The Fundamentals of OKRs (Objectives & Key Results)

OKRs (acronym for “Objectives and Key Results”) are a framework that companies use to define, align, and execute on the company’s most important outcomes. OKRs are made up of two parts:

1. Objectives are the ambitious goals that inspire and rally teams towards a common outcome.
2. Key Results are the incremental milestones that teams use to measure progress towards achieving their ambitious Objectives.

These two parts work together: Key Results keep us on track as we navigate towards our exciting destination, the Objective. We need both parts to know where we’re going and how to get there.

OKRs are a framework that give teams clarity on the most important outcomes they are trying to achieve within a given quarter and how they will measure success so resources can be concentrated where they create the highest value.

OKR Origins: How OKRs first developed at Intel & Google

Objectives and Key Results were developed by Intel CEO, Andrew Grove, in the late 1960s. With roots in Peter Drucker’s Management by Objectives (MBOs), OKRs were introduced as a framework to define and execute Intel’s ambitious goals.

One of Grove’s early students, John Doerr, went on to author Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs in 2017. Doerr later served on the board of Google, where he introduced OKRs to Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Credited with helping Google rapidly scale from a small team to over 150,000 employees, OKRs are now used by companies across industries to dynamically focus people and resources to achieve the most important and ambitious goals.

As a pioneer in OKRs, Intel sought the right Enterprise OKR Management and Strategy Execution Platform for its internal teams, and ultimately invested in WorkBoard.