OKR Management

This comprehensive guide covers creating, managing, and optimizing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in Leemu OKR.Understanding OKR Levels

Leemu OKR supports three hierarchical levels of objectives:

1. Company OKRs

Purpose: Define organization-wide strategic priorities

Who Can Create: Company Admins

Characteristics:

• Align with strategic goals and company vision
• Typically set quarterly or annually
• Visible to entire organization
• Should be limited (3-5 per quarter recommended)
• High-level and aspirational

Example:

Objective: Become the market leader in customer satisfaction
Key Results:
- Increase NPS score from 45 to 75 - Reduce churn rate to below 5% - Achieve 90% customer satisfaction rating 2. Team OKRs

Purpose: Define how teams contribute to company objectives

Who Can Create: Team Admins and Company Admins

Characteristics:

• Aligned with company OKRs
• Specific to team capabilities and responsibilities
• Team members can view and contribute
• Should support at least one company objective
• More tactical than company OKRs

Example:

Objective: Deliver exceptional customer support experience Key Results: - Reduce average response time to under 2 hours - Maintain 95% first-contact resolution rate - Train 100% of support team on new product features 3. Personal (Me) OKRs

Purpose: Define individual contributions and growth

Who Can Create: All users (Members, Team Admins, Company Admins)

Characteristics:

• Aligned with team or company OKRs
• Personal development and contribution goals
• Individual accountability
• More specific and actionable
• Can include skill development

Example:

Objective: Master customer success best practices Key Results: - Complete 3 customer success certifications - Maintain customer satisfaction score above 4.5/5 - Handle 50+ support tickets per week with 95% resolution rate Creating an ObjectiveStep-by-Step: Creating Company OKRs

1. Navigate to "Company OKRs" in the main menu

2. Click "Create Objective" or the "+" button

3. Fill in the objective form:

   Objective Details:

   • Title (required): Clear, inspiring, qualitative goal

     • Keep it concise (aim for 5-10 words)
     • Make it memorable and motivating
     • Avoid jargon or technical terms

   • Description (optional): Detailed context and rationale

     • Explain why this objective matters
     • Describe expected impact
     • Include relevant background

   • Owner (required): Person accountable for this objective

     • Typically a senior leader for company OKRs
     • Choose someone with authority to drive results

   • Status (required): Current state

     • Draft: Not yet started or under review
     • Active: Currently being worked on
     • Completed: Successfully achieved
     • On Hold: Temporarily paused
     • Cancelled: No longer being pursued

   • Start Date (required): When work begins

   • End Date (optional but recommended): Target completion date

   • Weight (default: 1.0): Relative importance

     • Use to prioritize multiple objectives
     • Higher weight = higher priority
     • Scale: 0.5 (low) to 2.0 (critical)

   • Check-in Interval (default: 7 days): How often to update progress

     • Weekly (7 days) - recommended for most OKRs
     • Bi-weekly (14 days) - for longer-term objectives
     • Monthly (30 days) - for strategic initiatives

   • Strategic Goal (optional): Link to overarching strategic goal

     • Select from existing strategic goals
     • Shows how this objective supports strategy

   • Parent Objective (optional): For alignment

     • Leave blank for top-level company OKRs
     • Used for cascading objectives

4. Click "Add Key Result" to add measurable outcomes (see next section)

5. Add at least 2-3 key results (maximum 5 recommended)

6. Review all information for accuracy

7. Click "Create Objective" or "Save as Draft"

Step-by-Step: Creating Team OKRs

1. Navigate to "Team OKRs" in the main menu

2. Click "Create Objective"

3. Fill in the objective form (same fields as company OKRs)

   Additional Team-Specific Fields:

   • Team (required): Select which team this objective belongs to

     • Only teams you manage appear in the dropdown

   • Parent Objective (recommended): Align with a company objective

     • Shows dropdown of company OKRs
     • Creates visual alignment in reports

4. Add key results specific to team capabilities

5. Click "Create Objective"

Alignment Best Practice: Always link team OKRs to company OKRs to show how your team contributes to organizational goals.

Step-by-Step: Creating Personal OKRs

1. Navigate to "My OKRs" in the main menu

2. Click "Create Objective"

3. Fill in the objective form

   Personal OKR Considerations:

   • Owner: Automatically set to you
   • Parent Objective (recommended): Link to your team's or company's OKR
     • Choose from objectives you have visibility into
     • Shows how your work contributes to larger goals

4. Add key results for personal goals

5. Click "Create Objective"

Tips for Personal OKRs:

• Mix professional skills with deliverables
• Include at least one learning/growth goal
• Ensure they're achievable within your role
• Align with your team's priorities

Adding Key Results

Key Results are the measurable outcomes that track objective progress.

