Product OKRs

Most Product teams are used to running projects, following roadmaps and ticking the check-boxes after something is done. OKRs are not the same as projects. Learning the difference is your first step towards writing good OKRs. In an agile environment, a product team would use quarterly OKRs to set improvement expectations and follow Scrum sprints to execute initiatives to drive progress towards the Objective.

OKRs focus on areas to improve and success is measured with actual changes in customer behavior, not by the number of features you create. When it comes to writing Key Results, it’s all about measurable outcomes you want to achieve, e.g. how much you can increase product usage or, if working on quality issues, how much you can reduce the number of complaints people were making about the product. Whenever you are creating a new product or improving the old one, there is a certain positive change or improvement that you should see if your hard work is paying off. The question is, what kind of improvement would your team like to see?

Remember, launching a new product (completed project) isn’t the same as creating value and getting 100 happy customers (measurable outcome). Learn more about outputs (completed project) and outcomes here or look at the examples below to help brainstorm your own Product OKRs.