OKR terms, in plain English.

The words that get thrown around OKRs, defined clearly and honestly. No jargon, no scoreboard thinking. All 47 terms, grouped and cross-linked to full reference pages. Bookmark it, or share it with the team.

OKR

Objectives and Key Results: a method for choosing what matters and knowing whether you are making progress. The Objective is the goal; the Key Results prove it. A reasoning system, not a scoreboard. Read more →

Objective

A clear, qualitative statement of what you want to achieve this cycle. Memorable, meaningful and worth chasing, and specific enough to guide without deciding the solution. Read more →

Key Result

A measurable outcome that proves an Objective has been met, written from X to Y. Describe results, not tasks. Usually two to four per Objective. Read more →

OKRs as bets

Reading each OKR as a deliberate commitment of scarce resources to a goal you believe will matter, made knowing you might be wrong, so it can be tested and learned from. Read more →

Initiatives, process commitments & experiments

The work you do to move a Key Result, kept separate from the outcome itself. Initiatives are the how; Key Results are the what. In the full system →

Committed vs aspirational OKR

Committed OKRs are expected to be fully achieved; aspirational (stretch) OKRs are ambitious, where strong partial progress counts as success, provided the stretch is labelled. Read more →

KPI

A Key Performance Indicator: a metric you monitor continuously to keep the business healthy. KPIs run always-on; OKRs are the focused changes you choose to make. Read more →

Metric

A named, calculated value combining measurements, often a ratio or rate, such as activation rate or monthly recurring revenue. Read more →

Measurement

A timestamped record of a single event, the raw data that metrics are calculated from. Read more →

KPI vs OKR

KPIs measure ongoing health; OKRs target a specific change. A metric that breaks, or that you want to push to a new level, graduates into an OKR and later returns to the scorecard. Read more →

Metric tree

A map of measures arranged by cause and effect, from a north-star outcome down to the inputs a team can move, making leverage and assumptions visible. In the full system →

Input vs output metric

An output measures the result you want (often slow); an input measures something you can move now that you believe drives it. Good Key Results usually target inputs. Read more →

Leading & lagging indicators

A leading indicator moves before the outcome and gives early feedback; a lagging indicator confirms the result after the fact. Choose numbers by the story they test. Read more →

Baseline Key Result

A Key Result used when you cannot yet set a credible target: you measure to establish the number this cycle, then set a real from-X-to-Y target next cycle. Read more →

Aspirational (stretch) target

A deliberately ambitious target, labelled as such so an honest miss is not mistaken for a broken commitment, letting teams reach without fear. Read more →

KPI scorecard

The home of business-as-usual: the critical few metrics with owners and thresholds, watched continuously so OKRs can stay focused on change. In the full system →

Outcome thinking

Focusing on the meaningful change you want to create, not the actions you plan to take. Work backwards from value to behaviour to action. Read more →

Activity trap

Mistaking motion for progress: a team busy shipping work while the outcome that matters does not move. In the full system →

Task-based Key Result

The most common OKR mistake: an activity ("launch the feature") dressed as an outcome. It can be completed while the result you wanted never moves. Read more →

Wildly important focus

Limiting OKRs to the few things that matter most. Attention is finite; one or two goals per team, worked in serial, beat a long list. Read more →

Sandbagging

Quietly setting targets you expect to beat, usually because goals are wired to consequences. Consequence design and labelled stretch are the cure. Read more →

Grade, don’t score

Judging a quarter on evidence and reasoning rather than a raw percentage, so 50% progress can be excellent and 100% can be a sandbag exposed. In the full system →

Operating cadence

The heartbeat that keeps OKRs moving: weekly check-ins and signals, plus quarterly planning and review. The heartbeat is fixed; goal duration is not, a goal takes as long as the outcome takes. Read more →

Value Sequencing

Quarterly planning with the ability to accelerate or slow down: goals ordered by value and pulled at the speed they close, finishing early, stopping deliberately with the reasons kept, or running longer when the outcome needs it, while the quarterly rhythm stays fixed. Read more →

Finish, then flow

When a goal reaches its outcome, the team banks the learning and pulls the next most valuable goal immediately, with no waiting for a ceremony. No idle time between goals. Read more →

Goals at the speed of the work

Goal duration is set by the outcome, not the reporting period: a goal can close in five weeks or run five months while the quarterly heartbeat stays fixed. Read more →

Check-in

A short, structured update where teams report progress and confidence against Key Results, centred on the plan and beliefs, not just the percentage. Read more →

Confidence score

A quick judgement of how likely a Key Result is to land, used to prompt conversation and surface risk early, never to grade people. Read more →

Retrospective

The end-of-cycle review that grades the quarter on evidence and asks what the team now believes, turning a cycle into learning. In the full system →

Dual-track discovery

Running a continuous discovery track alongside delivery, so learning work happens outside OKRs rather than being graded as a goal. In the full system →

Issues & obstacles log

The named, owned, dated list of what stands between a team and its Objective, seeded at creation, kept alive in check-ins, drained by escalation. In the full system →

Aligned, not cascaded

Connecting OKRs through strategy comprehension and clear narratives rather than level-by-level approval, so teams set their own goals without waiting on sign-off. Read more →

Strategy alignment

Everyone being able to read, understand and recall the strategy, which is what makes autonomous, aligned decisions possible. Read more →

Cascade: choices vs goals

Strategic choices cascade logically; goals must not cascade bureaucratically. The distinction that resolves the cascading debate. Read more →

Empowered OKR team

A cross-functional, single-threaded team resourced to match the importance of the goal, with autonomy, de-risked collaboration and invested leadership. Read more →

Single-threaded team

A team with one clear owner and genuine focus on a single important goal, rather than many people borrowing time from other jobs. Read more →

Push & pull management

Managers proactively pushing their skills into OKR work and being pulled into business-as-usual only where needed, the reverse of the usual default. Read more →

Psychological safety

The shared belief that you can admit a miss or challenge a view without punishment, the foundation that keeps confidence scores and stretch honest. Read more →

OKR champion

A trained internal expert who guides their team on OKRs and keeps quality high after external help has left. Read more →

Executive sponsor

The senior leader who backs an OKR with attention and air cover. Whether they show up is the real signal of whether the goal matters. In the full system →

Business-as-usual

The ongoing work that keeps the business healthy, managed with a scorecard, not OKRs. Confusing the two causes most failed rollouts. Read more →

Strategy Choice Cascade

Roger Martin’s five linked choices, from winning aspiration to management systems, that make up a real strategy. OKRs are its execution layer. Read more →

Where to play

The choice of field: which customers, segments and channels you compete in, and, just as loudly, which you do not. Read more →

How to win

The theory of advantage: why the chosen customer chooses you over every alternative on your chosen field. Read more →

The crux

Rumelt’s pivotal, solvable challenge where focused effort will actually cash out, the point a good strategy concentrates on. Read more →

The Opposite Test

A fast filter for a real choice: would a sane rival choose the reverse? If not, it is an operating imperative, not a strategy. Read more →

Strategic pillar

One of the three to five named battlegrounds a company has chosen to win, the headline layer that OKRs turn into quarterly progress. Read more →

Proximate objective

A goal close enough to be achievable now, the bridge from a multi-year pillar to a single quarter’s OKR. Read more →

Compound advantage

A system where today’s success makes tomorrow’s easier and more defensible. The moat that grows while rivals copy it. Read more →

Must-have capabilities

The specific things a company must be distinctively good at for its way of winning to hold, built deliberately, not generic excellence. Read more →

Ready to put the words to work?

Start with a look at your goals. A couple of weeks, small fixed fee, honest answers.