Key Result Fields

When adding a key result, you'll configure:

1. Title (required)

   • What you're measuring
   • Action-oriented and specific
   • Example: "Reduce customer churn rate"

2. Description (optional)

   • Additional context
   • How this will be measured
   • Data sources

3. Unit Type (required)

   • Number: Absolute count (e.g., customers, features, sales)
   • Percentage: Progress from 0-100%
   • Currency: Monetary value (e.g., revenue, cost savings)
   • Boolean: Yes/No, Done/Not Done

4. Direction (required)

   • Increase: Growing toward target (e.g., revenue, NPS)
   • Decrease: Reducing toward target (e.g., churn, costs)
   • Maintain: Keeping within range (e.g., uptime, quality)

5. Initial Value (required)

   • Starting point or baseline
   • Current state when objective begins
   • Example: If NPS is currently 45, initial value = 45

6. Target Value (required)

   • Goal to achieve
   • Should be ambitious but achievable
   • Example: Target NPS of 75

7. Current Value (auto-calculated)

   • Updated through check-ins
   • Starts at initial value
   • Progresses toward target

8. Owner (required)

   • Person responsible for this key result
   • Can be different from objective owner
   • Receives check-in reminders

9. Weight (default: 1.0)

   • Relative importance among key results
   • Affects objective progress calculation
   • Higher weight = more impact on objective

Key Result Examples

Example 1: Number Type - Increase

Title: Acquire new enterprise customers Unit: Number Direction: Increase Initial Value: 10 Target Value: 25 Owner: Sales Manager

Example 2: Percentage Type - Increase

Title: Complete migration to cloud infrastructure Unit: Percentage Direction: Increase Initial Value: 0 Target Value: 100 Owner: DevOps Lead

Example 3: Currency Type - Increase

Title: Increase monthly recurring revenue Unit: Currency Direction: Increase Initial Value: $50,000 Target Value: $100,000 Owner: Head of Sales

Example 4: Number Type - Decrease

Title: Reduce support ticket resolution time Unit: Number (hours) Direction: Decrease Initial Value: 48 Target Value: 24 Owner: Support Manager

Example 5: Boolean Type

Title: Launch new mobile app Unit: Boolean Direction: Increase Initial Value: 0 (No) Target Value: 1 (Yes) Owner: Product Manager Adding Multiple Key Results

To add multiple key results to an objective:

1. While creating/editing an objective
2. Click "Add Key Result"
3. Fill in the first key result details
4. Click "Add Another Key Result"
5. Repeat for each key result
6. You can reorder key results by dragging (if available)
7. Save the objective

Recommended: 2-5 key results per objective

• Too few (1): Not enough to fully measure success
• Too many (6+): Loses focus, hard to track

Viewing ObjectivesObjective List View

When you navigate to Company/Team/My OKRs, you see:

List Columns:

• Objective title
• Owner name and avatar
• Progress bar and percentage
• Status badge
• Due date
• Number of key results
• Team name (for team objectives)

Sorting Options:

• Progress (low to high or high to low)
• Due date (soonest or latest)
• Created date
• Title (A-Z)
• Status

Filtering Options:

• By status (Active, Draft, Completed, etc.)
• By owner
• By team
• By date range
• By strategic goal

Objective Detail View

Click any objective to see its detail page:

Top Section:

• Objective title
• Description
• Owner information
• Status badge
• Progress percentage
• Timeline (start and end dates)
• Alignment (parent objective, if any)

Key Results Section:

• List of all key results
• Individual progress for each
• Check-in history
• Quick check-in button

Alignment Section:

• Parent objective (if aligned)
• Child objectives (if any objectives align to this one)
• Strategic goal connection
• Visual alignment tree

Activity Section:

• Recent check-ins
• Comments and updates
• Progress changes
• Status changes

Editing ObjectivesEditing Your Own Objectives

1. Navigate to the objective (Company/Team/My OKRs)
2. Click on the objective to open detail view
3. Click "Edit" button
4. Modify any fields:
   • Title, description
   • Dates, weight
   • Status
   • Key results (add, edit, remove)
5. Click "Save Changes"

What You Can Edit:

• Title and description (anytime)
• Dates (best before objective is active)
• Status (progress from Draft → Active → Completed)
• Key results (add new ones, edit existing, archive old ones)
• Alignment (parent objective, strategic goal)

What You Should Avoid Changing:

• Objective owner mid-cycle
• Target values after significant progress
• Key result units or direction

Editing Others' Objectives (Admins)

Company Admins can edit any objective:

1. Navigate to the objective
2. Click "Edit"
3. Make necessary changes
4. Add a comment explaining the change
5. Save

Best Practice: Communicate with objective owner before making changes.

Archiving vs. Deleting ObjectivesArchiving Objectives

Archiving preserves the objective but removes it from active views:

When to Archive:

• Objective cycle has ended
• Want to keep historical data
• Objective completed or cancelled
• Need to reduce clutter

How to Archive:

1. Open the objective
2. Click "..." menu
3. Select "Archive"
4. Confirm action

What Happens:

• Objective no longer appears in default views
• Data is preserved
• Can be unarchived later
• Still appears in reports (if filtered)

Viewing Archived Objectives:

1. Go to Company/Team/My OKRs
2. Click "Filters"
3. Enable "Show Archived"

Deleting Objectives

Deleting permanently removes the objective:

When to Delete:

• Duplicate objectives
• Created by mistake
• Test objectives
• No longer needed and no historical value

How to Delete:

1. Open the objective
2. Click "..." menu
3. Select "Delete"
4. Confirm deletion (may require additional confirmation)

⚠️ Warning: Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone!

