Lesson 2: How to Set OKRs 

Through Lesson 1, we established the definition of OKRs and talked a little about how they provide boundaries or guard rails for product managers to work within when they define their product roadmap. 

When the high-level qualitative objectives and the quantifiable key results are well defined, prioritization is an easier task – after all, there’s no point adding that new feature or solving that user problem if it doesn’t help the business achieve its high-level goals.

In this lesson, we’re going to focus on how to set OKRs – who does it, how they do it, and how often to do it. We’ll also talk about how to cascade OKRs across the organization to ensure everyone’s aligned.

Who sets OKRs?

It’s impossible to set useful OKRs without some understanding of the company’s ultimate goals. There needs to be some guidance from senior leadership around what’s important. This is sometimes known as the “North Star Metric”, and should be a statement that sums up the company’s overriding goal and helps individual teams to focus their efforts in a way that contributes to overall company success. 

The North Star should be something general enough that each team can determine how they can contribute to it in a way that compliments the other teams around them.

An example of such a metric might be customer lifetime value, or maybe revenue from a certain customer segment. While most commercial organizations are focused on the bottom line, combining revenue with context ensures the bottom line is increased in a way that is strategic for the company. 

In less commercial organizations (i.e. non-profits or public services) the North Star metric might relate more to the effectiveness of their services, or maybe how accessible they are to those who need them.

Question: What’s your organization’s North Star Metric?

In general, OKRs should be set by the team who are responsible for achieving them. Remember that OKRs are a way of aligning the team around a goal, so they must be part of the discussion around what’s achievable! If the OKRs are set at the company level, that team might be the management team, who should of course discuss them with their own team members to ensure they’re achievable.

Who manages OKRs?

While the team itself should set OKRs, it’s helpful to have someone outside the team who is responsible for managing the OKR process. It might sound like a subtle distinction, but it’s a little like having a scrum master who is responsible for removing blockers and enabling the team to be successful. 

In ProdPad, we call this the “OKR Champion”. They’re responsible for bringing people together to discuss what the OKRs should be, documenting them, reporting on them regularly, and generally running the process. Having this role ensures it’s easier for teams to focus on making a difference.

Product Operations (or Product Ops) is well placed to help with this, as it fits nicely within their remit of product team enablement.

How often should OKRs be set and reviewed?

In general, the more frequently you set and review OKRs, the more likely you are to stay on course to achieve your overall goals. Commonly, OKRs are set quarterly, with frequent regular reviews of progress within that time scale. Your cadence might look like this:

This cadence might work well for a key result that changes every week, where progress might not be immediately apparent week to week but is more obvious over a month. Of course, if you’re measuring something that changes more rapidly, you might want to set a monthly OKR and review the progress weekly.

When deciding on the frequency in which you set your OKRs, the key consideration is whether the cadence will allow you to learn and adapt quickly enough.