OKR Best Practices: 15 Rules for Running an Effective OKR Program

Last verified: February 2026

Overview

OKRs are simple in concept but challenging in practice. After working with hundreds of organizations implementing OKRs, these 15 best practices separate successful OKR programs from those that fail within two quarters.

Setting OKRs

1. Less is More — Limit to 3-5 OKRs Per Level

The most common OKR failure is setting too many. At each level of the organization:

Company: 3-5 OKRs per quarter
Team: 3-4 OKRs per quarter
Individual: 2-3 OKRs per quarter (if used at all)

If a team has 10 OKRs, they effectively have zero — nothing is prioritized.

2. Write Objectives That Inspire Action

An Objective should pass the "would anyone rally around this?" test. Compare:

Bad: "Improve Q2 metrics" (vague, uninspiring)
Good: "Make our product the one customers can't live without" (clear, motivating)

3. Make Key Results Outcomes, Not Tasks

The #1 technical mistake in OKR writing:

Task: "Launch new pricing page"
Outcome: "Increase pricing page conversion rate from 3% to 7%"

If completing the Key Result doesn't guarantee a business outcome improved, rewrite it.

4. Set Stretch Goals — 70% Is the New 100%

OKRs are explicitly not commitments. They're aspirations. Set targets that make you uncomfortable. If your team consistently hits 100%, either you're exceptional or your goals are too easy.

5. Include a Baseline for Every Key Result

"Increase NPS to 50" is meaningless without knowing the starting point. Always write: "Increase NPS from 32 to 50."

Running OKRs

6. Check In Weekly — or the OKRs Die

OKRs left unchecked become shelf-ware. The minimum viable cadence:

Weekly: 5-minute async update per KR (current value + confidence)
Monthly: 30-minute team review (progress + blockers)
Quarterly: 60-minute scoring and reflection

7. Keep Check-ins Lightweight

OKR check-ins should take 15 minutes, not 60. If they feel heavy, you have too many OKRs or too much process.

8. Make OKRs Visible to Everyone

Transparency is a core OKR principle. Every person in the company should be able to see every team's OKRs. This prevents duplicated effort, surfaces dependencies, and builds trust.

9. Separate OKRs from Compensation

This is non-negotiable. When OKRs are tied to bonuses, people sandbag (set easy goals) and hide problems. OKRs should be a learning and alignment tool, not a performance review input.

10. Allow Mid-Quarter Adjustments

If an OKR becomes irrelevant due to a strategy change, it's okay to modify or drop it. Document why and move on. Dogmatic adherence to outdated goals helps no one.

Organizational Practices

11. Start Top-Down, Then Go Bottom-Up

Company OKRs should be set first by leadership. Then teams propose their own OKRs that contribute to company goals. The recommended split:

40% of team OKRs directly align to company OKRs
60% are team-initiated (approved by leadership)

12. Limit Cascading to Two Levels

Company → Team is sufficient. Going deeper (Company → Department → Team → Individual) creates bureaucracy and slows the process. Individual OKRs are optional for most organizations.

13. Assign One Owner Per OKR

Every OKR needs a single accountable person — not a committee. That owner may not do all the work, but they're responsible for progress and check-ins.

14. Run a Proper Quarterly Retrospective

At quarter-end:

Score each Key Result (0.0-1.0)
Discuss what drove success or failure
Identify organizational lessons
Feed insights into next quarter's planning

The retrospective conversation matters more than the scores themselves.

15. Give It Three Quarters Before Judging

OKRs have a learning curve. Quarter one is typically messy — goals are too vague, too numerous, or poorly measured. Quarter two improves. By quarter three, the organization has developed OKR muscle memory. Don't abandon the framework after one awkward cycle.

Red Flags Your OKR Program Is Failing

Nobody can name the company's top 3 OKRs
Teams have more than 7 OKRs
Check-ins stopped after week 3
Every OKR scores between 0.9-1.0
OKRs look identical to last quarter
Only leadership cares about OKRs

How Krezzo Helps

Krezzo codifies these best practices into the platform itself — limiting OKR count, enforcing measurable Key Results, automating check-in reminders, and keeping scores decoupled from performance reviews. The platform is designed to make doing OKRs right the path of least resistance.

Sources

Doerr, John. Measure What Matters. Penguin, 2018.
Wodtke, Christina. Radical Focus. Cucina Media, 2016.
Niven, Paul R. and Lamorte, Ben. Objectives and Key Results. Wiley, 2016.
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