What Gets Deleted:

• The objective
• All key results
• All check-ins
• All alignment connections
• All historical data

Best Practice: Archive instead of delete unless absolutely certain.

OKR Alignment

Alignment creates a hierarchy showing how objectives support each other.

Why Alignment Matters

• Shows how individual work contributes to company goals
• Creates accountability and transparency
• Helps identify gaps in strategy execution
• Motivates teams by showing impact

Creating Alignment

Method 1: During Objective Creation

1. When creating an objective
2. Look for "Parent Objective" field
3. Select the higher-level objective this supports
4. Save

Method 2: Editing Existing Objective

1. Open the objective
2. Click "Edit"
3. Select parent objective
4. Save changes

Alignment Rules

• Personal OKRs can align to Team or Company OKRs
• Team OKRs typically align to Company OKRs
• Company OKRs may align to Strategic Goals
• Cannot create circular alignments (A → B → A)
• One objective can have multiple children
• One objective can have only one parent

Viewing Alignment

Alignment Tree View:

1. Open any objective
2. Look for "Alignment" section
3. See visual tree showing:
   • Parent objective (what this supports)
   • Child objectives (what supports this)
   • Sibling objectives (others aligned to same parent)

Company-Wide Alignment:

1. Navigate to Reports
2. Select "Alignment View" or "Cascade View"
3. See entire OKR hierarchy
4. Identify gaps or misalignments

OKR Status ManagementStatus Types

Draft

• Objective is being planned
• Not yet active
• Can be freely edited
• Not counted in progress calculations
• Use for: Planning phase, getting feedback

Active

• Objective is currently being worked on
• Counted in progress metrics
• Check-ins should be regular
• Primary status during the cycle
• Use for: All in-progress work

Completed

• Objective has been achieved
• Key results at or near target
• No longer accepting check-ins
• Celebrated as achievement
• Use for: Successfully finished objectives

On Hold

• Temporarily paused
• Not currently being worked on
• May resume later
• Not counted in active metrics
• Use for: Deprioritized work, waiting on dependencies

Cancelled

• No longer being pursued
• Abandoned or deemed unnecessary
• Removed from active tracking
• Explains why work stopped
• Use for: Strategy changes, no longer relevant

Changing Status

1. Open the objective
2. Click "Edit" or status badge
3. Select new status from dropdown
4. Add a comment explaining the change (recommended)
5. Save

Status Flow:

Draft → Active → Completed ↓ On Hold → Active ↓ Cancelled OKR Templates (If Available)

Some organizations provide OKR templates:

Using Templates

1. When creating an objective
2. Click "Use Template" or "Browse Templates"
3. Browse available templates by:
   • Department (Sales, Marketing, Engineering, etc.)
   • Goal type (Growth, Efficiency, Quality, etc.)
   • Strategic theme
4. Click "Use This Template"
5. Template populates with:
   • Sample objective title
   • Sample key results
   • Suggested metrics
6. Customize to your needs
7. Save

Benefits of Templates:

• Faster objective creation
• Best practice examples
• Consistent formatting
• Proven key result metrics

Best Practices for OKR ManagementWriting Effective Objectives

✅ DO:

• Make them inspirational and memorable
• Focus on outcomes, not activities
• Keep them qualitative
• Make them time-bound
• Ensure they're ambitious

❌ DON'T:

• Write vague objectives ("Be better")
• Include metrics in objective title
• Create too many objectives
• Make them too easy to achieve
• Use technical jargon

Writing Effective Key Results

✅ DO:

• Make them quantifiable and measurable
• Include starting and target values
• Use specific metrics
• Ensure they're verifiable
• Make them challenging (70% achievement is good)

❌ DON'T:

• Make them activities or tasks ("Launch feature")
• Use vague measures ("Increase slightly")
• Set impossible targets
• Have too many per objective
• Make them easy to game

OKR Cycle Best Practices

Quarterly Cycle (Recommended):

• Week 1: Plan and create OKRs
• Weeks 2-11: Execute and check in weekly
• Week 12: Review and grade OKRs
• Week 13: Reflect and plan next quarter

Mid-Cycle Reviews:

• Week 6: Mid-quarter check-in
• Assess progress
• Adjust if needed (avoid frequent changes)
• Address blockers

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Too Many OKRs: Stick to 3-5 objectives
2. Not Measuring: Always use metrics, not feelings
3. Setting Easy Targets: OKRs should be ambitious
4. Lack of Alignment: Connect to higher-level goals
5. Ignoring Check-ins: Regular updates are critical
6. No Ownership: Every OKR needs a clear owner
7. Treating as Performance Review: OKRs are for stretch goals