Overview · Sooner Safer Happier

OKRs, the way SSH think about them

Objectives and Key Results are a tool for shifting the focus from output to outcome — creating clarity of strategic direction, and visibility of the portfolio of work for disciplined execution.

This page is the short version: what an OKR is, how to write one, and how to tell a good one from a task list. It is drawn from the SSH OKR Pattern pack — a starting point to apply to your context, not a standard to comply with.

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In one minute

An OKR, in four lines

An Objective without measures is a slogan. Measures without an Objective are a dashboard. You need both halves.

The Objective

Clarity of the bet you are placing and the capability you are building. Where you want to play, and how you will win.

The Key Results

The feedback. Leading and lagging metrics that tell you how the journey is going and what success looks like.

3 to 5 of them

3–4 leading indicators so you can pivot early, plus 1 lagging indicator — the impact metric. 3–5 in all, and no more.

Held as a hypothesis

Emergent over deterministic. The outcome may turn out to be invalid, and finding that out early is the point.

Why

From output to outcome

Too many projects focus on producing stuff — outputs — without understanding who the customer is and the problem being solved. Many also define the solution upfront, which ignores that the work is complex and uncertain, and that we need to test and learn to discover the solution.

From management by objectives
To OKRs

Six reasons organisations use them

Connection to strategy

To provide teams with clarity on how the work they are doing aligns with the organisation’s vision and strategy.

Alignment & collaboration

To create shared understanding of outcomes and alignment of people and purpose.

Decision making

To provide a guiding structure to support trade-off decisions and resource allocation.

Empowerment & experimentation

To create empowerment through experimentation, taking calculated risks and innovation.

Autonomy & accountability

To provide autonomy and accountability through visibility and transparency of outcomes and progress towards achieving the strategy.

Maximise value, minimise risk

To optimise on impact to be achieved through lagging metrics whilst mitigating risk along the way through leading metrics.

The format

Write the Objective as an outcome hypothesis

The word “hypothesis” is deliberate: it sets a clear expectation that the outcome may be invalid, and that there are unknown-unknowns only uncovered once the work takes place.

Objective

data + insight + belief = bet

Due to: <this insight, feedback or belief>
We believe that: <this bet>
Will result in: <this outcome>

3–5 Key Results

“We’ll know we’re successful when…”

3–4 leading indicators

Indicative of future performance — they let you pivot to maximise the outcome while there is still time.

1 lagging indicator

Assesses performance that has already happened — profit, revenue, expenses. The impact metric.

More than a framework — the 3Ms

Mission

Objective

Outcome over output. Inspirational.

Measurement

Key Results

Movement & behaviour. Leading and lagging.

Mindset

How you hold them

Emergent over deterministic. Empowering.

To get from a blank page to a drafted OKR with a group, SSH use the Outcome Canvas. For the thinking behind the format, read Outcome hypotheses — a primer.

Calibrate

An OK OKR and a NOT OK OKR

The quickest way to know whether you have written an OKR or a delivery plan is to put them side by side.

Objective (annual)

#1 in our market in LATAM

Double ad click-through-rate from 2.5% to 5%
Increase customer NPS from +40 to +60
Increase referrals from 50k to 100k p.m.
Grow daily digital transactions from 100k to 400k
Increase market share from x% to y% by Q4

Outcome over output
Inspirational & aspirational
Measurable: <verb> <measure> from <x> to <y>
Measures of behaviour — leading (1–4) and lagging (5)
Early & often feedback loop
Measures of movement towards the Objective
Measures of value added, incrementally
No more than 3 to 5 Key Results per OKR
Business and IT as one

NOT OK

Objective

Deliver Project Platypus

Create a new training program
Design agreed by all necessary committees
Mandatory & discretionary artefacts approved
Contract signed with vendor for build
Build new feature screens
Improve search engine optimisation
Write runbook
Get InfoSec & data privacy approval
Provision hardware
Test data migration
Go live

Output over outcome
Not inspirational, duration not clear
Task list
Not measurable
No measures of change of behaviour
No measures of value
No leading indicators of value
Too many Key Results
IT only — what’s the business value?

Jon Smart walks through both in OK and NOT OK OKRs. Want the same check on your own draft? The skills on this site do it conversationally.

The full SSH OKR checklist — 17 questions to run a draft through

If a question has no answer yet, that is the next conversation to have — not a reason to write a vaguer goal.

Overall

Who is the customer? Is it clear who the value is being delivered to (i.e. internal or external)?
Do we understand what behaviour change we are expecting? Why is the customer desiring this change?
Was the OKR written as a collaborative, cross-functional team?
Is the OKR time bound? Does it have an owner?
Is the OKR connected to strategy?
Does the OKR have a parent/child? (e.g. a 1-year OKR connected to a 3-year OKR, with 4x quarterly OKRs)

Objective definition

What is the problem being solved? Is it clear?
Is the “so what” to the customer clear? Is the impact (or value driver) clear?
Is the objective defined as an outcome hypothesis, or as a predetermined solution? What capability is needed?
Is the objective defined as an aspirational goal or a defined target?
How many OKRs have been defined?

Key Results

How will you know if you’ve been successful? (i.e. lagging metric)
How will you know if you’re on the right track? (i.e. leading metrics)
How many KRs have been defined? Do we have too many? Not enough?
Are the KRs quantifiable? Is the action required clear? (e.g. improve, decrease)
Do the KRs represent the expected behaviour change?
How can the KRs be measured? Is the “from/to” clear?

Adapted from Maria Muir’s OKR checklist.

Don’t confuse them

Strategy, OKRs and KPIs

Strategy sets the direction. OKRs help you navigate. KPIs show how well the system is performing along the way.

Strategy = Travel destination

Where do we want to go?

OKRs = GPS

Are we heading in the right direction?

KPIs = Dashboard

How well is our system performing along the journey?

And they nest — the golden thread

Multi-year

Acts as the North Star for an organisation, helping it remain focussed on its long-term strategy.

Annual

Makes those longer-term strategic goals more digestible, giving divisions focus for the year ahead.

Quarterly

Allows flexibility to pivot within the year, so teams can develop actionable plans for the work they will do.

As you move down the levels, the Objective gets more specific to that business area while still contributing to the level above. A complete set of nested objectives forms the golden thread that links work throughout the organisation back to the strategy.

Take it and make it yours

Every organisation adapts how it uses OKRs. Treat this as a starting point, then keep what helps you deliver value sooner, safer and happier — the principles are the tie-breaker when the framework and reality disagree.

Attribution

Everything on this page is drawn from the SSH OKR Pattern — input for AI Outcome Coach pack, contributed by the community as idea #28. The pattern, its wording and its examples remain © Sooner Safer Happier, used here with the community’s thanks — keep the credit with it if you adapt or reshare it, as our principles ask. Further reading: the OKR checklist and writing strategic choices you can execute.