Overview

Key Results are quarterly outcomes by which success is measured for an objective. They provide clarity on where a team should focus their work, and tell us when we declare victory. Key results use the measurement From value - To Target which can be updated on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.

Key Result Best Practices

• Key results shouldn’t be action items, or be subject to interpretation.
• There should be 4 - 6 key results for each objective.
• A team should define their key results keeping the best possible in mind. 
• Best possible: What would be awesome to achieve this quarter? Best possible results likely won’t be hit 100%, as the main importance is discussing learnings for the quarter. 
• Update Key Results consistently on a weekly basis (when applicable), to inform your team and others of your progress to achievement. 
• Provide a narrative and additional context into why the number is the way it is when you update key results.

Questions to Shift Key Results From Outputs to Outcomes: 

• How would we know we were successful? 
• What would be really great this quarter?
• Is this both our best and possible result? 
• What would we have more of if we were successful?
• What would we have less of if we were successful?

Example Key Results to Setup a Baseline for Subsequent Quarters 

• Baseline measurement
• Instrument a process to measure
• Receive approval and funding for a project or initiative 
• Be fully staffed for the initiative 
• Present MVP demo to key stakeholders for a go/no-go decision 

Anatomy of a Key Result

• Description (what is being measured?)
• Starting value
• Best possible target value
• Unit of measure ($, #, %)
• Measurement frequency (risk, focus, and change adjusted)
• Data source (person, system, workstream)
• Total or last progress (add each increment or report last)

Pick the type of result that best suits what you're measuring. This may be a basic count that one person will provide, collected data from several people, or a result calculated from workstreams or other apps. 

Choose What to Measure

As you create key results in the OKR Wizard, the default is a basic count or percentage, but you can expand on these measurements.

Basic count or percentage from one person is the default key result type. For example:

• Sales revenue from Jorge
• Number of developers hired from Alice 
• Completion of an IT infrastructure overhaul from Percy. 

Learn how to set basic results here.

Marking a Key Result as 'Committed'

Enabled by default for all accounts, you can easily distinguish between best possible and committed targets with committed key results. Your RAG status will follow a more aggressive curve and at the end of the quarter will only be green if you achieve 100% of your target. This is helpful for financial targets, SLAs, or similar targets that you have a commitment to hit.

Note: Key results that support Committed Targets are Result from a Person, Key Result Roll-Ups, and Set Multiple Targets where the data being provided is by a person rather than a connected Datastream.

Advanced Key Result Options

Learn more about key result options available when creating a key result.