5 hacks to writing "Measure What Matters" OKRs

A few weeks ago, we were brought in to review the OKRs developed by an organization's internal team. They were disappointed that their OKRs were not delivering any of the benefits that John Doerr talked about in Measure What Matters. In fact, the organization was performing significantly worse than before they introduced OKRs.

It was something we had seen several times before. The organization followed the guidelines written in the book, but it was the stuff not in Doerr's book that caused problems.

They found that:

• OKRs read like a to-do list with no clarity on which items mattered most.
• The scoring system left them baffled about what performance actually made a difference.
• Accountability gaps led to bickering over who was responsible for process improvements and who needed to be consulted before changes were made.
• Inconsistent formats meant some OKRs read like marketing slogans and others like mathematical formulas, producing a confusing mix.
• Feedback arrived too slowly to be useful to teams or individuals.

Your teams do not need to be set up for failure. We have helped over 3,000 people build their OKRs and developed five hacks that consistently produce better results.

#1: [Verb] [Specific Noun] by [Target] in [Quarter]

Like square-dancing, if the moves are called out, everyone can do the right thing. The mechanics of OKRs are straightforward. Objectives are expressed as [Verb] [Specific Noun]. For example: [Grow] [New Product Sales], or "Grow new product sales." The specific noun keeps the team focused on exactly the right outcome. It prevents the team from accidentally chasing sales from existing customers or the same products as last year.

The target should line up with your strategic plan, operational budget, or whatever commitments you have made to stakeholders. That target then gets broken down across the coming quarters.

Technically, OKRs cover the next quarter, and at the end of each quarter you create a new set. In practice, leadership needs your best estimate of what will happen in each quarter heading toward the annual goal. Should the big leap come in Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4?

When each quarter arrives, adjust targets using what you learned in the current quarter combined with new knowledge about the market, competitors, exchange rates, and anything else that shifted. Think of it like the headlights on your car: clear visibility right in front of you (current quarter), fuzzy further out (next quarter), and a best guess beyond that (three and four quarters out). As each quarter passes, your headlights shine a little further down the road.

Every business is different. Some clients update OKRs every two weeks because their environment changes faster than a four-week horizon allows. Do not let anyone pressure you into committing to OKRs beyond what your headlights reveal.

#2: RACI

RACI is from the 1960s, but everything old is new again. RACI is a role-clarity model that defines four roles in any process: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed.

For every OKR:

• Responsible is the person doing the work.
• Accountable is the person ensuring the process improves and delivers what is required.
• Consulted is anyone who must be involved before a process change is made.
• Informed is anyone who must be told after a change is made.

Overlaps cause conflict: two people both believe they own a process and fight to change it their way. Underlaps are worse: both people assume the other owns it, so nothing gets done.

RACI resolves this before problems arise. When something goes wrong, everyone already knows who acts and how. If your OKRs are only tracked at the team level, someone on that team still needs to hold the "A." Depending on your culture, you can skip "C" and "I" or expand the model, for example adding "S" in RASCI to capture support from other teams. Find the version that fits your organization.

#3: Keeping strategic score

This hack is easy to explain and harder to implement. Imagine assigning "strategy points" to everything your team does. The more an activity enables strategic goals, the more points it earns. Imagine seeing those points accumulate every week or month, then figuring out how to earn more for the same effort.

Strategy points work at every level: individual, team, department, and corporate. We call it the gamification of business.

Once this system is in place, you no longer need an annual performance review. Every week, individuals can see what results they get from the tasks they choose. When strategy changes, they can immediately see what to shift to maximize points under the new priorities.

Here is how the math works. Multiply the impact of your OKR by the priority weight of the strategic objective it supports. Then multiply that by your actual performance level.

For example: a Strategic Objective is weighted at 15%. A process has a 9/10 impact on that objective and is performing at 6/10 (where 10 equals the Key Result target). Strategy points earned: 15% × 9 × 6 = 8 points.

It looks something like this on your OKR dashboard:

That score tells you, at a glance, whether you are spending time on things that move the strategy forward. No digging, no spreadsheet, no asking someone to pull the numbers.

#4: Setting priorities and changing them

Not all OKRs carry equal weight. Michael Porter puts it well: strategy is more about what you stop doing than what you start doing. Leaders need to give everyone clear direction on what to start, what to stop, and in what order. OKRs are the ideal vehicle for that.

Start at the top: what are leadership's priorities for the highest-level Strategic Objectives? Is it more important to grow revenue from existing customers or from new ones?

From there, cascade those priorities across the organization. To exceed sales targets by growing new customer revenue, Marketing might prioritize identifying new segments, Sales might prioritize onboarding speed, and Product might prioritize features that appeal to those new segments. Each team has a different role in the same objective.

This cascade keeps everyone aligned on the right work. And when priorities shift, the OKR system makes the new direction visible immediately. Everyone can see how their team's and individual priorities change without waiting for a cascade of meetings.

Here is what we have also learned: no matter how carefully leadership sets priorities, they will be at least partially wrong. Markets shift, execution surprises you, and unforeseeable events happen. Successful organizations change direction faster than their competition. An OKR system linked to strategic priorities gives you that speed.

#5: Coach, mentor, protect, and train

No matter how long your OKR team spends in a room, they will not emerge with a perfect set of OKRs. That is not a failure of effort. Learning to ride a bike requires actually getting on the bike.

Plan for three quarters (nine months) to build the culture and engagement that makes an OKR system self-sustaining. During that time, and beyond it, leadership's job is to nurture the process actively.

That means:

• Coaching the team on how to use OKRs to answer performance questions, solve problems, and allocate resources.
• Modelling the behaviour: show by example how OKRs make everyone's work clearer and better aligned.
• Protecting the process from people who would undermine it or redirect it for their own purposes.
• Training continuously on best management practices, not just at launch.

This investment compounds. Like any sustained effort in building something that lasts, the returns multiply the more consistently you put the work in.

Other hacks?

The five hacks above will give you better OKRs. That said, there is a much larger set of OKR techniques we draw on depending on each organization's situation. Think of it like golf: the right combination of tools, swing, and course management determines the best approach. That is what a great caddie does.