OKR Introduction
                     Objective Key R
esults (OKR) – 
An introduction

Goal setting for the teams around strategic objectives 
has always been prevalent. Why the new interest in 
OKR? The answer may lie in the huge traction and 
adoption of Agile across organizations.
 
The intent of this blog is to simplify the context of OKR 
and to draw a parallel with agile ways of working. As a 
coach simplifying the context with the right intent and 
starting with the core, just enough basics is the key to 
working with OKR’s or with any other tool. Creating quick 
success stories and cross pollination within teams is one 
of the main factors to ensure the right adoption.
Objective Key Results is a simple goal setting 
mechanism within an organization. Setting goals for 
individuals and teams motivates them, gives them a 
sense of accomplishment and brings inclusivity while 
pushing individuals to achieve their goals and increasing 
productivity. Let’s define some key terms for better 
understanding.
 
Objective is a picture of a better future. A statement 
which is short , engaging and motivating. What one 
wants to accomplish, significant, action oriented and 
aspirational. Simply – “what is it you want?”
Key results explain how the objectives can be measured. 
These are quantifiable outcomes. As the acronym SMART 
suggests, KR’s should be smart, measurable, aligned , 
relevant to the strategic objectives and timebound.
 
Activities describe the actions or initiatives to be taken 
to achieve the stated objectives.
 
The strategic objectives or the vision is set by the 
leadership and it is cascaded to the lower levels. The 
activities are undertaken by the teams and the OKR’s are 
set by them in alignment with the strategic goals.
 
Usually the strategic goals are set annually and cascaded 
to the department level, which sets quarterly OKR ‘s, 
which are then further broken down to team level and 
individual level. 
How to set OKR’s?
 
Conduct OKR sessions at all levels to bring in transparency 
and to onboard teams. Start setting fewer strategic 
objectives (maximum/recommended is 5) . Set 3-4 Key 
results for each of the objectives. It is a good practice to set 
tolerances of threshold for each of the goals.
Break the high level objectives into projects or initiatives and 
assign them to the teams.
Teams should then get together and pick the Key results to 
be showcased to achieve the objective. These results have to 
undergo a quarterly review to check if the teams are making 
progress or if the management intervention is needed to 
remove any impediments.
Similarly managers in discussion with individuals have to 
identify what activities they will have to undertake to achieve 
the team goals. Frequent cadence meetings should be called 
to check if there are any show stoppers . Also frequent  
progress review meetings help teams to maintain focus on 
their  goals and to ensure early detection and resolution of 
issues.
Usually goals are set and forgotten. This shows performance gaps 
and lack of focus, Doing so results in losing confidence on OKR’s. 
Also having haphazard meetings takes away the focus from the 
goals Cadence meetings should become a habit, it will help to keep 
results on top of the mind. More frequent meetings can be done at 
the team and individual level, quarterly meetings at the 
department level and annual review meetings at the strategic 
level. Choose and customize the cadence based on the needs of 
the organization.
OKR’ s share the same mindset as Agile. Below are a few principles 
which overlap.
• Bidirectional flow of the objectives
• Empowering the teams to set their goals by being 
aligned with the vision of the organization.
• Frequent review process to support fail faster culture.
• Shorter cadence meetings to shorten the feedback 
loop.
• Prioritizing the objectives and whenever required 
reprioritizing them
• Higher level annual goals set at the top level. More 
detailed and incremental goals set at the team level. 
• Outcome/Value based results.
How to focus on OKR’s while using SCRUM Framework?
• Activities to achieve the Key results can be part of the Product 
and Sprint backlog.
• Sprint Planning can help prioritize which Key results can be 
achieved and come up with activities to achieve those.
• DOD can showcase what percentage of the Key results will be 
delivered to achieve doneness of the sprint.
• Daily scrum can be used by individuals to voice out any 
impediments they face to complete the activities which help in 
achieving the key results
• Sprint Retrospective can be used to review the progress or 
understand the effectiveness of the activities undertaken to 
achieve the key results.
• In organizations where agile ways of working are introduced, 
bringing OKR’s as goal setting tools could be effective. 
Changing the old ways of goal setting mechanisms which is 
usually a top down approach set by leadership and reviewed 
annually and managers reviewing their teams to understand 
their progress quarterly could be challenging.
• Cadence meetings are considered overhead or a repetition.  
Teams and individuals find the key results a bit overwhelming 
all though they are set by them.
• Starting small with fewer objectives and key results will be a 
better approach in onboarding teams. Publishing the progress 
of the teams on information radiators would instill a sense of 
ownership towards their work.
We believe  combining OKR and Agile 
practices go a long way in  engaging the team 
and aligning them with the strategic 
endeavours. This article only broaches the 
topic of OKR’s but should help the uninitiated 
to get some direction.
 
Sudha Madhuri Burra