Input vs Output OKRs

I’ve written about OKRs before and I think they’re a great tool for individuals, teams, and companies to set clarify their important goals and focus on clear, specific metrics for success.

Typically, OKRs should be “output” oriented. They are results (hence the name “key results”). They could be closed sales, increased users, improved profitability, etc. This focus on clear results is one of the defining features of many OKRs — and it is generally a really good focus.

However, it can be helpful to have a different kind of OKR. Particularly for some early stage projects or companies there can be a lot of unknowns between the activities you will undertake and the ultimate outcomes you are targeting. An example for sales might be making XXX cold calls or scheduling YY meetings (versus closing ZZ deals). On the product side, an example might be launching a new features (as opposed to increasing engagement or conversions).

While this sort of “input” OKR adds a step between what you’re looking to achieve and what you’re measuring, it can be a critical way to give the team challenging targets to strive for but not allowing a huge number of unknowns to make lots of effort and valuable learnings feel like failure.

Originally published at https://jeffkeltner.com on August 27, 2020.