Why Goals Matter: OKRS for Startups

In a story that sounds almost apocryphal, a venture capitalist pitched startup Google on using OKRs — Objectives and Key Results — 25 years ago. Google co-founder Sergey Brin agreed that the young tech company needed some type of organizing principle, and decided to adopt OKRs. Billions of dollars later, both teams declared the pairing a success.

OKRs are an essential form of measurement, says entrepreneur and author Kris Duggan, who notes in one of his LinkedIn posts, “When startups have poorly defined goals, they flail in too many directions at once. They waste precious calories without a plan to monetize their users into a sustainable profit stream.”

Having a Plan

Not to be confused with okra, the vegetable, OKRs are a critical thinking framework and goal methodology to help startups align their goals and achieve them.

Being regarded as an expert in your field has always been one of the best ways for a startup founder to promote their business and meet their objectives. 

Let’s say you want to contribute a bylined article to a reputable business publication such as Fast Company, Forbes, or Entrepreneur.

Your OKRs approach might look like:

· Objective: Publish an article in Fast Company magazine.

· Result: Create list of topics I’m best suited to write about now.

· Result: Curate research to support my topic.

· Result: Draft content for an article.

· Result: Submit polished article to magazine by May 1, 2024.

Ready for the Rollout?

John Doerr, who recounts the Google OKR adoption story in his book, Measure What Matters, says, “In implementing OKRs, leaders must publicly commit to their Objectives and stay steadfast.” 

Sweat Equity Ventures partner Georg Babu amplifies: “When you’re a startup founder, you constantly have to answer the question, ‘Does your startup make sense?’ When you don’t have a lot of data, OKRs are one way to talk about the value you’re going to deliver and what ‘good’ looks like.”

So OKRs are a valuable startup measurement tool. But you can get it wrong.

Doing OKRs Right

Simply setting objectives isn’t enough. A startup can make mistakes using OKRs. Here’s what you want to avoid:

· Making OKRs a shopping list. OKRs need alignment with objectives, and everyone on board the success train. But once you have a motivated, engaged team, you must remain laser-focused on the word “Key”. In order to create and measure key results, you can’t chase every shiny new objective that appears. Stay keyed into your primary initiatives. If you just complete tasks on a to-do list, there’s nothing much to measure. That’s simply doing business.

· Putting people to sleep — or making them stretch too far. Okay, OKRs aren’t inherently dazzling, the way your startup idea is. That’s understandable. But making them so basic they’re boring (like a shopping list) or so ambitious your team feels frustrated, are equally untenable. Your challenge is to find the sweet spot that keeps people both engaged and capable of delivering on the objective. Typically, a 75% success rate means you’ve set your OKRs right.

· Leaving them to it. Even the best teams need oversight. If you devise excellent OKRs and don’t monitor them, how will you know whether you’re on track? Weekly check-ins and evaluations ensure your objectives are on target — and let you know when and where something needs to be tweaked.

OKRs provide your startup with focus and transparency for improved collaboration. When your team members:

• Can state company strategy and goals
• Know what is expected of them
• Know what others are doing, and
• All teams are aligned with each other

… your startup is doing OKRs correctly. Here’s to your success!