As Product Managers, we want to ship successful products. But that’s easier said than done! Defining the right goals that will lead to long-term success can be tricky. I’ve found that using a framework like OKRs is super helpful for getting everyone aligned and focused.
OKRs are Objectives and Key Results. With OKRs, you set an ambitious objective – something that will really move the needle if you accomplish it. Then you break that down into a handful of measurable key results. Those are the actual metrics that you’ll track to see if you’re on track to hit the bigger goal.
For example, your objective might be “Delight mobile users with an amazing new feature.” Your key results would be specific targets like “95% satisfaction rating on new feature” and “Increase mobile usage by 15%.”
The great thing about OKRs is they provide clarity on the most important goals, they keep you focused, and they create accountability. As a Product Manager, I’ve found OKRs really helpful for getting alignment across product, engineering, and design teams. And it’s way easier to track progress when you have concrete key results to measure.
Using OKRs to Set Measurable Goals for Your Product
Setting challenging but achievable goals, and outlining clear key results is crucial to shipping successful products over and over again. In this post, we’ll cover why measurable goals matter, how OKRs work, and proven tactics to implement goal-setting frameworks like OKRs into the product management process.
The Significance of Measurable Goals
It’s easy for product teams to get distracted by the urgent and lose sight of the important. This makes setting measurable goals a critical part of any Product Manager’s job. Well-defined goals bring several key benefits, including:
- Focus – Measurable goals concentrate efforts on the highest value initiatives rather than spreading efforts thinly across too many competing priorities. They cut through noise to enable focus.
- Alignment – By defining objectives and key results across teams, measurable goal frameworks ensure everyone is working towards the same outcomes. This enhances transparency and coordination.
- Accountability – Quantitative goal-setting makes it possible to track progress. Teams can self-correct when off track rather than continuing down an ineffective path.
- Results – With concrete metrics guiding the way, product teams can marshal their efforts efficiently. This increases the likelihood of positive business outcomes that fuel future product success.
The most effective product leaders leverage measurable goals to create focus, alignment, and accountability. But goal-setting only pays dividends with careful implementation in service of strategic priorities. That’s where frameworks like OKRs come in handy.
Understanding OKRs for Product Teams
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is a goal-setting framework used by companies like Google, Uber, and X to align employees around strategic goals.
OKRs originated at Intel in the 1970s. The concept was popularized by John Doerr and became a staple of Silicon Valley management practices. Since then, the flexible framework has been adopted globally across industries.
At its core, OKRs are composed of:
- Objectives – Qualitative descriptions of the outcomes a team wants to achieve over a specified time period (e.g quarter). Objectives should be inspirational and challenging but attainable.
- Key Results – Quantitative metrics that measure progress toward each objective. Between 3-5 Key Results help make Objectives actionable and trackable. They are expressed as specific, time-bound results.
For example, a product team could have the following Objective and Key Results:
Objective: Launch our innovative flagship product.
Key Results:
- Conduct 5 user tests by end of Q1
- Achieve 4.5/5 user satisfaction rating
- Generate $1M in revenue in first year post-launch
OKRs create alignment by cascading from company-level goals down to team and individual objectives. They encourage ambitious outcomes rather than rudimentary tasks. And they focus effort on measurable outputs that ladder up to broader objectives.
Benefits of Using OKRs for Product Teams
OKRs offer several advantages that make them a powerful tool for product managers:
Drive Alignment
OKRs help align the entire organization around common goals and priorities. Product Managers can use OKRs to ensure their roadmap is focused on the company’s most important initiatives. They also provide a framework for coordinating cross-functional teams and avoiding misalignment.
Increase Focus
With too many competing priorities, product teams can lose focus. OKRs create focus by identifying the key measurable results that contribute to broader objectives. This leads to better concentration of effort.
Track Performance
OKRs make it easy to track progress quantitatively. Teams can course-correct based on key result metrics instead of relying on hazy assessments of completion. This data-driven approach leads to more impactful outcomes.
Facilitate Continuous Improvement
Because OKRs are time-bound, they build in regular reflection moments. The cadence of reassessing goals quarterly enables continuous improvement. Teams can evaluate results and adjust objectives accordingly.
OKRs have enabled Product Managers at companies like Amazon, Uber, and X to align their product roadmaps to company goals. The transparency and agility of OKRs empowers product teams to regularly refine and work towards measurable outcomes.
How to Implement OKRs in the Product Management Process
Let’s take a look at some of the best practices for rolling out OKRs:
- Socialize the concept across the teams and gain buy-in. Emphasize how OKRs will focus efforts.
- Align executives and stakeholders on high-level company OKRs that will guide other goals.
- Develop quarterly product OKRs supporting those company objectives.
- Involve your teams in setting team-level OKRs and defining individual contributions.
- Track OKR progress continuously and discuss in regular check-ins. Identify obstacles.
- Review OKR results at the end of each quarter. Analyze, learn from outcomes, and realign.
- Use OKR tracking software or simple spreadsheets to maintain visibility. Automate where possible.
- Don’t overemphasize hitting OKR numbers. Focus is on learning and improvement.
Rolling out OKRs across product organizations requires planning, communication, and commitment. But with a collaborative process and leadership support, product teams can unlock the benefits of aligned, measurable goals.
