What are OKRs and how do objectives and key results help your product grow?

In the dynamic world of product development, teams always face the challenge of setting clear, measurable goals and aligning effort to reach them. How can you make sure all team members are moving in one direction and focusing on the most important priorities? One powerful, popular framework for answering this challenge is OKR, or Objectives and Key Results. But what exactly is an OKR, and how can it help your product grow and succeed?

In this article we will fully examine what an OKR is, what benefits it has for product teams, how we can do effective OKR setting, and we will review a few OKR examples for product together.

What is an OKR? Explaining objectives and key results

OKR is a collaborative goal-setting framework that helps individuals, teams, and organizations set challenging, ambitious goals and measure their progress toward them. This framework was introduced by Andy Grove at Intel and later became world-famous through Google, and it is now used by many successful companies around the world.

An OKR is made of two main parts:

Objective:
- What it is: the objective is a qualitative, inspiring, memorable statement that specifies “what” we want to achieve. Objectives should be significant, tangible, action-oriented, and preferably motivating.
- Example: “Deliver the best mobile user experience in our industry.”
Key Results:
- What they are: key results are quantitative, measurable criteria that show “how” we know we have reached our objective or how close we have come. For each objective we usually define 2 to 5 key results. Key results should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (in a way they are SMART).
- Example for the objective above:
  - Increase the mobile app user satisfaction score from 3.5 to 4.5 (out of 5) by the end of the quarter.
  - Reduce the mobile app user exit rate by 20%.
  - Increase daily app downloads to 1,000.

The important point is that OKRs focus on results, not merely activities or tasks (initiatives/tasks). Tasks are the work we do to achieve the key results.

Why are OKRs important for product growth?

Used correctly, the OKR framework can have significant positive effects on your product’s growth and development:

Focus and alignment: OKRs help the product team (and the whole organization) focus on the most important priorities and align their efforts in one direction. When everyone knows what the main goals are, everyday decisions will also be more informed.
Transparency: OKRs are usually shared across the organization. This transparency means everyone is aware of each other’s goals and understands how their work helps larger goals.
Accountability: measurable key results make progress transparent for everyone and make teams and individuals more accountable for reaching their goals.
Flexibility and agility: OKRs are often set quarterly. These shorter intervals let teams adapt faster based on learnings and market changes and review their goals.
Motivation and engagement: setting challenging but achievable goals (stretch goals) can encourage teams to try harder and strengthen a sense of success and participation in them.
Measuring progress toward large goals: OKRs turn large, long-term product visions into smaller, manageable, measurable steps.

How do we set effective OKRs for product? (OKR-setting guide)

OKR setting is a process that needs care and participation. Here are the stages and key points for effective OKR setting for product:

A combined approach (top-down and bottom-up):
- Company-level OKRs specify overall direction. Then product teams (and other teams) set their OKRs in a way that helps these macro goals. It is important that teams participate in defining their own OKRs so they feel more ownership.
Write inspiring, clear objectives:
- Objectives should be qualitative, concise, memorable, and challenging.
- They should clearly state where the team wants to get to.
- Example: “Create an outstanding onboarding experience for new users.”
Define measurable, outcome-oriented key results:
- Each key result should be quantitative and show success clearly (use numbers and percentages).
- Focus on results, not activities. (For example, “increase new-user activation rate to 70%” is a result, but “launch an email campaign for new users” is an activity).
- Make sure your metrics are trackable.
A limited number of OKRs:
- Try to focus on 3 to 5 main objectives for each time period (for example each quarter). Too many OKRs destroy focus.
Set a timeframe:
- OKRs are usually set for one quarter (three months). This interval is long enough to reach meaningful results and short enough to keep agility.
Regular review and tracking:
- OKRs should not be abandoned after they are set. Progress toward key results should be reviewed regularly (for example weekly or biweekly). At the end of each cycle you should also score the OKRs and use the learnings for the next period.
Separate OKRs from individual performance evaluation (optional but recommended):
- To encourage teams to set challenging, ambitious goals, it is better that OKRs not be tied directly to individual performance evaluation and rewards. The main goal of OKRs is alignment and growth, not judging people.

OKR examples for product

Here are a few OKR examples for product so you get a better understanding of how to do OKR setting:

Example 1: Improving the onboarding experience and activating new users

Objective: Deliver an outstanding entry experience for new users and increase their activation in the product quickly.
Key Results:
1. Increase the new-user profile-completion rate from 40% to 70% by the end of the quarter.
2. Reduce the bounce rate of new users on the initial dashboard page from 50% to 30% by the end of the quarter.
3. Increase the number of users who complete the first core action in the first 7 days from 200 to 500 users by the end of the quarter.

Example 2: Increasing user engagement with a specific feature

Objective: Turn the “advanced report analysis” feature into one of the most used and most valuable parts of the product for professional users.
Key Results:
1. Increase weekly active users (WAU) of the “advanced report analysis” feature from 500 to 1,000 users.
2. Increase the average number of reports generated by each active user of this feature from 2 to 4 reports per week.
3. Receive a satisfaction score of at least 4.2 out of 5 for this feature in the quarterly user survey.

Example 3: Preparing for a successful launch of a new product (MVP)

Objective: Ensure full readiness for launching the MVP of the “smart project management” product and create initial interest in the target market.
Key Results:
1. Attract at least 1,000 quality early-adopter pre-registrations by one week before the launch date.
2. Complete and successfully test all essential MVP features as defined, two weeks before launch.
3. Fully prepare and train the support and sales team to answer questions related to the MVP.

Common mistakes in setting and implementing OKRs

To get the full power of OKRs, avoid these common mistakes:

Setting too many OKRs: leads to loss of focus.
Setting key results that are actually activities, not results (task-based KRs): remember, KRs should measure output and impact.
Not tracking and reviewing progress regularly: OKRs without follow-up are useless.
Using OKRs directly for individual performance evaluation and rewards: this causes people to choose more conservative goals.
“Set and forget”: OKRs should be part of the team’s culture and everyday conversation.
Goals that are too conservative, or too ambitious and unreachable: you need to find a suitable balance.

Conclusion: OKRs, the fuel for your product’s continuous growth

The answer to the question “what is an OKR?” shows that this framework is more than a simple goal-setting tool; OKR is a culture and a system for creating focus, transparency, alignment, and accountability in your product team. By setting OKRs correctly and following them continuously, you can keep your product’s growth engine running and move continuously toward larger goals.

If you have not used OKRs so far, we recommend you start simply, learn from your mistakes, and optimize the process in your team. The real power of OKRs lies in continuous execution and commitment to them.

Do you use OKRs in your product team? Share your experiences, challenges, and successes around OKR setting and OKR examples for product with us and other readers in the comments.

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