How do you set good Key Results?

Key results are a crucial part of the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) goal-setting method, as they help measure progress towards achieving your objectives. When setting key results, it’s important to make sure that they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Here are a few tips for setting good key results:

  • Make sure they are specific
    Key results should be clear and specific, so that it is easy to understand what needs to be done and how progress will be measured
  • Make sure they are measurable
    Key results should be quantifiable, so that you can easily track progress and determine whether or not you have achieved them
  • Make sure they are achievable
    Key results should be challenging, but achievable. It’s important to make sure that they are realistic and that you have the resources and capability to achieve them. This is where OKR grading comes into play.
  • Make sure they are relevant
    Key results should be relevant to your overall objectives and should help you move closer to achieving them.
  • Make sure they are time-bound
    Key results should have a specific timeline for completion, so that you can track progress and stay on track. OKRs are usually set to align with annual and quarterly planning cycles. You can however continue OKRs across planning cycles.

 

Overall, it’s important to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound when setting key results. This will help ensure that you are making progress towards your objectives and that you have a clear plan for achieving them.

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Matt Roberts - ZOKRI

Matt Roberts

Project Principle

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Ian Harvey

Ian Harvey

Project Principle

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Matt Roberts

Project Principle

Matt is the founder of ZOKRI and author of the book Force Multipliers. His career started in media planning, advertising and digital marketing. He founded his first VC backed technology company in 2009, exiting in 2016.

Having held positions like Chief Strategy Office, and Chief Product Officer, in addition to various sales and marketing roles, Matt has a rare combination of perspectives and skills. He can seamlessly transitions between leadership conversations to being in the trenches with sales, marketing, customer service, data and HR teams.

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Customer comment on Matt’s energy and passion, not just his know-how. In workshops this is an important and welcomed attribute, passion is infectious.

A guiding principle Matt lives by is ‘rapid value delivery’, and together with the team, many of the frameworks and tools used are geared towards this goal. Part of the rapid value delivery philosophy is to leverage what you know already as much as possible.

To enable this, Matt and the team will want to absorb and build on what you know and make positive changes, blending short-term opportunity with longer-term strategic advantage.

Ian Harvey

Project Principle

Ian is a Strategy and OKR thought leader with over 30 years of experience, helping organizations ranging from world leaders to ambitious startups and scale-ups.

His unique professional journey spans roles as a strategist, software engineering leader, product manager and a co-founder. This multidisciplinary background equips him with a comprehensive perspective, making him a valuable consultant capable of quickly identifying capabilities that hold an organization back.

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In the last four years, Ian has focused on collaborating with C-suite executives of startups and scale-ups, aiding them in articulating their strategic vision and bringing it to life through effective OKR frameworks. His work has led to enhanced strategic clarity and execution for these organizations.

Ian champions the philosophy that continuous learning is the cornerstone of continuous improvement. By leveraging his expertise in product management, he assists organizations in engaging more deeply with their customers, powering strategic and tactical insights.

This approach not only aligns with his belief in the transformative power of learning but also ensures organizations are primed for sustained success.