OKRs for All

CHAPTER 5Defining Your Objectives

The first part of a well‐written OKR is the objective statement itself. The “O” in your OKRs, the objective, is a clear, concise, and inspiring statement of what you want to accomplish.

In this chapter, we'll discuss what makes a good objective, and we'll talk about the other two components (key results and key initiatives) in the next two chapters.

When written effectively, your objective statement will connect to your mission, bring focus to the most important business outcomes you need to drive, create clarity across your organization or team, and inspire your team to develop a growth mindset. This focus, clarity, and inspiration shows up in how you write your objectives.

Each objective should be simple, clear, and concise. I generally recommend keeping an objective to one line. An objective should also focus on the impact (the desired business result) you're hoping to achieve, not the activity of your team.

To put this in perspective, think of your objective as the destination on a map, not the waypoints used to navigate to that point. Let's dive into key aspects to think about when writing your objectives.

Make Your Objectives Time‐Bound

An objective needs to have a clear timeframe in which it needs to be accomplished. Usually, we see business objectives defined annually and quarterly. The annual OKRs provide the long‐term context for the quarterly OKRs, which bring more urgency to move the needle every three months. I'll share more ...