There are several challenges in a growing business routine. In an environment full of pressure and competitiveness, where several processes demand extreme caution, one of the hardest things is to decide and effectively pursue key results and objectives and measure success after that. To do that properly, fulfill all the team objectives, and achieve measurable key results, the company needs strong strategic planning.

That is where techniques such as the OKR framework come in. The OKR system breaks the challenge of showing your employees how their work affects and improves companies situation. It's a unique system focused on running after a few key results aligned with the company’s vision that will help you reach business objectives and organizational success.

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What Exactly is OKRs

As briefly mentioned above, the OKR framework is a system that helps a company to divide its strategic goals into objectives and key results. Achieving these key results, which work like key performance indicators, will allow you to reach the company objectives. 

This measuring system is fundamental for establishing the company objective for each situation. The OKR process is also perfect for helping businesses track progress effectively. And the best is that you can start using free OKR templates to help your entire organization.

The Objectives and key results measuring framework is perfect for calculating a team's progress. These team’s OKRs came from the MBO system created by the management consultant Peter Drucker. But it was only in 1980 that team OKRs got popular when former Intel CEO Andy Grove adopted the model, already different from the traditional MBO. Today Team OKRs Framework is used by companies such as Google.

Measuring Key Results OKRs: The Components

When you work with an OKR tracking template to elucidate your overall strategy, you will face two recurrent terms for your monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly objectives. They are objectives and key results. Let’s see a little more about them.

Objectives

These are very intuitive. Objectives are the final company’s goals, which your whole team aims to reach. This is one of the most important aspects of OKR software for your whole planning process. An OKR template helps your company to set specific goals, which can unite team members. They are of the most value, and your company can set ambitious goals with an OKR planning template.

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Key Results

A key result is more of a milestone. These are the smaller steps you must make to ensure you match the ambitious objectives previously set. Using the key result concept is the best way for a company to measure success and all the other measurable outcomes, keeping everything under your control. 

A key result is the second crucial aspect your whole team must look for. When you create a template, it must be clear and easy to identify. They are not the final objective you want to achieve but are a score to celebrate. 

What Are the Challenges This Key Results-Focused System Helps to Overcome

Using the OKR method is beneficial in more than one way. Establishing objectives and key results is far harder than some managers think, but besides that, OKR templates help improve employee engagement. This happens because this framework gives employees an active voice when the managers are establishing objectives and key results and ensures that both parties share the same vision about the processes ahead of them.

Setting OKRs will help you determine the top priorities and specific goals, put the organization in the right direction for success, and improve performance. Some of the most successful companies in the world aren’t implementing OKRs for no reason.

Setting OKRs: The Necessary Steps

Now, our readers have been able to understand what exactly are the key results OKRs and their importance for the company. Now, let’s see a little more about creating good OKRs with some of the traditional steps you need to take. 

Objectives will change from department to department as the team goals, key activities, and jobs differ. But even though the objectives and key results are different, creating OKRs is a very similar and straightforward process, no matter the company-wide goals and the different tools they use to reach them.

Understand Business Objectives

As mentioned before, goal setting is a crucial thing, so the first thing you need to start using the free OKR templates provided is to understand the company goal and identify areas of investment to focus on before going for your key results OKRs.

If the business doesn’t have it yet, establish long-term objectives. Aim for what you want in three or five years instead of going only for the next quarter on a quarterly cadence. Some common business objectives include revenue increase or different areas optimization, but you can be far more creative when establishing the priorities you want to accomplish. 

Mind that different businesses may have different time frames of work. Things like productivity and goal tracking must be done accordingly to what different organizations understand as short and long-term periods.

Focus on Business Priority and Products to Manage Expectations and Track Objectives

Every business has its priority and objects of focus. Products, processes, software, or services are considered the most important. You must identify these priorities and use their numbers to set OKRs and track progress. 

If you have a revenue increase, you can select the products and services your organization focuses on and set goals for them. Resources investment and marketing increase are some metrics you can define, and such ideas have easy measurable results and understandable outcomes you can include in the strategy.

You will use the organization's main products yearly or quarterly OKRs. That way, each objective will be in accordance with the company’s possibilities, which will help you determine when you need to increase the resource allocation to one area, stretch goals or demand more team members.

Define Metrics and Success

After determining which software and products you will focus on, you just need to establish your success metrics. Some of the metrics are customers increase and spending reductions for specific areas.

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Determine Working Routines and Product initiatives

At this point, you have already completed the goal-setting process, know which products you will work with, and have the metrics and details responsible for helping you to reach each objective. Now, you just need to establish a sustainable routine structure with all the functions and other things you must take forward to finish all the projects. 

Ideally, the first step is to put stakeholders, managers, and team members to choose the working routine everyone will be involved in. Putting all of them to work together is important as it is the only way to adjust all the routines considering all the essential operations and the necessary time to complete them with quality. 

Deciding on them from a top-down approach, where bosses determine the performance levels and the improvement tracking alone, isn’t optimal. That’s because of the overwork possibilities that can make your valuable employees unhappy. This working routine can either be called product initiatives, which consist of areas of work the product team will pursue to reach the objective.

Objective Tracking

After having all the processes completed, all you need to do is constantly track your key results and final objectives. You can start making weekly check-ins to track the progress of your employees. 

An easy-to-use template, such as some of those we bring below, is perfect for helping the organization check the development in more detail to find ways to make it more efficient. Meetings are another interesting way to do so, but always keep an OKR template at hand during them.

Other Good Practices to Create Good OKRs

Besides the steps you need to take to create a good OKR template, there are other good practices and ideas you can have to help initiatives, measure results, and ensure the company is reaching the objectives they want to achieve with the OKR. Let’s discuss some examples.

Break Annual OKRs Into Quarterly OKRs

Some objectives can be extremely hard to deliver and visualize. A good way to begin is to adapt each task and process into smaller goals. Divide big annual goals into smaller quarter key goals. This will contribute and help employees take each job forward.

Divide Company OKRs into Teams and Individual OKRs

Understanding what is necessary to complete each objective is challenging. That’s why you can align the OKRs to reflect the work of teams or individual employees directly. With smaller and explicit milestones, each worker understands exactly what is necessary to complete the biggest goals.

Tools to Create OKRs

There are several tools and software you can use to create your OKRs. Some examples are Google Sheets or Google Slides, and all of them can help you achieve the specified goals. But the best software you can use to create your OKRs is Microsoft Office and programs such as Word and Excel.

Word and Excel are the best programs because they ensure their customers a whole set of possibilities and freedom to create whatever they want. No other program in the market allows you to write and manipulate information the same way. Besides that, the programs are compatible with practically any free template you may use. 

To complete, the programs offer great value over price and can be used for virtually anything your company may work on. Besides establishing OKRs, the teams will use them for several other processes.

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OKR Templates

After all that, we can finally present you with some OKR templates. They intend to facilitate your life and help you track objectives and key results in the best way possible. Mind that you can make all the changes you may see fit, as you need to match your company’s particularities and necessities.

Company’s Objectives OKR Template

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Team OKR Template

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Weighted OKR Template

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