OKRs & KPIs — Diogo Serino

The Problem

Most teams measure activity, not progress

Reporting 47 tasks completed feels productive. But if none of those tasks moved revenue, retention, or customer satisfaction, the team was busy, not effective. OKRs and KPIs exist to close that gap.

Activity metrics (the trap)

Sent 200 emails this week
Closed 34 support tickets
Shipped 12 features
Had 8 stakeholder meetings
Wrote 40 pages of documentation

High output. No signal on whether anything got better.

Outcome metrics (the goal)

Trial-to-paid conversion increased from 8% to 14%
P1 support resolution time dropped by 40%
Feature adoption: 62% of active users in 30 days
NPS improved from 22 to 38
Churn reduced from 5.2% to 3.8% MoM

Lower output count. Clear signal that things improved.

The Framework

Defining OKRs

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is a goal-setting framework created at Intel by Andy Grove and made famous by Google. It separates where you want to go (Objective) from how you know you got there (Key Results). The formula is simple, the discipline is hard.

The OKR formula: "We will [Objective], as measured by [Key Result 1], [Key Result 2], and [Key Result 3]."

Objective (O)

The qualitative direction. An Objective is a short, memorable statement of where the team is headed. It should be ambitious, inspirational, and time-bound, not a task or a metric. "Become the go-to platform for freelance invoicing in Portugal" is an Objective. "Increase revenue" is not.

Key Results (KRs)

The quantitative proof. Key Results are 2–5 measurable outcomes that prove the Objective was achieved. Each KR has a starting value, a target value, and a deadline. If you can't score it on a scale of 0–1, it's not a Key Result. It's a task. "Launch mobile app" is a task. "App store rating above 4.5 with 500+ reviews by Q3" is a Key Result.

Initiatives

The work underneath. Initiatives are the projects, tasks, and experiments the team runs to move the Key Results. They live below the OKR layer, not inside it. This keeps OKRs focused on outcomes, not deliverables. A team can change all its initiatives mid-quarter without changing a single OKR.

Objectives

The marks of a strong Objective

Objectives set the direction and the ambition. A weak Objective leads to weak Key Results and misaligned effort. A strong Objective makes people want to get out of bed on Monday.

Ambitious but achievable

A good Objective should feel slightly uncomfortable, like a stretch. If the team is 100% confident they'll hit it, it's not ambitious enough. Google targets 70% achievement; 100% means the bar was set too low.

Qualitative & memorable

Objectives should be written in plain language that anyone in the company can repeat. "Delight our enterprise customers" beats "Improve customer satisfaction scores across segments." One is a rallying cry; the other is a report title.

Time-bound

OKRs live in a cycle, usually quarterly with annual anchors. Without a deadline, an Objective is just a wish. "This quarter" or "by end of Q3" forces prioritisation and creates a natural review moment.

Key Results

Anatomy of a strong Key Result

Key Results are the hardest part to get right. Most teams write tasks disguised as outcomes. A good Key Result has four properties: it's measurable, outcome-based, has a baseline, and a clear target.

01

It measures an outcome, not an output

"Ship the onboarding redesign" is an output, a task. "New user activation rate increases from 34% to 55%" is an outcome. The KR doesn't care how you get there; it only cares that the needle moved.

02

It has a baseline and a target

"Improve retention" is unmeasurable. "Increase 30-day retention from 41% to 58%" is concrete. You need a starting number to know how far you've come, and a target to know when you've arrived. No baseline = no accountability.

03

It can be scored 0–1

At the end of the cycle, each KR gets a score: 0.0 (no progress) to 1.0 (fully achieved). This makes progress visible and prevents binary pass/fail thinking. A score of 0.7 on an ambitious KR is often better than a 1.0 on a safe one.

04

It doesn't prescribe how

A Key Result tells the team what to achieve, not how to achieve it. This gives teams autonomy to run experiments, pivot initiatives, and innovate, as long as the outcome target stays in view. Prescribing the how belongs in the initiative layer.

05

2–5 KRs per Objective

More than 5 KRs per Objective creates cognitive overload and splits focus. If an Objective has 8 KRs, it's probably two Objectives in a trenchcoat. Each KR should represent a distinct dimension of success, not a variation of the same thing.

Examples

Good vs. bad OKRs in practice

The difference between a useful OKR and a decorative one often comes down to specificity and honesty. Here's the same intent written two ways.

Weak OKR

Objective: Improve the product

KR1: Launch 3 new features
KR2: Fix bugs faster
KR3: Improve user satisfaction
KR4: Grow the user base

Every KR is either a task, vague, or unmeasurable. You can't score any of them honestly at quarter-end.

Strong OKR

Objective: Make the product indispensable for new users in Q3

KR1: Day-7 retention increases from 29% to 45%
KR2: Median time-to-first-value drops from 18 min to 6 min
KR3: NPS from users <30 days old increases from 14 to 35

Every KR has a baseline, a target, and measures an outcome the Objective actually cares about.

Cadence

How OKR cycles work

OKRs are not a once-a-year exercise. They run in nested cycles: annual for direction, quarterly for execution, weekly for check-ins. Each layer serves a different purpose.

