Tracking only survives the quarter if it is cheap to update. The two screens below are the state the OKR cycle appears in inside the product.
The KR number next to the work that moves it
A dashboard over the collection itself, filtered by cycle. The weekly review stops needing a deck, because the number is already computed.
Initiatives as a table, a board and a timeline
The same collection of initiatives seen three ways. It keeps the line between goal and execution plan visible without splitting them into two tools.
Objective, key result, initiative and KPI in one table
The four things people most often confuse when writing OKRs, with the test that tells them apart.
| Element | Answers | Carries a number? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objective | Where do we want to get to? | No | Make day one in the product something the user completes alone. |
| Key result | How will we know we got there? | Always | Raise setup completion from 42% to 65%. |
| Initiative | What will we do to move the number? | No, it is either done or not | Rebuild the welcome flow. |
| KPI | Is the operation healthy? | Always, and you only monitor it | Setup completion rate, watched month over month. |
The practical test: if someone can mark the item as done without checking a number, you wrote an initiative, not a key result.
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between an OKR and a KPI?
- A KPI is an indicator you monitor continuously to know whether the operation is healthy, monthly revenue, uptime, churn. An OKR is a change goal for a cycle: you pick a number you want to move and by how much. A KPI can become a key result when you deliberately decide to change it; otherwise it is a thermometer, not a goal.
- How many OKRs should a team have?
- The usual recommendation is three to five objectives per cycle, with two to five key results each. The limit exists for a practical reason: OKRs are a prioritization tool, and an overly long list signals that prioritization did not happen.
- What is an ambitious OKR?
- It is an objective whose full achievement is not expected, a common reference is treating around 70% as healthy. The logic is that comfortable goals do not change behavior. This only works, however, when OKRs are separated from performance reviews; otherwise nobody takes the risk.
- Where do I actually record the OKRs?
- Wherever the weekly review is cheapest to do. A text document works for the first cycle and ages in the second, because updating it means editing prose. The format that survives is a table with one record per key result and the numbers in their own fields, with initiatives in a related list. In Workspacefy that is a collection with a dashboard and a cycle filter, and it is on the free plan.
- Do OKRs work in a small company?
- They do, sometimes better, because the feedback loop is shorter. The caution is not importing a large company's entire ritual machinery: on a small team, one document with the quarter's OKRs and a fifteen-minute biweekly review is usually enough.
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Collections with dashboards and period filters keep the KR number next to the initiatives moving it. Free to start.
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