How to Write OKR?
Writing an OKR looks simple until you realize your Key Results are a to-do list. "Launch the mobile app" is a task: it can be completed and still move nothing that matters. A well-written OKR pairs a qualitative Objective with 2-5 outcomes that prove direction is real. The Objective sets the compass. The Key Results confirm you actually moved.
For a step-by-step framework on writing effective OKRs, check our comprehensive OKR Guide.
The OKR Writing Formula
Before writing your first OKR, it helps to have a simple template. The following formula turns the abstract concept of "objectives and key results" into a fill-in-the-blank sentence you can use immediately.
I will [Objective] as measured by [Key Result 1], [Key Result 2], and [Key Result 3].
Deliver a frictionless post-purchase experience that turns first-time buyers into repeat customers
- Reduce average first-response time from 14 hours to 4 hours
- Increase Net Promoter Score from 32 to 50
- Grow repeat purchase rate from 18% to 30% within 90 days
Creating Company Strategies
The OKR process starts with strategy. Senior leaders define the company's short- and long-term strategic priorities — these act as a compass that guides every OKR written below. Without clear strategy, teams end up writing OKRs in a vacuum.
Strategic priorities emerge from evaluating the company's current position, market dynamics, and growth potential. For example, "Digitalization" or "Customer Satisfaction" might be top strategies. These become the foundation that company, department, and individual OKRs build upon.
Determining Company OKRs
Once strategies are clear, leadership translates them into concrete Company OKRs. This is where direction becomes action: leaders decide which areas to prioritize this quarter and define objectives that give the entire organization a shared purpose.
Creating Objectives
Objectives should be inspiring and qualitative statements. They are the answer to the question, "What do we want to achieve?" They should motivate employees and reflect the vision. An objective is often expressed with a time frame.
Example Objective: "Establish a strong foundation in the European market by expanding globally."
This objective shows the company's direction and excites all employees.
Creating Key Results (KR)
Key Results (KR) are the metrics that measure whether the objective has been achieved. They must be quantitative and specific. They are the answer to the question, "How will we know we have reached our goal?" 3-4 KRs should be set for each objective. KRs must always contain measurable values.
Care must be taken when writing KRs. Specific and measurable terms should be used. Ambiguous words should be avoided. KRs should measure the outcome of the work, not just the work itself. They are expected to be challenging yet achievable. They should encourage creativity in employees.
- Detailed market and competitor research in five European countries will be completed.
- Product awareness in the European market will be increased from 10% to 25%.
- Three preliminary partnership talks with leading companies in the European market will be held.
These Objectives and KRs create the roadmap for the company. The framework guides every level of the organization.
Aligning OKRs with the Organization
OKR is a two-way system. Objectives are not just assigned from the top down. They can also be created from the bottom up and horizontally. After company objectives are set, everyone prepares their own OKRs. These must be aligned with company strategies.
Department OKRs
Departments use selections from the Company OKRs. They create objectives by adapting them to their own areas of activity. Department KRs must support a Company OKR. This alignment is critical.
Company KR: "Product awareness in the European market will be increased from 10% to 25%."
The marketing team can adopt this KR as its own objective.
Marketing Objective: "Increase brand awareness in the European market by capturing the target audience's attention."
Marketing KR 1: A digital marketing campaign will be launched in four European countries by the end of Q3.
Marketing KR 2: Website traffic from the European market will be increased by 50%.
Marketing KR 3: Five positive news stories about the product will be secured in global media.
In this example, the Marketing KRs contribute directly to the company objective. Thanks to vertical alignment, every department's effort serves the overall strategy.
Individual OKRs
Individual OKRs should be aligned with department objectives. Goals reflecting the person's responsibilities are set. Individual OKRs substantiate the employee's personal contribution to company goals.
Employees can also propose their own objectives. 60% of OKRs come from the top level. The remaining 40% are formed by employee initiative. New objectives that feed into company strategies are proposed. This situation increases employee engagement and innovation.
Criteria for Successful OKR Writing
When creating OKRs, prioritization must be done correctly. The objectives created must be aligned, challenging, and understandable. A successful OKR must meet some basic criteria.
