"If you set a crazy ambitious goal and miss it, you'll still achieve something remarkable"- Larry Page (from Measure What Matters by John Doerr)
Most organizations are familiar with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs can be great for measurement, but they’re standalone metrics — they may tell you when a measure is good or bad, but they don’t necessarily communicate context or what direction your team needs to go in.
If you've worked at Google, you're probably more familiar with "OKRs." OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results, provide that much needed direction and context. The Objective describes what you want to accomplish and the Key Results describe how you know you’re making progress. Since KPIs are measurable, they can make great Key Results.
Read about how you can map your KPIs and OKRs in SharpCloud
KPIs are used to evaluate performance over time for an organization, individual, program, project, or action. These indicators should usually:
A KPI could be any quantitative (and in rare cases, qualitative) measure a company uses to evaluate its progress and successfully reach its goals. Adding quantitative value makes it easier to provide context and compare performance for whatever you’re measuring.
Objectives and Key Results (OKR) are a goal setting framework used in organizations across the globe. OKR has two components, the Objective and the Key Results: Objectives are memorable qualitative descriptions of what you want to achieve, and Key Results are a set of metrics that measure your progress toward the Objective.
OKRs, per CIO.com, “is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations define goals — or objectives — and then track the outcome. The framework is designed to help organizations establish far-reaching goals in days instead of months.”
OKRs were first introduced to the business world in the 1970s by the “Father of OKRs,” Andy Grove, CEO at Intel. John Doerr, the author of the New York Times Bestseller Measure What Matters, learned all about OKRs thanks to an internal class taught by Grove. In his book, he tells stories about how many large companies (Google, Netflix, Intel, Code for America, and so on) have used OKRs to grow their businesses.
As Doerr outlines, OKRs must have:
A single Objective (O): The “What,” the big goal, the main thing you want to accomplish. The “O” informs your actions.
Several (often 3-5) Key Results (KRs): The “How,” the benchmarks you’ll track to meet your objective.
Doerr has some fantastic, real-life examples of OKRs here.
OKRs are:
OKRs are built on big-picture goals and targets that are designed to push employees and companies forward, so they should toe the line of “almost impossible.” The OKR framework is a continual cycle of fast, dynamic growth.
For example:
Objective: Become the market leader in our industry.
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Objective: Increase revenue by 30 percent.
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So, it's clear that there is a distinguishable difference between OKRs and KPIs, namely, OKRs are a strategic framework for aligning the wider company's objectives with the nitty-gritty key results that need to be achieved and worked directly towards in day-to-day tasks.
But, do you know how OKRs and KPIs complement each other? The question isn't which is best - it's how can you best take advantage of them both. What matters is the final result, and seeing the bigger picture.
The letter 'K' in KPI — and OKR — means key: few, a handful, the most important ones.
With this free OKR template, you can easily
track and manage your OKRs.
Align and connect your employees to your corporate goals
Give clear direction to every team and individual
Increase productivity through focus on goals
Track regular progress towards goals
Make more effective and informed decisions
Achieve measurement, accountability, and transparency
Boost individuals’ engagement and empowerment through your goal-setting process
Increase insight and transparency across the organization for top-level executives
Improve resource allocation and management
Capture cross-functional dependencies across teams
In SharpCloud you can easily create a dashboard that will help keep track of your company KPIs:
This KPI dashboard is perfect for Project Managers (and other company leaders) to visually see a high-level overview of project KPIs — overall progress, workloads, budget tracking, time tracking, project progress, and more.
SharpCloud offers a free OKR template solution designed to ensure alignment across all activities, map out and communicate actions that get you to the key result, and collaboratively track the status of progress.
The highest level Objectives detail the statement of intent and vision. The Key results attached to each are a stretch target for your plan. Attached to each Key Result, and shown here with relationships, are projects and other activities that will be the vehicles by which you achieve your key results.
Get started with this OKR template
Your management of these OKRs will show the score for these and interactive filters allow you to see which ones are on track, below target or above target.
The filters allow you to view by sector to see OKRs for specific areas. You can size by impact, cost, or any other attribute you wish to use.
Get started with this OKR template
You can run OKR's over a time period: monthly, quarterly, annually and beyond. Specific actions and projects can be connected to your OKRs and show you over time the likelihood of successful delivery so you can mitigate any concerns and make good decisions.
The border color here is shown by on track, but you can also filter by objective type to see the projects in each area.
Get started with this OKR template
We offer ways to streamline the process, including: