I read a lot about OKRs but every time I need to use it in action I faced some difficulties.
Now my teammate and I use a Trello board to measure progress towards our goals, But I think maybe I don't set them right, because I don't know how to measure success and progress towards our objectives.
I'm not sure if I set them right. Can you please help me and show me a way to make it work?
There are many different tools that you can use for free to help you and your team collaborate, create tasks, and measure progress.
Here is a list of the tools that I have tested with clients and used myself:
Workdo
Eko
Flowlu
Bitrix24
Asana
I have personally used all of these tools and am not a huge fan of Trello.
You can play around with all of these tools free of charge for small teams. I think one of them may work better than Trello for you and you will not incur any costs.
Each has their pros and cons but for the most part have similar functionality. I hope this helps!
Hello I am Priyanka..
To know about this have to go in detail.
Here is a quick list of some of our top tips for setting OKRs at Buffer:
Objectives are to be ambitious and should feel slightly uncomfortable.
Key results are measurable; they must have a number.
Ideally, you’ll only achieve 70% of your OKRs.
Getting 100% means your OKRs aren’t ambitious enough.
Low grades aren’t to be punished.
Be careful not to set too many. Generally, a maximum of five objectives with a max of five key results each is enough.
And probably our biggest learning with OKRs: They can (and should) change during the quarter. Especially at a SaaS startup, things happen fast, we learn fast, and the objectives we set may not be the right ones in a few weeks’ time.
Our marketing OKRs for quarter two (April through June) included five different objectives that we were excited to take on, each with three to five key results attached. Here’s one OKR for what we hoped to do on Medium last quarter:
Buffer's list of OKRs.
Setting them is really fun. It is a chance to dream big, reflect on where you’re at and where you want to go, and brainstorm how to get there.
Also quite fun? Tracking them! I’ve found a lot of joy in of the system we use for our marketing OKRs.
Initial Setup
The basic layout is organized like this:
Each Objective is summarized in a list title
Each Key Result gets its own card under its Objective list
Each card has a rich description of the OKR details
Labels show the status of the Key Result
Checklists
One of the best ways we’ve found to track progress on Key Results is to use checklists. These make great sense for the results we’ve set to “achieve x number of things” like blog posts, experiments, and the like.
The basics work like this:
Set a goal, based on a time period;
Determine how much daily progress you need to make in order to reach the goal;
Chart this progress on a line graph;
Track your daily progress; and,
Add this progress to the line graph, too.
For further details on the topic you can consult with me.
The easiest way to think about OKRs is to think about the inputs that result in the outputs that you desire as a company. For example, monthly sales numbers are the results (output) and the inputs would be meetings, quotes, pipeline created, etc. Let me know if you’d like to discuss more.
I have worked with Trello and Basecamp in both a start-up environment as well as for a team within an MNC.
There are several things I suggest you clarify before jumping into using a tool.
1. What is your team's goal
2. Who is accountable for what in achieving what goals
3. How is the team to work together to achieve the common goals while working independently too
4. How does the team work together if failure to achieve a goal impacts the bigger goals
5. How does the team want to held accountable.
From here, you will find a tool and set it up in a way that best works for you. There will be some retro-fitting of course.
Drop me a line if you like to talk more.
