📖 Business
OKRs for Product Teams
OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are a goal-setting framework that, when used correctly, replace feature roadmaps as the primary alignment tool for product teams. **Objectives** are qualitative, inspirational, and time-bound — they describe the change you want to see in the world. **Key Results** are quantitative, measurable outcomes that tell you whether you achieved the objective. The critical distinction Cagan emphasizes: key results must be outcomes (business or customer results), never outputs (features shipped). "Launch the new onboarding flow" is an output. "Reduce time-to-first-value from 3 days to 30 minutes" is an outcome. The team decides HOW to hit the key result — that is the empowerment.
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How It Works
- Each team should have 1-3 objectives per quarter. More than that means you have no focus
- Each objective should have 2-4 key results. More than that means you are not being selective about what matters
- Key results should be ambitious but not impossible — Cagan and Google both target about 70% achievement as healthy (if you hit 100% every quarter, you are sandbagging)
- OKRs are negotiated between leadership and teams, not dictated top-down. Leadership provides the strategic context and high-level objectives. Teams propose specific key results they believe they can impact
- OKRs must be decoupled from performance reviews. If hitting OKRs determines bonuses, teams will sandbag every time. OKRs are a learning and alignment tool, not an evaluation tool
- Weekly check-ins on OKR progress keep teams honest. If a key result is not moving after 3-4 weeks, the team should pivot their approach — not wait until end-of-quarter to report failure
- The output vs outcome trap: "Ship feature X" dressed up as "Complete initiative X by Q2" is still an output. The test: could the team achieve the key result WITHOUT building what you had in mind? If yes, it is a real outcome