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Write effective OKRs that inspire action and deliver results

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Having clear, relevant, and communicated goals allows employees to focus on the work that matters. In addition, outcome-driven goals help teams align to strategic priorities and deliver measurable results.

Viva Goals uses the OKR (objectives and key results) framework, a powerful tool to help you structure the process of setting and achieving goals.

Tip

Writing OKRs is an iterative process. You can work to hone your team's goals over time. If you already have some basic strategic goals set for your company, you can enter those into the system and build on them rather than crafting all new goals.

OKR definitions

OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. Along with initiatives, OKRs act like a compass to direct you toward your goals.

  • Objectives are what your team wants to accomplish. They are 3-5 clear, inspiring goals shared across teams and organizations.

  • Key Results are how the team will measure results. They should be 3-5 measurable outcomes which contribute to the achievement of an objective.

  • Initiatives are actions that help the team achieve outcomes. They are focused efforts that will help you define the path to achieving each OKR.

Objectives

Consider the priorities of your organization, your team, or your individual work. What meaningful goals do you want to accomplish?

These goals should be clear, concise, and inspirational. Effective goals are often one sentence or less. Remember to keep things simple and focused, with 3-5 objectives.

Key results

While objectives represent your conceptual goals, key results are the specific numbers and metrics you need to reach to achieve those goals.

Key results need to be clear, measurable, and not open to interpretation. Once again, keep things focused by limiting to 3-5 Key Results for each Objective. For example, "Increase sales by 10% this quarter" is a more effective key result than "Increase sales".

Initiatives

Lastly, Initiatives are actions that help the team achieve outcomes. They are focused efforts that will help you define the path to achievement for each OKR. For example, if your key result was to increase sales by 10%, your initiative could be to initiate a new marketing campaign.

Formula for writing great OKRs

The OKR framework can apply across industries. For example, a software startup could apply the same framework as a global media enterprise.

An easy way to visualize the components of OKRs is the sentence:

"I will OBJECTIVE as measured by KEY RESULTS via INITIATIVES."

Infographic of the OKR formula.

From there, as you think about the goals you want to achieve, you can start by asking questions and using a formula.

Formula for writing Objectives

Objectives are actionable, aspirational, and meaningful.

Step 1: Questions to ask before writing Objectives

  • What is the most important area of our business that we need to focus on?
  • Why does this goal matter to us?
  • How would we write our objective into a statement that inspires our team?

Step 2: Formula to follow when writing Objectives

Important

Verb + what you’re going to do + so that / in order to

In this formula, the verb is your action, what you're going to do is your aspiration, and the phrase "so that" or "in order to" is your meaning.

Note

Example: Deliver an essential product in order to delight customers and grow our user base

Formula for writing Key Results

Key results are focused, measurable, and ambitious.

Step 1: Questions to ask before writing Key Results

  • How will we know if we’re successful?
  • How can we measure the impact of our work?
  • What metric or outcome would let us definitively measure if we were successful?
  • Do we currently measure that metric?
  • What is our best-case scenario for achievement on that measure?

Step 2: Formula to follow when writing Key Results

Important

Verb + what you’re going to track / count + from x to y

In this formula, the verb is your action, what you are going to track or count is your area of focus, the X to Y is your measure; the difference between the X and Y is the change you're trying to achieve.

Note

Example: Increase our net promoter score from 40 to 50

Formula for writing Initiatives

Initiatives are outputs that help inform the success of your outcomes.

Step 1: Questions to ask before writing Initiatives

  • What do we need to do in order to be successful?
  • What can we get done in this period?
  • Who needs to be involved?

Step 2: Formula to follow when writing Initiatives

Important

Verb + what you’re going to do

In this formula, the verb is your action and what you are going to do is the output of your initiative.

Note

Example: Conduct market research initiative to identify customer needs

If we look at how our examples flow into our formula, it would look like this:

"We will deliver an essential product in order to delight customers and grow out user base as measured by Increased net promoter score from 40 to 50 via Conducting market research initiative to identify customer needs."

Diagram of the OKR formula filled out with the aforementioned examples.

Review and edit

Once you’ve sketched out a draft of your OKRs, look at each OKR through the lens of the 5 key OKR benefits:

Alignment

Have you aligned your goals from the top down, bottom up, and across teams to ensure everyone is driving towards the same purpose? Do we have the right owners identified who can take accountability for driving progress?

Focus

Have you limited both objectives and the key results below them to 3-5 at most? It can be difficult at first to narrow down your goals when everything seems to be a priority. However, focusing on the most important goals can help your teams stay aligned.

Transparency

Are your OKRs public for all team members to see in order to create accountability and surface dependencies and roadblocks? Can your team directly affect key results, or are you reliant on stakeholders? If the latter applies, can you make this a shared OKR?

Adaptability

Have you set up integrations to a single source of truth where possible to enable faster and better decision making based on real-time data and insights? Will you be able to see progress on each key result in the current time frame?

Growth

Do your OKRs strive for ambitious outcomes?

Finalizing your OKRs

To finalize your OKRs, check for necessity and sufficiency.

When reviewing an OKR, ask yourself, "Are all these key results necessary to achieve my objective?"

  • If the answer is yes, then it passes the necessity test.
  • If the answer is no, then remove what isn't needed.

Next, ask yourself, "Will accomplishing my key results be sufficient to achieve my objective?"

  • If yes, then it passes the sufficiency test.
  • If no, modify existing key results to make them stronger, and add any more key results necessary to achieving your Objective.

Enter OKRs into Viva Goals

Now that you’ve learned how to write great OKRs, learn how to enter them into Microsoft Viva Goals. Create Objectives, Key Results, and Initiatives with Viva Goals

Additional Resources

Viva Goals Community

Looking to get advice on writing great OKRs, engage in a discussion with your peers, read the latest blog posts, or join a private user group? Check out the Viva Goals Community.

Viva Goals end user help

Learn how to enter your OKRs into Microsoft Viva Goals. Create Objectives, Key Results, and Initiatives with Viva Goals