Most companies focus on OKR Set-up, but while it is paramount to have the right, clear and measurable Objectives & Key Results, it is even more important to know if we are on track or not and why.
Why do we track OKRs?
OKRs are a promise at the beginning of each quarter or semester on what the company will focus on (Objectives), what the teams will work against and how we measure the achievement of these priorities (Key Results).
Most companies track operational and success data in BI (Business Intelligence) systems or in project status trackings and outcome reports. However, these sources are normally not shared throughout the entire company and are not simplified in a form or language everybody in the organisation can understand. Therefore we encourage our clients to have a weekly or fortnightly update on the key results indicating if the % measurement changed and why or why not.
Does OKR Tracking & Reporting increase my Admin Tasks?
We highly encourage our clients to add OKR tracking & reporting to their regular management and team meetings and not to create any extra layers of OKR administration. Over time the tracking and discussion of OKRs in management or team meetings should be at the core of recognizing achievements and solving issues or showstoppers to achieve the business objectives. We also advise to update OKRs as a team together and agree in the meetings on the progress and the measurement of the key results rather than just reporting it individually as key result or action owner.
How do we measure and track OKRs?
Key Results on company, department and team level should be metrics based and directly measurable on the progress achievement toward the target value. (e.g. sales increase from 40 to 60K, churn decrease from 15 to 10%, etc.)
We can set-up OKR tracking in excel sheets first, but would highly advise to implement an off the shelf OKR tool. These tools facilitate the regular updates by personal email reminders and easy to use tracking forms as well as sending out the updated status to everybody in the company. Furthermore each OKR is visible to everyone and most of them show graphical timeline and progress update data. The alignment view of these tools also helps you to re-align and re-prioritize if needed.
Please have a look in our blog: How do get started with OKRs
What are the benefits of a regular OKR Tracking?
Besides the visibility and transparency, we see numerous benefits on the agility, change management and discipline of companies on all levels:
Top management, management & teams are weekly or fortnightly accountable on the OKR progress
Tracking rhythms in different teams are synchronized to have a clear picture on the overall company progress
Showstopper and roadblockers are discussed regularly when OKRs do not progress as expected
Everybody in the company can ask questions why OKRs do not progress and dependencies with other teams are visible
Achievements can be celebrated and highlighted transparently
New priorities need to be weighted against the progress of current OKRs before they are accepted as new workload
If you are interested to implement OKRs in your company in one of the next quarter, or need advice on OKR tools or measurements please contact us or leave a comment here.