Aiming for bullseyes, not checklists: Why OKRs beat to-do lists for aligned success.

prompt: setting great goals together as a team

In nearly all efforts, whether products, or services, we must be intentional to achieve alignment of business goals, user needs, and feasibility. Many rush into defining more boxes to check. However, this is generally premature, as experts on a team have exemplars for what needs to be done, but it is better practice to align around a common direction, before defining tasks that need to be done.

This is why we take a outcomes over outputs approach to strategic goal setting. There is a major difference between Product thinking, and Project Managment. Product is about the exchange of value, whereas project management is about detailed box checking.

It's all about the Vision

A vision statement and a mission statement are fundamental components of an organization's strategic framework, but they serve different purposes.

Strong teams align around a common Vision, which paints a picture of "why we do this work in the first place." An ambitious account of the future we want to manifest.

Next, we ask ourselves, how will we achieve this vision? What are we going to treat as our main purpose, or mission, to achieve this vision?

Vision Statement

A vision statement outlines an organization's aspirational goals and provides a picture of what the organization seeks to achieve in the long term. It's future-oriented and serves as a source of inspiration and a guide for decision-making.

Vision statements should be broad, inspirational, and aspirational; reflecting the team's ultimate aim.

Our Vision:

"To create a better everyday life for more people."

This hypothetical vision statement for a home furnishings company reflects a broad and aspirational goal of improving daily life through their products.

Mission Statement

A mission statement describes the organization's purpose, including what it does, whom it serves, and how it does so. It focuses on the present and guides the company's current actions and strategies.

Mission statements are concrete, actionable, and focused on current activities. They define what the org will do to achieve the vision.

Our Mission:

"To design and sell well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them."

This hypothetical mission statement for the same home furnishings company clearly articulates its current operations: designing and selling affordable, functional home furnishings.

Vision, Strategy, Mission Tactics

While the vision statement is aspirational and future-focused, aiming to inspire and guide the organization towards a long-term goal, the mission statement is more practical and present-focused, explaining what the organization does and how it does it. Together, they provide a holistic view of an organization's purpose and direction

Introducing OKRs as Strategic Swimlanes

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), are a framework for setting and tracking goals and outcomes in organizations. This approach helps teams and individuals align their efforts with the organization's strategic direction.

Objectives - What are our goals

Objectives are qualitative, inspirational, and aspirational goals. They articulate what you want to achieve. In a nonprofit context, an objective might be related to expanding reach, improving services, or increasing awareness about a cause.

Key Results - How will we measure progress?

Key Results are quantitative and measurable outcomes that indicate progress towards the objective. They should be specific, time-bound, and challenging yet achievable.

For a nonprofit, key results could involve metrics like number of people served, amount of funds raised, or specific project milestones.

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OKR Examples

Let's say we are a non profit and we want to write strong OKRs.

Objective: To Enhance Community Outreach Programs

Key Result 1: Increase the number of community events held per quarter from 2 to 5.

Key Result 2: Grow attendance at each event by 40%.

Key Result 3: Achieve a 90% satisfaction rate in post-event surveys.

Objective: Boost Fundraising Efforts

Key Result 1: Raise $100,000 in the next six months.

Key Result 2: Increase the number of recurring donors by 30%.

Key Result 3: Organize and execute two major fundraising events.

Objective: Expand Volunteer Engagement

Key Result 1: Recruit 50 new volunteers by the end of the quarter.

Key Result 2: Implement a training program for all volunteers.

Key Result 3: Increase volunteer retention rate to 85%.

Objective: Improve Awareness of the Cause

Key Result 1: Increase social media followers by 50%.

Key Result 2: Secure media coverage in at least 5 major publications.

Key Result 3: Launch an awareness campaign reaching 100,000 people.

My Advice

Moving Goal Posts

Notice how there is generally a number associated with KRs. That number should be just out of reach. You should ensure that what you ratify would be satisfactory if you only achieve 70%. Something perhaps unsettling about OKRs, is that you really shouldn’t expect to hit 100% of every goal. You also don’t want to settle for bare minimum, so if you need 10 clients to stay afloat, don’t make your goal 10… make it 12, or more. You might surprise yourself, but at least if you get 70-80% you’ll be more likely to stay afloat.

The visual test

My next piece of advice is to do a visual check. Do your OKRs look like these examples from Measure What Matters?. Often, before I even read a set of OKRs, I check to see if they look right. Often they do not, and include verbose sentences, and too few (or entirely too many) measurable numbers. These are swim lanes, not a process for micro-management.

sample OKRs from measurewhatmatters.com

Use AI Agents and Chatbots

My third piece of advice is to use AI. Seriously. Language Model resources like Google Gemini, and ChatGPT are World class at formatting OKRs, and can even help break the ice to get the ball rolling.

ChatGPT is great at getting OKRs started or refining what you have.

Measure twice, cut once (repeat)

It is best practice to check in on our OKRs every 2-8 weeks, and make changes to our OKRs as we discover more information. These swimlanes provide the ultimate filtration of our work moving forward. If a task makes its way onto your backlog, it should drive towards one of the defined Key Results. If it doesn't, it should usually be deprioritized for later. There are no bad ideas, but there is what we need to do now and what we have to defer for later. So before we start defining "boxes to check" they must be ran through our OKR filter.

I asked Magick ML’s Mermaid Diagram Agent to “make a horizontal flowchart”

Tying it together

A vision is the top level strategic why for our work. A mission defines what we will do to achieve that vision and measure progress. Objectives define the top goals for delivering on our Mission. Key Results define how we will measure progress tactically toward these goals.

In summary, this hierarchy from vision to Key results ensures that every aspect of the organization's efforts is aligned and measurable, effectively bridging the gap from inspirational goals to actionable outcomes.

Vision: The 'why' of the organization, providing a long-term, aspirational goal that guides overall direction.

Mission: The 'tactical how' for the vision, outlining the practical activities and approaches to be undertaken presently.

Objectives: 'Strategic swimlanes', translating the mission into focused, strategic routes for achieving the vision.

Key Results (KRs): 'Tactical quantitative measurements', offering specific, measurable benchmarks to track progress towards objectives.

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Originally published on The Interop (Substack)