Alignment
Every OKR must support a higher-level OKR. Vertical and horizontal alignment must be ensured. This guarantees that resources are focused on the most important strategic goals.
Challenging
OKRs should not be easily achievable goals. The success expectation is kept around 70%. These challenging goals push the organization to find creative solutions. It takes employees out of their comfort zones.
Transparency
All OKRs must be open to everyone within the company. Everyone should be able to see what other teams and management are focused on. This transparency supports collaboration. It prevents the formation of silos.
Limited Number
Too many objectives should not be set within one period. This leads to a loss of focus. 4 or 5 Objectives at one level is ideal. 3 to 4 KRs for each Objective is sufficient. This limited number ensures a focus on the most important priorities.
Value-Oriented
KRs should not only measure the completion of a task. They must also measure the value created for the company. For example, "Set up the reporting system" is a task. "Shorten the decision-making process by three days thanks to the new reporting system" is a Key Result.
Before and After: Transforming Weak OKRs Into Strong Ones
Most OKR failures aren't about strategy — they're about phrasing. A small change in how you write an Objective or Key Result can be the difference between a goal that drives action and one that collects dust. Here are five real transformations we see teams make.
Weak: Vague Objective
Improve our customer support
Too vague — "improve" could mean anything from hiring people to changing a chatbot, so nobody knows what success looks like.
Become the fastest-responding support team in our industry by eliminating resolution bottlenecks
Directional, ambitious, and paints a clear picture of what the team is chasing this quarter.
Weak: Task Disguised as Key Result
Launch a new onboarding email sequence
This is a task (output), not a result — you can launch the sequence and still see zero impact on activation.
Increase 7-day activation rate from 34% to 52% through improved onboarding
Measures the behavioral change you actually want — the onboarding email is one possible initiative, not the goal itself.
Weak: Status-Quo Objective
Maintain our current market position
OKRs exist to drive change, not preserve the status quo — this won't push the team to think differently.
Capture the mid-market segment by becoming the go-to solution for 200-500 employee companies
Ambitious and specific about the target segment — even achieving 70% of this would represent meaningful growth.
Weak: Unmeasurable Key Result
Improve cross-team communication
No number, no baseline, no target — at quarter's end, you'll debate whether this was achieved because nobody defined "improved."
Reduce cross-team handoff errors from 23 per sprint to fewer than 5
Turns a feeling ("communication is bad") into a trackable number with a clear current state and target.
Weak: Overloaded Key Result
Increase revenue, reduce churn, improve CSAT, and grow NPS by Q3
Four metrics in one KR means none of them get real focus — this is actually four separate Key Results crammed together.
Reduce monthly churn rate from 4.2% to 2.5%
One metric, one baseline, one target — the team knows exactly what to optimize and can measure progress weekly.
OKR Writing Checklist
Before finalizing any OKR, run it through these seven checks — if it fails any one of them, rewrite before publishing.
- Is your Objective inspiring and qualitative? It should energize the team, not read like a spreadsheet row.
- Does it answer "What do we want to achieve this quarter?" If it describes daily work, it's not an OKR — it's BAU.
- Are your Key Results measurable with specific numbers? Every KR needs a starting value and a target value.
- Do you have 3-5 Key Results per Objective? Fewer than 3 may be too narrow; more than 5 splits focus.
- Are KRs outcomes, not tasks? "Ship feature X" fails this test. "Reduce time-to-value by 40%" passes.
- Is the timeframe quarterly? Annual goals are strategies, not OKRs. Weekly targets are sprint tasks.
- Does it align with a higher-level OKR? If you can't trace it upward to a company or department objective, it's an orphan.
Quick Watch-Outs When Writing OKRs
Even well-intentioned teams fall into these traps during their first few OKR writing sessions. Spotting them early saves a quarter of wasted effort.
- Setting too many OKRs: If your team has more than 5 Objectives, you have a wish list, not a strategy. Ruthlessly cut until it hurts — that's your real priority set.
