Getting started with company OKRs

Company OKR Board

OKRs (which stands for “Objectives and Key Results”) is a goal-setting technique used by numerous companies, including Google, Intel, Asana, Slack, and even here at Miro! The goal of using OKRs is to improve transparency and alignment across teams by focusing on a key set of goals and tracking progress against them.

At Miro, we like using a board for our OKRs because it helps us to visualize the connections between team, function, and overall company goals.

Here are some tips on how to get started

OKRs have two main components:

• Objective: The goal you are trying to achieve

• Key Results: a metric that measures your progress towards achieving your objective

Step 1: Setting Company OKRs

Company objectives help set the strategic direction for the company over the next quarter. Typically, we’d recommend having no more than 3-4 company level objectives and no more than 4 KRs for each objective.

Step 2: Set Function and Team OKRs

Using the company OKRs for guidance, functions and teams can then set functional and team level OKRs that align with the company level OKRs. Again, we'd recommend no more than 3-4 objectives and and no more than 4 KRs per objective at the function and team levels.

Step 3: Grade OKRs and track your progress

Companies grade OKRs in different ways, but at Miro we grade our OKRs once a month to check our progress throughout the quarter.

Grading Scale

• 0.0 - 0.3 = RED ; little progress has been made towards this KR

• 0.4 - 0.6 = YELLOW ; some progress has been made towards this KR

• 0.7 - 1.0 = GREEN ; significant progress has been made on this KR

For each OKR, add grades to each KR and then average those grades to come up with an overall score for the objective.