{"id":73977,"date":"2020-03-31T09:24:38","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T16:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bwblogdev.wpengine.com\/?p=5979"},"modified":"2023-09-13T04:16:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T11:16:05","slug":"okr-definition-and-examples-of-john-doerrs-goal-setting-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betterworks.com\/magazine\/okr-definition-and-examples-of-john-doerrs-goal-setting-system\/","title":{"rendered":"OKR: Definition and Examples of John Doerr’s Goal-Setting System"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The definition of \u201cOKRs<\/a>\u201d is \u201cObjectives and Key Results.\u201d It is a collaborative goal-setting tool used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results. OKRs<\/a> are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether talking about office operations<\/a>, software engineering<\/a>, nonprofits<\/a> or more, OKRs <\/a>work the same for setting goals throughout many company levels. They can also work for personal goals<\/a> and can even be used by individuals to get things done at places where senior leadership doesn\u2019t use them.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Objective is simply what is to be achieved, no more and no less. By definition, objectives are significant, concrete, action-oriented, and (ideally) inspirational. When properly designed and deployed, they\u2019re a vaccine against fuzzy thinking\u2014and fuzzy execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Results benchmark and monitor how we get to the objective. Effective KRs are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable. You either meet a key result\u2019s requirements or you don\u2019t; there is no gray area, no room for doubt. At the end of the designated period, typically a quarter<\/a>, we do a regular check and grade the key results as fulfilled or not.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where an objective can be long-lived, rolled over for a year or longer, key results evolve as the work progresses. Once they are all completed, the objective is necessarily achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who created OKRs?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

OKRs <\/a>were created by Andy Grove at Intel<\/a> and taught to John Doerr by him. Since then, many companies have adopted them, including Allbirds<\/a>, Apartment Therapy<\/a>, Netflix, and inspiring nonprofits like Code for America.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early on in “Measure What Matters”<\/a>, Doerr writes about \u201cMBOs,” or \u201cManagement by Objectives.\u201d MBOs were the brainchild of Peter Drucker and provided Andy Grove a basis for his eventual theory of OKRs<\/a>. In fact, Grove’s name for them originally was \u201ciMBOs,” for Intel Management by Objectives. However, despite the original reverential name, Grove created some key differences between the two which he passed along to Doerr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grove rarely mentioned objectives without tying them to \u201ckey results,\u201d a term he seems to have coined himself. Other key differences between MBOs and OKRs<\/a> are that the latter are quarterly, not annual, and they are divorced from compensation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doerr was the one who crafted the name “OKRs<\/a>,” which he assembled from Grove’s lexicon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most famous story about OKRs<\/a> is that of Doerr introducing the philosophy to Google\u2019s founders in 1999. Gathered around a ping-pong table which doubled as a boardroom table, Doerr presented a PowerPoint to the young founding team, which included Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Marissa Mayer, Susan Wojcicki, and Salar Kamangar. For those interested in creating a compelling presentation on OKRs, you might consider this Objectives and Key Results presentation template<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doerr’s Objective and Key Results for the PowerPoint presentation<\/a> were this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O:<\/strong> Build a planning model for their company, as measured by three key results:<\/p>\n\n\n\n