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How to fill in the OKRs (Objectives & Key Results)

Three ambitious objectives, each with measurable results that prove you got there. This guide walks every block in the recommended order — what belongs there, the questions that unlock it, and patterns from real canvases.

OKRs pair a qualitative objective — what you want to achieve, stated memorably — with a small set of quantitative key results that prove whether you achieved it. Objectives are inspiring and directional; key results are numeric and uncomfortable, because they leave no room to argue about whether the quarter went well.

The discipline that makes OKRs work is subtraction. Three objectives per quarter, three to five key results each, and everything else explicitly not a priority. A list of twelve objectives is a to-do list wearing a framework's clothes, and it will produce exactly the same diffuse results as no framework at all.

Developed by Andy Grove at Intel in the 1970s as an evolution of management by objectives, and brought to Google by John Doerr in 1999. Doerr's Measure What Matters (2018) made the practice mainstream.

1

Objective 1

What is the most important thing this quarter?

One qualitative, memorable statement of what you want to achieve. It should be ambitious enough to be motivating and specific enough that people know when it is not happening. No numbers here — numbers belong in the key results beside it. If the objective could describe any quarter of any year, it is too vague to guide a decision.

Ask yourself

  • If only one thing improved this quarter, what should it be?
  • Would the team find this genuinely worth doing?
  • Is it specific to this quarter, or could it describe any quarter?
  • Does it name an outcome rather than a project?

Patterns that work

  • Qualitative and memorable — save the numbers for key results
  • An outcome, not a project or a task list
  • Ambitious enough that hitting it would visibly matter
2

Key Results — Objective 1

How will you prove it, in numbers?

Three to five measurable results, each with a starting value and a target. The test of a good key result is that two reasonable people looking at the same data would agree on whether it was met. Measure outcomes rather than activity: 'ship the new onboarding flow' is a task, 'activation rate from 34% to 55%' is a key result.

Ask yourself

  • What number proves the objective was achieved?
  • What is the baseline today?
  • Could two people disagree about whether this was met?
  • Is this an outcome or just an activity we plan to do?

Patterns that work

  • Always include the baseline, not only the target
  • Outcomes over activities — shipping something is not a result
  • Three to five per objective; more dilutes focus
3

Objective 2

What is the second priority?

A second objective, meaningfully different from the first. If two objectives are served by the same key results, they are one objective and you have room for something else. Keep it to three in total — the constraint is what makes the framework work.

Ask yourself

  • Is this genuinely distinct from objective one?
  • Who owns this, by name?
  • Would we still pursue it if objective one were at risk?
  • Does it need a different team than objective one?

Patterns that work

  • Distinct from objective one, with its own owner
  • If it shares key results with another objective, merge them
  • Three objectives maximum — the constraint is the point
4

Key Results — Objective 2

What numbers prove objective 2?

Same rules: three to five, baseline and target, outcomes rather than activities. Check that these are genuinely within your influence — a key result nobody in the room can move is a forecast, not a commitment, and it will be quietly ignored by week three.

Ask yourself

  • Can this team actually move this number?
  • What is the baseline?
  • Is this a commitment or a forecast?
  • How will we measure it, and who reports it?

Patterns that work

  • Only include numbers this team can actually influence
  • Name the measurement source before the quarter starts
  • A key result nobody can move gets ignored, not achieved
5

Objective 3

What is the third — and final — priority?

The last objective. Many teams do better with two, and adding a third because the template has room for one is a real failure mode. If nothing genuinely belongs here, leave it empty and treat that as a strong signal about focus rather than an incomplete document.

Ask yourself

  • Does this deserve to displace anything else?
  • Are we adding this only because there is space?
  • Could this wait a quarter without cost?
  • Would we defend this to the board?

Patterns that work

  • Leaving this empty is a valid and often correct outcome
  • Adding a third to fill space is the most common OKR mistake
  • Anything below the third objective is explicitly not a priority
6

Key Results — Objective 3

What numbers prove objective 3?

Same discipline again. Before you finish, run one check across the whole page: if every key result here were achieved, would the quarter have been a clear success? If not, something important is missing. If yes but the list feels safe, the objectives are not ambitious enough — OKRs are conventionally scored well below 100%, and consistently hitting everything means the targets were set too low.

Ask yourself

  • If we hit every key result, was the quarter a success?
  • Are these targets ambitious or safe?
  • What would 70% attainment look like here?
  • What are we deliberately not doing to make room for this?

Patterns that work

  • Score OKRs at the end; 60-70% attainment on stretch goals is normal
  • Consistently hitting 100% means the targets were too conservative
  • Record what you chose not to do — that list is half the value

Ready to fill yours in?

The editor carries this whole guide with it — every block has these prompts and starter notes built in. Free, no signup, autosaves in your browser.

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