Common Challenges and Pitfalls
While OKRs offer many benefits, adopting them poses some common challenges, including:
Ensuring Buy-In
Getting organization-wide buy-in for a new goal framework takes consistent communication and leadership endorsement. Without understanding the OKR rationale, teams may resist.
Avoiding Rigidity
OKRs can fail when implemented rigidly without room for learning and course correction. Teams should not cling to lagging key results if priorities shift. OKRs are a directional tool.
Preventing Perverse Incentives
OKRs can incentivize bad behaviors if employees are rewarded just for hitting specific key results at any cost. The focus should be on ethical collaboration and learning.
Maintaining Simplicity
OKR novice product teams often overcomplicate objectives and define too many key results. This dilutes focus. Keep the OKR structure simple.
Pitfalls to Avoid Include:
- Setting vague, unmeasurable objectives and key results,
- Defining OKRs as tasks versus strategic outcomes,
- Poor cadence that lets OKRs become stale and irrelevant,
- Limiting OKRs to only leadership with no transparency to teams.
With training on the principles behind OKRs and regular recalibration, product organizations can mitigate these challenges. The key is implementing OKRs as a dynamic framework focused on enabling strategy, not as a rigid performance tracking system. Maintaining this mindset prevents many pitfalls.
Examples of Product-Related OKRs
To further illustrate how OKRs can support product management, let’s look at some examples:
Company: Uber
Objective: Launch Uber Pool carpooling service in 5 new major cities
Key Results:
- Complete Pool MVP development by Q2,
- Achieve driver opt-in rate of 75% in launch cities,
- Reach 150,000 active Pool riders across launch cities after 1 month.
This Uber example shows an ambitious but measurable objective focused on a new product launch. The key results define critical steps and adoption metrics to track.
Company: Slack
Objective: Make Slack collaboration seamless across devices
Key Results:
- Rebuild Slack iOS app with React Native,
- Increase cross-platform engagement by 15%,
- Maintain 4.5+ app rating across all platforms.
Slack’s objective aims to improve an existing product experience. The key results emphasize improving technical foundations, engagement metrics, and quality.
Company: Amazon
Objective: Offer 1-day delivery for 80% of U.S. customers
Key Results:
- Expand same-day eligible selection by 500%,
- Lower average shipping time by 24 hrs,
- Receive 4.8+ average customer rating for delivery speed.
This Amazon example demonstrates a customer-focused experience objective measured through operational key results.
These examples illustrate how OKRs translate high-level product strategies into concrete, measurable steps forward each quarter. They provide a results-focused framework for product teams and leaders.
Measuring Success and Iteration
The real power of OKRs comes from measuring results and continuously improving. Here are some best practices for assessing success:
- Review progress qualitatively against objectives in addition to key results. Look for signs you are moving the needle.
- Hitting 70% or more of your key results is excellent. Much higher may indicate OKRs weren’t ambitious enough.
- Capture lessons from both met and missed KRs. Analyze why things worked or didn’t work.
- Survey your teams to assess if OKRs focused efforts and provided clarity. Gather feedback on the process.
- Identify patterns across OKR cycles to spot systemic pockets of misalignment or recurring execution issues.
- Share wins and lessons learned across the organization to spread best practices.
While OKRs provide structure, they are not a static system. The best product teams iterate to refine their OKRs based on what works. Some ways to improve include:
- Expanding from quarterly to monthly or biannual cadences if needed.
- Introducing OKR check-ins to review progress more frequently.
- Increasing cross-functional coordination during goal-setting.
- Simplifying or clarifying fuzzy objectives and results.
By continually inspecting, learning, and enhancing their OKR processes, product teams can sharpen this powerful goal-setting tool over time.
The work doesn’t stop once the initial OKRs are defined. To get the full value, product teams must continually inspect results, solicit feedback, and refine the process over time. Used dynamically, OKRs can become a driving force behind tangible product improvements.
Alternative Frameworks for Goal-Setting
While OKRs are a powerful goal-setting method, other frameworks can complement your efforts or address different needs:
SMART Goals
The SMART framework sets goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART goals provide a simple way to ensure goals have clarity and metrics attached. SMART Goals are commonly used for setting individual goals.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Discussed in more depth in the following pages, KPIs are quantitative measures of performance against a strategic goal. Teams define KPIs to track progress on company objectives. They provide ongoing metrics rather than time-bound goals. KPIs complement OKRs with additional performance visibility.
Balanced Scorecard
The balanced scorecard framework looks at goals across four perspectives: financial, customer, business process, and organizational capacity. It provides a balance of short and long term goals across these lenses. The balanced scorecard can supplement OKRs with a holistic view.
The best framework depends on the specific use case and objectives. While OKRs create alignment and accountability around measurable goals, alternatives like SMART goals and KPIs can provide additional dimensions to your goal-setting approach.
OKRs for Product Teams: Conclusion
Setting measurable goals is vital for product teams to maintain focus and alignment. But putting this into practice takes a structured process and commitment.
Frameworks like OKRs enable Product Managers to translate strategic objectives into concrete, measurable results that guide teams quarter to quarter. Aligning goals across the organization, and cascading them down to team and individual efforts, is the key to unlocking the power of OKRs for product teams.