01

Annual OKRs: setting the horizon

Company-level OKRs set the strategic direction for the year. These are typically 3–5 Objectives that describe what the organisation needs to achieve to fulfil its mission. They cascade down: each team's quarterly OKRs should contribute to at least one annual company OKR.

02

Quarterly OKRs: the execution unit

The quarter is the primary working unit for OKRs. Teams set 1–3 Objectives with 2–5 KRs each at the start of Q, review progress mid-quarter, and score and retrospect at the end. Quarterly cycles are short enough to stay relevant and long enough to show real movement.

03

Weekly check-ins: staying honest

Every week, teams do a brief OKR check-in: What's the current score? What changed? What's blocked? This isn't a status report. It's an early warning system. Falling behind by Week 4 is recoverable. Discovering it in Week 12 is not.

04

Scoring & retrospective: closing the loop

At quarter-end, each KR is scored 0.0–1.0. The team discusses what drove the score, what they'd do differently, and which Objectives are worth continuing vs. retiring. Crucially: OKR scores should never be tied to performance bonuses. That destroys ambition and honesty.

KPIs

Defining KPIs

Key Performance Indicators are the metrics an organisation uses to evaluate ongoing performance. Unlike OKRs (which are temporary and goal-oriented), KPIs are persistent health monitors. They don't expire at the end of the quarter.

What they measure

Ongoing operational health. KPIs measure the steady-state performance of a business function. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Churn Rate, Net Promoter Score, and Time-to-Hire are KPIs: they're always relevant, tracked continuously, and compared against baselines and benchmarks.

Leading vs. lagging

Two types, both necessary. Lagging indicators measure outcomes after the fact: revenue, churn, NPS. They're accurate but arrive too late to act on. Leading indicators predict future outcomes: trial signups, feature adoption rate, support ticket volume. Good KPI systems include both: lagging to know what happened, leading to know what's coming.

Good KPI design

Fewer, better, owned. A KPI is only useful if someone owns it, it can be influenced by team actions, and it's reviewed regularly. A dashboard with 80 KPIs is a dashboard with 0 KPIs: nobody knows what matters. The best teams pick 5–8 KPIs per function and make them visible to everyone on the team every day.

OKRs vs KPIs

They're not the same, and you need both

The most common mistake is treating OKRs and KPIs as substitutes. They're not. They answer different questions and operate at different time horizons. The best organisations use them together.

OKRs

Temporary: live for one cycle (usually a quarter)
Goal-oriented: define where you want to go
Ambitious by design: 70% achievement is often good
Change quarter to quarter based on strategy
Drive focus and alignment on priorities
Should NOT be tied to compensation

KPIs

Persistent: tracked continuously, indefinitely
Health monitors: define whether the business is working
Stable baselines: below-target KPIs signal a problem
Change only when the business model changes
Drive accountability on ongoing performance
Often used in performance reviews and bonuses

The relationship: A KPI falling below threshold can generate an OKR. If churn is rising (KPI signal), a team might set an OKR to understand and fix the root cause. OKRs create temporary focus; KPIs maintain permanent vigilance.

Pitfalls

Common OKR & KPI mistakes

Most OKR implementations fail in the first year, not because the framework is wrong, but because teams repeat the same avoidable mistakes.

Watch out for these

Writing tasks as Key Results: "Launch feature X" is a task. If you can tick it off in a week with no evidence of user impact, it's not a KR. Every Key Result must measure a change in the world, not a change in your to-do list.

Too many OKRs: Three Objectives with four KRs each is already 12 things to move. Teams with 10+ OKRs move none of them. OKRs force prioritisation. If everything is a priority, nothing is.

Set-and-forget: OKRs written in January and reviewed in December are a bureaucratic exercise. Without weekly check-ins and mid-quarter adjustments, the framework adds overhead without adding value.

Tying OKRs to bonuses: When OKR scores affect pay, teams stop being ambitious. They set safe targets they know they'll hit. This is the fastest way to kill the whole point of the framework. Keep OKRs separate from performance reviews.

Vanity KPIs: Total registered users, social media followers, and page views feel impressive and are easy to game. If a KPI goes up while revenue goes down, it's a vanity metric. Every KPI should have a clear causal link to business outcomes.

Top-down cascade without buy-in: OKRs set entirely by leadership and handed down kill engagement. The best implementations combine top-down strategic direction (annual company OKRs) with bottom-up team OKRs: teams define their own within the company context, then align upward.

Takeaway

What to remember

OKRs and KPIs are not bureaucracy. They're the difference between a team that's busy and a team that's effective. Get these right and everything else becomes easier to prioritise.

OKRs = direction & focus

Use OKRs to set quarterly priorities, align the team on what matters most, and create a forcing function for real outcome thinking. Keep them ambitious, keep them few.

KPIs = ongoing health

Use KPIs to track the vital signs of your product or business, continuously, not just quarterly. A healthy KPI baseline means your OKRs can safely push into new territory.

Outcomes over outputs

The hardest cultural shift is moving from shipping things to improving things. OKRs make this concrete: if you can't show a measurable change in user or business outcomes, it doesn't count as progress.

OKRs &KPIs