- Writing tasks instead of outcomes: "Build a dashboard" is something you do. "Reduce decision-making time by 3 days" is the result of doing it. OKRs track the second one.
- Making KRs unmeasurable: "Improve team morale" sounds nice but can't be scored at quarter's end. Tie it to a number: eNPS, retention rate, or participation in voluntary initiatives.
- Not aligning with company goals: A perfectly written OKR that doesn't connect to what the organization is trying to achieve is just a well-formatted distraction.
OKR Examples by Department
The writing principles above work the same way regardless of department. Here's how they look in practice across four teams — notice that every Key Result measures an outcome, not a deliverable.
Build an engaged practitioner community that generates qualified leads organically
Grow active community members from 800 to 3,000 with a 40%+ monthly engagement rate
Equip the sales team to close deals faster by eliminating knowledge gaps in the sales process
Reduce average sales cycle from 47 days to 30 days for mid-market deals
Pay down critical technical debt so the platform can scale without firefighting
Reduce production incidents caused by legacy code from 12 per month to 3 or fewer
Create a self-driven learning culture where employees own their professional growth
Increase internal course completion rate from 22% to 65% and post-training skill assessment scores by 30%
Drafting and Consensus Process
Creating OKRs is a collaborative process. It is not a desk job done by one person.
The first step is preparing a draft document. Employees and team leaders prepare their draft OKRs. Company and department objectives are reviewed.
Then, team meetings are held. Drafts are discussed, and potential conflicts are identified. Potential areas for collaboration are discussed.
The employee reviews their drafts in a one-on-one meeting with their manager. The manager provides guidance and checks for alignment. At this stage, consensus is reached on the OKRs.
The finalized OKRs are entered into an OKR platform. This platform facilitates regular tracking. It increases transparency.
Tracking and Evaluating OKRs
OKR is a dynamic system. It is not set at the beginning of the period and forgotten. It must be tracked regularly throughout the year.
Weekly or bi-weekly check-in meetings are held. Progress on OKRs is evaluated in these meetings. Challenges encountered are discussed, and necessary updates are made. These meetings not only score progress but also ensure focus.
Market conditions can change. In this case, OKRs must be flexible. The Objective or KRs may need to be updated. If necessary, objectives can be changed entirely. This is an important part of OKR dynamics.
At the end of the period, all OKRs are evaluated. Each KR is scored based on the result achieved. This scoring is important for setting future goals. What matters is not 100% success, but learning. This way, better objectives can be set in the next cycle.
The OKR system is a cultural transformation. Well-written and aligned OKRs bring success. They must be tracked in a disciplined manner. OKRs increase the organization's focus and growth potential. After determining your compass and roadmap, the key is consistent implementation.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you write a good Objective?
A good Objective is qualitative, inspiring, and time-bound — it contains no numbers, those belong in Key Results. Test it with three questions: Does reading it energize the team? Can someone remember it without checking a document? Does it require the team to change something? If all three are yes, you have a strong Objective.
How do you write good Key Results?
Every Key Result needs a starting value, a target value, and a timeframe. 'Improve customer satisfaction' is vague. 'Increase NPS from 32 to 50 by end of Q2' is concrete. If you cannot attach a number to it, it is probably a task or initiative — not a Key Result.
What is the difference between a task and a Key Result?
Tasks describe activities you perform, like hiring or launching a product. Key Results capture the measurable impact those activities should produce. A useful test: if you can finish the task without moving the metric, you have correctly separated doing from achieving. Tasks are about effort; Key Results are about evidence of change.
Should Key Results be measurable?
Always. 'Improve team morale' sounds nice but cannot be scored at quarter's end. Tie it to a number: eNPS, retention rate, participation in voluntary initiatives. If you cannot measure it, it is not a Key Result — it is a task. Measurability is the foundation of OKR; without it, the system cannot function.
How many Key Results should each Objective have?
The recommended range is 3-5 Key Results per Objective. Fewer than 3 usually measures success too narrowly. More than 5 dilutes focus. Google's internal standard is 3-4 KRs. If you find yourself with 6 or more, you likely have two separate Objectives combined — split them.
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