How to write good OKRs (with 30 examples)
Step-by-step framework for writing OKRs that actually drive outcomes, plus 30 examples across engineering, product, sales, and people teams.
By Ammar Tosun
The 4-step writing process
- Start from the strategy. What is the one thing this team must do this quarter for the company to win?
- Phrase the Objective as a verb-led aspiration. "Make X the strongest…", "Become the default…", "Reduce Y to under…"
- List the 3–5 metrics that, if all true, would mean the Objective is met. Each needs a baseline, target, and a time bound.
- Pressure-test for output-vs-outcome. If the KR can be "done" without changing the world, it's a task, not a KR.
Examples — Engineering
- Objective: Make our platform boringly reliable. KR: Sev1 incidents/quarter from 4 to 0. KR: MTTR from 47 min to under 15 min.
- Objective: Eliminate slow-test pain. KR: CI run from 28 min to under 10 min. KR: Flake rate from 6 % to under 1 %.
- Objective: Make our largest service horizontally scalable. KR: Sustain 5× peak traffic in load test. KR: Database connection budget from 300 to under 100.
Examples — Product
- Objective: Make onboarding the strongest moment in our product. KR: 7-day activation from 38 % to 55 %. KR: Time-to-first-value under 5 min.
- Objective: Earn the right to charge enterprise prices. KR: 3 reference customers > 200 seats. KR: SOC 2 Type II in flight.
Examples — Sales / GTM
- Objective: Build a predictable mid-market pipeline. KR: $1.2M qualified pipeline in EMEA. KR: Discovery → POC from 28 % to 40 %.
Use AI to bootstrap (then edit)
PieDash includes an AI drafter — paste your team's strategy doc, get 3 candidate Objectives back with measurable KRs. Editing a draft is much faster than starting from a blank page.
Frequently asked
Can KRs be binary (done/not done)?
Avoid it. Binary KRs hide whether you over- or under-invested. Use a measurable proxy — % complete, count, latency, conversion.
What's the difference between an Objective and a project?
Projects are how. Objectives are why. The Objective stays stable even if the project changes mid-quarter.
Try PieDash
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