FAQ

OKRs is Objectives Key Results for Team Goal-setting How does your team measure success? Is it when the project is completed or a revenue milestone has been reached? Or, do you start thinking about success before you reach the goal? Tracking success is key to ensuring teams can achieve their goals. There are many ways to measure that performance, but too often we put an emphasis on the success instead of focusing on the systems needed to cross the finish line. That’s why taking time at the beginning of a project to understand the goals is crucial. At Coda, are inspired by companies like Adobe, Google, and Netflix that have found their own goal-setting success with OKRs. And we’ve implemented a similar OKR system so we can not only set audacious goals — we can achieve them, too. So, what is an OKR and how can you use Coda to implement this system with your team? Let’s start with a quick definition. What are OKRs? The term OKRs stands for “objectives and key results.” OKRs are the foundation of a collaborative goal-setting framework to set, track, and measure goals over a given period of time. They’re are widely used by companies at the org-level and team-level to create goal alignment and encourage team engagement on key initiatives that roll up key results. Since the foundational principles of OKRs are inspired by individual performance, a lot of this framework translates well to our personal lives, too. OKRs can help map out your future success as it relates to career planning, money management, and retirement savings. One reason OKRs are so popular is that the methodology emphasizes specificity. The more specific and measurable your key result, the more achievable your goal. And in that measurement, you have a range of levers to adjust, like metrics and timeframe. For example, some companies treat OKRs as stretch goals and aim for 70% completion, while others strive for 100% OKRs achievement. What is the difference between OKRs vs KPIs? OKRs are a strategic planning framework. They specifically focus on visibility and alignment on goals across the company and team, as well as employee engagement on the creation and tracking of goals across all levels. As such, OKRs serve as the basis for the organization’s strategy mapping process and overall business planning. Key performance indicators, or KPIs, track progress and success within that framework over time. They’re usually segmented across departments or teams, and they should absolutely be measurable. Essentially, KPIs and OKRs are both tools of measurement, but on different scales. While KPIs measure in-progress work with a focus on short-term, OKRs measure progress toward the lofty goals your company and team hope to achieve. Who created OKRs? OKRs were originally created by Andy Grove to track goals at Intel. John Doerr, a then-salesman at Intel, carried the OKR methodology to his new job at venture capitalist firm Kleiner Perkins. He also introduced OKRs to Google—one of Kleiner Perkin’s investments—who, according to Alphabet CEO and Google co-founder Larry Page, used them to propel 10x growth on multiple occasions. In other words, we can trace the diffusion of OKRs across innovative companies and thinkers.