Writing Great OKRs — Lessons from Practice

I’m often asked: What makes a great OKR? Over the years, I’ve reviewed thousands of them. Some inspired action, while others confused or even demoralized teams.

The difference is usually in the writing.

What Great OKRs Look Like

• Objectives are aspirational, clear, and outcome-focused. They should energize a team.

• Key Results are measurable, ambitious, but achievable. They should answer, How will we know if we’ve succeeded?

For example:

• Weak Objective: “Improve marketing.”

• Strong Objective: “Delight customers with a world-class marketing experience.”

• Weak Key Result: “Launch 5 campaigns.”

• Strong Key Result: “Increase marketing qualified leads by 30%.”

Common Mistakes

1. Confusing tasks with results.

2. Making objectives too vague or too operational.

3. Setting too many OKRs, diluting focus.

A Simple Checklist

• Does the Objective inspire?

• Can the Key Results be measured?

• Are we focusing on outcomes, not outputs?

• Could someone outside the team understand them?

When teams follow these principles, OKRs stop being just words on a slide and start driving meaningful progress.