Introduction To OKRs

Welcome back to your onboarding program! Today, I’ll give you an introduction to Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs. You might have heard this term before, but don't worry if you haven't.

OKRs are a simple but powerful tool that help organizations set and achieve their goals. The concept was first introduced by Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel, and later popularized by Google.

OKRs consist of two main parts: Objectives and Key Results. Objectives are what you want to achieve. They are specific, measurable, and time-bound goals that align with the company's mission and vision. Objectives should be challenging, but achievable. Let’s take you, for example.

As a software engineer, imagine that your team's objective is to launch a new product in six months. Your individual objective might be to develop a new feature for the product that will increase user engagement. Now that you and your team have set your objectives, we need something that could measure their success.

Key Results are how you measure progress towards your objective. They are specific and quantifiable metrics that help you track your progress and ensure that you are on track to achieve your objective.

For example, your key results might be to increase user engagement by 20% in the first month of the product launch, to receive positive feedback from 90% of beta testers, and to reduce the number of bugs in the software by 50% before the launch.

The key to success with OKRs is to keep them simple, aligned, and transparent. It's important to communicate your objectives and key results with your team, so everyone knows what they are working towards and how their work contributes to the overall success of the company.

By setting challenging objectives and measuring progress with key results, you and your team can stay focused and motivated to achieve success.