How Do You Create an OKR Plan? [with Example]

We have helped many clients create OKR plans, and at this time of year, the requests multiply as our marketing strategy clients get into the nitty-gritty of planning their next quarter's activities.

We wrote up our process for creating OKR plans so you can do it independently. After the theoretical steps, there is also an example you can use to formulate your own OKR plan!

Creating an OKR (Objectives and Key Results) plan involves setting clear, measurable goals that help align and motivate your team. OKRs are typically used to set quarterly or annual goals but can be adapted for different time frames. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating an OKR plan:

Step 1: Understand OKRs

Before creating an OKR plan, make sure you understand the two components:

• Objectives are qualitative, inspirational, and actionable statements defining what you want to achieve. Objectives should be ambitious and feel somewhat uncomfortable.

• Key Results are quantitative measures that indicate whether the objective has been achieved. They should be specific, time-bound, and verifiable.

Step 2: Set Your Objectives

1. Brainstorm: Have a brainstorming session with your team to identify the most important outcomes you want to achieve.

2. Align with Vision: Make sure your objectives align with the broader vision and mission of the company.

3. Prioritize: You can't focus on everything. Choose the 3-5 most critical objectives.

4. Write Objectives: Clearly articulate the objectives so they are easy to understand and inspire action.

Step 3: Define Your Key Results

1. Identify Indicators: Identify 3-5 key results for each objective. These should be outcomes that signify the objective has been met.

2. Set Benchmarks: Use historical data, industry standards, or competitive analysis to set realistic yet challenging benchmarks for each key result.

3. Ensure Measurability: Key results should be quantifiable. If you can’t measure it, you can’t know if you've achieved it.

Step 4: Plan for Execution

1. Assign Owners: Assign a person or team responsible for each objective and its corresponding key results.

2. Break Down Actions: Identify the actions, projects, or initiatives needed to achieve each key result.

3. Resource Allocation: Ensure you have the resources (time, money, personnel) to achieve your key results.

4. Create a Timeline: Establish deadlines and milestones for your key results and actions.

Step 5: Integrate and Communicate

1. Align Across Teams: Ensure that OKRs across different teams or departments are aligned and support each other.

2. Communicate: Share the OKRs with all stakeholders and make sure everyone understands them.

3. Feedback Loop: Establish a process for regular check-ins and updates on progress towards the OKRs.

Step 6: Monitor and Adapt

1. Track Progress: Regularly check the progress against key results.

2. Be Flexible: Be prepared to adjust key results and even objectives if circumstances significantly change.

3. Learn and Iterate: After each OKR cycle, evaluate what worked, what didn’t, and why. Use these insights to improve the next set of OKRs.

Step 7: Review and Score OKRs

1. Scoring OKRs: At the end of the OKR cycle, score your key results on a scale (e.g., 0.0 to 1.0) to measure success.

2. Celebrate and Reflect: Recognize the achievements and reflect on the misses. Celebrating successes is crucial for morale.

3. Archive and Document: Record past OKRs for historical reference and to track progress over time.

Tips for Successful OKRs

• Ensure objectives are ambitious enough to drive effort and innovation.
• Keep key results challenging but attainable.
• Avoid confusing key results with tasks; key results should measure outcomes, not activities.
• Review and adjust OKRs regularly, not just at the end of the cycle.

Remember, OKRs are a framework to guide your efforts and focus your team's efforts on what really matters. They are not just a box to check or a rigid set of rules. Flexibility and adaptability are key to making the most of your OKR plan.

Example Objective, Key Result, and Project Plan

Objective: Super-size the monthly inbound leads from website traffic 😳

✅ Easy to understand
✅ Inspires action
✅ Qualitative
✅ Ambitious
✅ Feels somewhat uncomfortable

Key Result #1: Increase website conversion rate from 5% to 10% in the next quarter 📈

✅ Quantitative
✅ Indicates whether the objective has been achieved
✅ Specific
✅ Time-bound
✅ Verifiable
✅ Feels somewhat uncomfortable

Initiative #1: Run A/B tests on our landing pages 🧪

Project Plan and timeline: ⌚️

Running A/B tests on landing pages is a strategic approach to improving conversion rates. A meticulous and iterative approach is required to double the conversion rate. Below is a week-by-week plan for 8 weeks, which assumes that you have two different landing page designs (A and B) ready for testing: