We use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology for setting and tracking goals. OKRs are implemented at the company, department, and team levels, forming a hierarchical tree of objectives throughout the organization. These objectives are aligned with the company’s strategic goals, which are derived from the company’s mission and vision. As a result, actions taken in pursuit of OKRs are always directed toward fulfilling the company's long-term strategy.
Our planning process follows an annual cycle that cascades into quarterly goals, with OKRs set at the company level in advance:
- annual cycle: the year begins with a strategic session in the fall, where the company's vision and high-level goals for the next year are formulated. These overarching goals then serve as the foundation for department and team-level OKRs throughout the year;
- quarterly cycle: each quarter, results are reviewed, and adjustments are made as necessary. Teams begin planning for the next quarter 1-2 weeks before the current quarter ends, ensuring smooth transitions and timely goal setting.
Quarterly planning consists of several key stages and meetings that facilitate the alignment and finalization of OKRs across teams and departments.
This meeting marks the start of the quarterly planning process. During this session, department heads present their plans and priorities for the upcoming quarter, highlighting important focuses to consider when setting team goals.
- purpose: provide teams with the necessary context to set meaningful objectives for the quarter;
- timing: the business intro is conducted 1-2 weeks before the end of the current quarter.
Teams initiate the planning process facilitated by an OKR Champion.
Who is OKR Champion? The role is to ensure the application of all processes for working with OKR, to help understand the theory and practice of applying OKR in the team and beyond.
Role planning functions:
- facilitates team meetings for OKR planning, contributes to the collective decision-making on goals;
- helps to determine the current context of the team's work for planning the most important and relevant goals;
- draws attention to the business value of the set OKR and their connection with the company's strategy;
- ensures transparency of the team's OKR for all other teams;
- ensures the procedure of vertical and horizontal coordination of its goals and the goals of adjacent teams;
- can work out the setting, clarification of goals and the way to achieve them at the individual level.
Role functions in organization and control:
- ensures work with OKR and arranging check-in, retrospectives according to the schedule, regularly conducts these meetings;
- ensures regular and clear tracking of OKR in the general information space;
- ensures the formation of a team plan for improving work with the OKR process based on the results of the quarterly retrospective.
Role communication functions:
- a link for all parts and levels of the company involved in OKR;
- ensures the contribution of each participant in the planning process and retrospectives. Helps to negotiate on complex issues;
- reminds of the basics of OKR before planning sessions;
- trains new employees and teams;
- at planning and retrospective sessions, helps teams clarify common goals, asks clarifying questions;
- at the retrospective, helps teams realize and reveal their potential;
- assists leaders in work with the team on OKR.
Steps:
- notify about the dates and deadlines for planning the next quarter;
- set up meetings to conduct OKR planning.
The OKR draft is a crucial part of the planning phase, serving as the foundation for further discussion and refinement.
Steps:
- dive into the context: study the top-level goals and your strategy. Remember all the new inputs and decide what needs to be included in the goals;
- objective drafting: teams define what they aim to achieve in the upcoming quarter, focusing on solving critical problems or taking on significant challenges.
- key results: for each objective, teams generate key results, selecting measurable metrics to track progress. Achieving 80%+ of the key result is considered a good outcome, while reaching 90-100% indicates an ambitious achievement;
- initiatives: teams list the key projects or initiatives they will undertake to achieve their objectives;
- stakeholders: teams identify relevant stakeholders and adjacent teams who can provide feedback on their goals. In the Stakeholders column opposite each "Objective", leave a comment and using the “@” sign, indicate the name of the employee who is a stakeholder and from whom feedback on the "Objective" should be obtained.
The OKR Challenge is a meeting where teams present their OKRs to stakeholders and other teams for review and feedback.
- purpose: validate the team’s objectives, ensuring they are realistic, ambitious, and aligned with the company’s strategy;
- format: teams present their OKRs, and stakeholders ask clarifying questions about the rationale, ambition, and achievability of the goals;
- participants: representatives from adjacent teams, stakeholders, and interested parties;
- output: adjusted OKRs based on the feedback received during the challenge.
Once feedback has been incorporated and all stakeholders are aligned, teams finalize their OKRs for the upcoming quarter. This includes confirming the objectives, key results, and any relevant initiatives.
- approval: objectives are approved both horizontally (with adjacent teams) and vertically (with management);
- output: final OKRs are published, and the team is ready to move into the implementation phase.
Once the OKRs are set, teams continuously track their progress and make adjustments as necessary. This ensures that goals remain relevant and achievable throughout the quarter.
The OKR Check-In is a bi-weekly process designed to ensure transparency and track the progress of teams toward their quarterly objectives. It provides regular updates on the status of key results (KRs) and helps identify any risks that might prevent goals from being achieved by the end of the quarter.
Purpose: to maintain visibility of team progress on quarterly OKRs and ensure teams can take corrective action if there are risks of not meeting their goals.
Update progress and confidence level.
Each team updates the progress of their Key Results (KRs). This includes entering the latest data and adjusting the confidence level (the likelihood of achieving the KR).
If there are risks that a KR might not be achieved by the end of the quarter, the team should lower the confidence level for that KR. This helps highlight potential issues early and allows the team to take necessary actions.
Risk Identification and Mitigation.
The check-in process helps the team recognize any risks that could prevent them from reaching their quarterly objectives. This visibility allows the team to adjust their approach and decide on the necessary steps to mitigate risks.
Reporting Progress.
Updated OKR results will be presented at key meetings, such as System Review or Tech Insight sessions.
During these sessions, the progress of each goal will be color-coded according to the team's confidence level:
- green: high confidence in achieving the KR;
- yellow: risk of delay, but still possible to achieve the KR;
- red: off track or unlikely to achieve the KR.
The outcome of the bi-weekly OKR Check-In is that the team has a clear understanding of their progress, identifies risks early, and knows how to proceed to achieve their quarterly goals.
The OKR Equator serves as a mid-quarter review process to assess progress on the team's goals and key results. It helps teams reflect on their OKR progress and align goals as necessary, with a focus on ensuring transparency and adapting to any changes.
Purpose: understand mid-quarter progress to overcome roadblocks or adjust goals if needed.
When: in the middle of the quarter.
The OKR Equator process occurs asynchronously over one week, allowing teams to update their OKRs and address any challenges.
- update of OKR Table:
- teams should ensure that all values and confidence levels for each goal and key result are up-to-date in the OKR table;
- in Column G assign a color to each initiative based on the confidence level. Use the following color codes:
- green: on track for completion;
- yellow: risk of delay;
- red: off track or will not be completed.
- in Column H, add comments for each goal and key result, including any important information, current blockers, or risks. If an initiative cannot be completed, specify the reason.
- mid-quarter context update:
- at the midpoint of the quarter, a mid-quarter context update meeting is held with Tech and Product leaders. During this meeting, key focuses for the current period are presented, and teams should take these into account when updating their OKRs;
- this meeting helps ensure that teams are aligned with any new priorities or shifts in focus for the remainder of the quarter.
- adjusting OKRs:
- if any team needs to modify their OKRs, changes should be proposed through the Slack channel
#okr-equator. The proposal should follow the format:- O1KR2 was / proposed (where O1KR2 refers to Objective 1, Key Result 2, with the current and proposed version provided).
- changes must be approved using a "4-eyes approach":
- for technical topics: approval is required from the SVP of Engineering and confirmation from the Head of PMO;
- for product topics: approval is required from the Product Director or Head of Product, with confirmation from the Head of PMO.
- if any team needs to modify their OKRs, changes should be proposed through the Slack channel
At the end of each quarter, teams reflect on their performance, conduct retrospectives, and demonstrate their achievements to stakeholders.
At this stage, teams finalize the status of each key result and evaluate their overall progress toward the objectives.
- purpose: summarize the final outcomes for each OKR based on the completed key results;
- process: teams update the OKR table, recording the actual values for each key result. This provides a clear picture of progress toward the objectives, highlighting achievements, partial successes, and areas for improvement;
- output: a finalized OKR table with all key results and a clear indication of progress on each objective.
After summing up the results, teams hold a retrospective to reflect on the quarter's performance. The goal is to extract lessons and identify steps to improve processes within the team.
Purpose: identify successful practices, and pinpoint areas for improvement.
Why?: retrospective is an important stage of any process, it allows you not to repeat mistakes and improve. If you already hold a retrospective at the end of the quarter, then include the final OKR assessment in its agenda.
Steps:
- review the OKRs and discuss whether each objective was achieved;
- identify what helped or hindered the achievement of the goals;
- develop solutions to overcome challenges for the next quarter;
- agree on specific actions to improve team processes and ensure better results in the future.
Output: a list of actionable insights and improvements, documented for future implementation.
Teams then asynchronically present their finalized OKRs to stakeholders, gathering feedback and sharing insights from the retrospective.
Purpose: provide transparency, collect stakeholder feedback, and share key insights or lessons learned from the retrospective.
Steps:
- present the final OKR Results with actual achievements;
- share insights, challenges, and lessons learned during the quarter;
- collect feedback from stakeholders on the results and the process;
- adjust future planning based on feedback and insights gained from the demonstration.
Output: stakeholder feedback is gathered, and insights are incorporated into future team plans.