Unlock the power of OKRs with StratNavApp.com

What are OKRs?

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) help organisations set and track goals. An OKR includes:

• Objective: A clearly defined goal that is ambitious and inspiring.
• Key Results: Specific, measurable actions that indicate progress towards the objective.

Example:

• Objective: Enhance Customer Satisfaction.
  • Key Result 1: Increase Net Promoter Score (NPS) from 40 to 60.
  • Key Result 2: Reduce customer service response time from 24 hours to 6 hours.
  • Key Result 3: Increase customer retention rate by 15% to 90%.

OKRs in StratNavApp.com

• Goals: broad, long-term aims (e.g., Improve Customer Satisfaction).
• Objectives: specific, shorter-term and SMART expressions of goals (e.g., Achieve a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70 by December 2024).
• KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): Metrics that track progress (e.g. NPS score).
• Targets: Specific KPIs outcomes with deadlines (e.g., NPS of 70 by 31 December 2024).

This granularity gives more flexibility. The effect, however, is the same.

You can easily map the concepts from StratML to OKRs:

StratNavApp.com supports many-to-many relationships

• between Goals and Objectives,
• between Objectives and KPIs, and
• between KPIS and Targets.

Once a target is achieved, you can set a new one for the same KPI.

In addition, you could measure customer satisfaction using more than one Objective and KPI.

OKRs and Strategy

OKRs should be aligned with your overall strategy. Without a clear strategy, OKRs can become scattered or even counterproductive. StratNavApp.com ensures all OKRs link to strategy, keeping everything aligned.

KPIs and Strategy

KPIs track important business metrics, including strategic objectives. They help measure progress and performance, just like OKRs. In StratNavApp.com, KPIs and OKRs work together as part of your strategy.

Why use OKRs and KPIs in your strategy?

1. Clarity and Alignment

   • Helps teams define goals and how to measure them.

   • Encourages discussion on how realistic targets are and what actions are needed.

2. Transparency

   • Public visibility ensures accountability.

3. Feedback

   • Provides clear data on whether efforts are working.

   • Highlights when changes are needed.

The Origins of OKRs and KPIs

The OKR methodology was popularised by Andy Grove at Intel in the 1970s. Grove was a co-founder of Intel. He adapted OKRs from Peter Drucker's Management by Objectives (MBO) system. John Doerr worked under Grove at Intel. He introduced OKRs to Google in 1999. Numerous successful companies like LinkedIn, Spotify, and Twitter have adopted OKRs to drive performance and growth since then.

KPIs can be traced back to the early 20th century with the advent of scientific management. Frederick Winslow Taylor is known as the father of scientific management. He introduced time and motion studies in the 1910s. These studies aimed to improve industrial efficiency by measuring worker productivity and identifying the most efficient ways to perform tasks.

The modern concept of KPIs gained momentum with the introduction of the Balanced Scorecard in the early 1990s. This was developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton. It is a strategic management tool that uses KPIs to measure performance across four perspectives:

1. Financial
2. Customer
3. Internal Processes
4. Learning and Growth

This holistic approach enabled organisations to align their business activities with their vision and strategy, using KPIs to track progress and performance across different areas.

The advent of digital platforms

Platforms like StratNavApp.com make it easier than ever to collect, consolidate and analyse OKRs and KPIs.

While many platforms focus on part of the process, one of StratNavApp.com's key strengths is that it provides end-to-end and integrated support from strategic analysis and diagnosis, through direction setting, planning and then tracking results - the ADPR cycle.

Crucially, it ensures that the results from your OKRs and KPIs - whether you achieve your targets or not - get fed back into the analysis process. This ensures your strategy and execution are continually adapting to the real world.

The Power of a Strategy Scorecard

StratNavApp.com combines strategic goals, objectives and KPIs (and OKRs) into a single strategy scorecard.

This keeps businesses informed and aligned.

So, if you've not yet built one, sign in to StratNavApp.com and build yours now.

Tips for Using OKRs

1. Start with Strategy: Ensure OKRs align with overall goals.

2. Make Key Results Measurable & Update Regularly: Track progress weekly or monthly.

3. Automate Data Collection: Use tools to reduce errors and save time. See Using Zapier to add KPI measurements to your Strategy Scorecard.

4. Use a Clear Dashboard: Keep OKRs, goals, objectives, KPIs, and targets visible to everyone. See Creating a Strategy Scorecard on StratNavApp.com

5. Focus on Outcomes, Not Tasks: Measure success, not just activity.

6. Limit the Number of OKRs: Stick to 3-5 key objectives per team.

7. Ensure Transparency: Make OKRs visible to all employees. StratNavApp.com's scorecard is a perfect tool for this.

8. Review & Adapt Regularly: Hold quarterly reviews to adjust as needed.

9. Encourage Ambition & Learning: Set stretch goals while keeping them realistic.

10. Integrate OKRs Into Daily Work: Make OKRs and your strategy scorecard part of meetings and decision-making.

See also

• Maximising Strategic Impact with Key Performance Indicators: A Guide
• How KPIs Bring Your Strategy to Life
• Goals, objectives, KPIs, targets, initiatives and actions