Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs, are simple in form and powerful in practice. Used well, they connect vision to execution, align teams on outcomes instead of outputs, and create a learning cadence that compounds over time. Used poorly, they become a quarterly spreadsheet that encourages busywork and sandbagging.
This edition is a practical guide to OKRs you can trust. Along the way, I will reference three favorite conversations from Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership: Christina Wodtke on Radical Focus, Radhika Dutt on Radical Product Thinking, and Gojko Adzic on Impact Mapping.
1) OKRs in one page
- Objective
A short, qualitative statement that inspires focus for the next cycle. Think of it as a mission for a quarter.
Christina’s reminder: the Objective should be meaningful enough that people care, and specific enough that people can act. - Key Results
Three to four measurable indicators that show you are achieving the Objective. They describe evidence of change, not tasks.
Christina’s warning: avoid the seduction of the task. If a KR reads like a to-do, rewrite it as a result you expect to see. - Cadence
Weekly check-ins on progress and learning, a monthly regroup on what is helping or hindering, and an end-of-cycle retrospective.
Christina’s emphasis: cadence is what turns OKRs from set-and-forget goals into organizational learning.
2) From outputs to outcomes
A common failure mode is to treat OKRs as a dressed-up backlog. You see KRs like “launch feature X” or “install CRM.” Those are outputs. Great KRs answer “what will be different if we succeed.”
Rewrite example
- Weak KR: “Install a new CRM.”
- Strong KR: “Increase returning customer purchases by 20 percent.”
Now you can ask whether a CRM is the best lever or if there is a better path to the same outcome.
Christina’s lens: OKRs unite people who love numbers with people who love meaning. Objectives hold the story. Key Results tell us how we will know the story is becoming true.
3) Strategy first, then OKRs
OKRs do not replace strategy. They operationalize it.
Radhika’s contribution: treat execution as hypotheses derived from strategy, not as pass or fail exams. Her RDCL strategy mnemonic is a useful checklist:
- Real pain points that bring users to you
- Design choices that solve those pains
- Capabilities that power the solution
- Logistics that deliver and sustain it
Write KRs that test RDCL
For each element, ask: what do we believe, how will we know, and what will we do next if we are wrong. That turns KRs into evidence, not vanity metrics.
Radhika’s insight on tradeoffs: be explicit about vision vs survival. Sometimes you incur vision debt to win a deal. Name it. Add a short survival statement so teams understand the tradeoff without losing faith in the long term.
4) Creating OKRs with Impact Mapping
If OKRs are the scoreboard, Impact Mapping is how you design the game plan.
Gojko’s idea: map the chain from business goal to the actors who can help or hinder it, the impacts you want in their behavior, and the deliverables that might enable those impacts.
Mini impact map template
- Goal: what business outcome matters now
- Actors: customers, partners, internal roles that influence the outcome
- Impacts: specific behavior changes you want from each actor
- Deliverables: initiatives or features that could enable those changes
Then write OKRs from the map
- Objective: restate the Goal in plain language
- Key Results: quantify the desired Impacts
- Initiatives: select Deliverables as bets to test this cycle
This keeps OKRs laser-aligned with real behavior change rather than a pile of tasks.
5) How to write great OKRs
A simple checklist
- One objective that matters now
If you have three, you probably have none. - Three to four key results
Each KR is a measurable outcome, not an activity. - Clear baseline and target
Everyone should know today’s number and the ambition for the cycle. - Explicit assumptions
Note the hypotheses you are testing so you can decide faster next time. - Weekly learning ritual
What did we try, what moved, what will we try next. - Ownership without individualization
Teams own OKRs. Use OKRs to develop the product and the system, not to grade people.
Christina and Radhika agree: tying individual compensation to OKRs distorts behavior and kills learning.
A quick example
- Objective: Make it effortless for first-time users to get value in 10 minutes.
- Key Results
- First session completion rate rises from 38 percent to 60 percent.
- Time to first successful action falls from 12 minutes to 7 minutes.
- Trial to paid conversion within 14 days increases from 8 percent to 12 percent.
- Initiatives
Guided setup, new sample data, contextual tips. - Hypotheses
Sample data reduces blank-page anxiety. Guided setup reduces errors. - Review cadence
Weekly metrics review and experiment stand-up, end-of-cycle retro.
6) Common traps and how to avoid them
- Task KRs
Replace to-dos with evidence of user or business change. - Too many goals
Pick one objective. Park the rest. - Cascading paralysis
In large orgs, align instead of cascade. Company sets the north star. Teams propose their contribution. - Command and control
OKRs thrive in empowered cultures. In top-down environments, they turn into pressure targets that invite gaming. - Set and forget
No weekly learning, no OKRs. Cadence is the engine.
7) Culture is the multiplier
Radhika’s culture model: map work along two axes, fulfilling vs not, urgent vs not. Aim to maximize fulfilling and non-urgent work, and reduce the other quadrants like heroics and busywork. OKRs can help by removing noise and focusing attention, but only if leaders protect time for thinking, learning, and steady progress.
Christina’s team lens: great OKRs live inside teams with clear goals, roles, and norms. If feedback is avoided or roles are fuzzy, OKRs will surface conflict rather than resolve it.
Gojko’s product lens: if the behavior change is unclear, you do not have an OKR problem, you have a strategy and product problem. Go back to the impact map.
8) Try this with your team next week
- Draft a one-line Objective that everyone understands.
- List five candidate Key Results. Keep three that reflect behavior change.
- Sketch a quick impact map. Confirm which actor behaviors your KRs reflect.
- Write two explicit hypotheses. Decide how you will know within two weeks.
- Put 30 minutes on the calendar every Friday for progress and learning. Celebrate movement, not perfection.
If you want to go deeper, listen to these episodes of Le Podcast on Emerging Leadership while you refine your next cycle
- Radical Focus with Christina Wodtke for cadence and outcomes over outputs
- Radical Product Thinking with Radhika Dutt for hypothesis-driven strategy and honest tradeoffs
- Build a Product with Gojko Adzic for impact mapping and measuring what matters
Let’s keep goals human, focused, and useful.
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