Goals & OKRs

Goals & OKRs is the home of the community's objectives and key results (OKRs), instead of slides: the company sets its objectives, each group aligns to them, each person aligns to their group's, and progress comes from the check-ins of whoever owns each key result.

It is a space module in the Planning & HR tab of Add Space. Who creates the space and the cycles: owner or admin.

#What it's for

#How it works

#The space: one cycle or several

When you create the space, Cycles in this space asks:

The cycle starts open, with the weekly check-in reminder (Monday, 9 am, in the community's time zone).

#The objectives tree

Each objective has a Level:

Aligned to links the objective to another one above it, and the Objectives tab shows the tree: company, groups and people, each objective with its level, the status light of the last check-in, how many KRs it has and the progress. Filter by group and Only mine narrow the tree. Whoever owns an objective gets an e-mail when someone aligns another one to it.

An objective's progress is the weighted average of its own KRs; objectives aligned below don't count.

#Who creates what

The New objective window only offers what you can create. Whoever owns an objective, whoever created it, the owner's leaders and, in a group objective, the group's leaders edit it, change its KRs and delete it. With the cycle closed, nobody creates or edits.

#Restricted objectives

Without checking anything, everyone with access to the space sees the objective. Checked as Restricted, it only shows up for the owner, their leaders, the community owner, the admin and whoever is Owner of one of its KRs. For everyone else, it doesn't exist; an objective aligned to it shows "An objective you cannot see".

#Key results

Each objective has 1 to 20 key results (KRs), each with:

#The cycles list: the current cycle featured

In a Several cycles space, the Cycles view opens with each current cycle featured, across the whole width. A current cycle is an open one whose period includes today; with more than one (a quarter inside a half-year, for example), all of them are featured, the ones with KRs first. The current cycle's card shows:

• Current cycle, the state, the title, the period and how many days are left ("63 days left", "Today is the last day"), with the "Day 29 of 92" bar;
• the OKR score, in the color of its band, with the progress ("16% progress");
• KRs by status: a bar with how many are on track, at risk, off track and without a check-in, and "N objectives · N KRs";
• Top objectives: up to four, each with its level, progress and score, opening the objective's page; with more, See all N objectives;
• three boxes: Next reminder (the day the check-in reminder goes out, Today, Tomorrow, Reminder off or None until the cycle ends), No check-in this period (how many KRs you can see have no check-in, of N KRs in the cycle, or All up to date) and My KRs (yours, with how many are waiting for a check-in, or No KRs of yours);
• Open cycle and, for whoever has a KR in the cycle, Check in (with the number of your pending KRs), which opens the cycle's My KRs; the ⋯ has New objective and, for whoever manages the cycle, Cycle settings and Close cycle.

A current cycle with no KR yet shows "No KRs yet" and Add objectives.

Below, Previous cycles (the closed ones and the open ones outside their period) in two columns, with the first 4 and See all (N) for the rest.

Inside the cycle, Objectives and My KRs are underlined tabs, and the tab stays in the address. Back goes up one level: from an objective's page, back to the cycle, on the same tab and with the same filters; from the cycle, back to the space.

#Check-in

A KR's current value only changes through a Check-in: the Current value (or Delivered, for a deliverable), the Status light (On track, At risk or Off track) and an optional Note. The check-in stays in the History and can't be edited later. Who checks in: the KR's owner, the objective's owner, their leaders, the community owner and the admin.

#My KRs

The My KRs tab gathers the KRs you own in open cycles, with the ones No check-in in the period first ("N KRs without a check-in in the period"), and the check-in right there. With everything up to date: "All your KRs are up to date."

#Check-in reminder

In Cycle settings, Check-in reminder: Weekly (every Monday, 9 am), Every two weeks or Off. Only whoever has a KR without a check-in in the period gets the e-mail.

#Closing the cycle

Role: owner or admin.

In the Manage cycle bar, Close cycle and confirm. Nobody records check-ins anymore and reminders stop; the objectives, the KRs and the whole history stay available to read.

#The cycle's result

Each cycle shows how it is going or how it closed:

• On each cycle's card, in a space with several cycles: the overall progress, a bar colored by KRs and the count. Closed, "Closed at 67%" and "3 KRs · 2 met · 1 missed"; open, by status light: "7 KRs · 2 on track · 1 at risk · 1 off track · 3 without check-in".
• Inside the cycle, the header is the cycle's own (title, status, period and reminder), with the Manage cycle bar right below and then Overall progress (open cycle) or Final result (closed): the percentage, the OKR score with its band ("0.67 · in progress"), "N objectives · N KRs" and how many KRs are met, in progress, missed and without check-in. With the cycle open, it also shows how many are on track, at risk and off track, by the last check-in's status light. The (i) next to it, How the score is calculated, explains the math.

The OKR score. Goals & OKRs follows the OKR method: an ambitious KR that reaches 0.7 already counts as met. The score shows next to the percentage, in its band's color (green, yellow or red), on each cycle's card, in the cycle summary, in the objective tree, on the objective page and in My KRs. The percentage stays.

Everyone sees the numbers of what they can read. A restricted objective only counts for those who see it, so the result the owner sees and the one a member sees can differ.

Each KR's value. In the tree, on the objective page and in My KRs, each KR shows its current value against the goal next to the percentage: "12 of 20" (60%), "$45,000.00 of $60,000.00" (75%); for Keep between, "18 (range 10 to 20)"; for a deliverable, Delivered or Not delivered.

#Goals in the performance review

In the self-review and in the manager's review of a Performance review cycle, the form shows Goals of the period: the person's objectives and KRs in goals cycles that end within the period reviewed, read only. No rating is calculated from them, and the reviewer only sees what they can already read in the goals space. Peers and direct reports don't see this card.

Removing a key result happens right away, with Undo for a few seconds ("Key result removed"). On the objective's page, Edit and Remove sit in the … menu, and the highlighted Check-in is only the one for your key result not yet updated in the period. New objective sits at the top, and the owner, the group and the objective above are picked with search.

#Step by step

#Create the space and the cycle

Role: owner or admin.

1. In the menu, below the section, click Add Space.
2. In the Planning & HR tab, choose Goals & OKRs and click Next.
3. Write the space's title and choose who has access.
4. In Cycles in this space, choose Several cycles and create the space (then New cycle); or One cycle, Next, fill in the title and the period and click Create cycle.

#Create an objective

1. In the cycle, click New objective.
2. Choose the Level and, depending on it, the Group or Whose it is.
3. Write the Objective, choose Aligned to and, if needed, check Restricted.
4. Add the Key results: type, unit, values, owner and weight.
5. Click Create objective.

#Check in

1. In My KRs (or on the objective's page), click Check-in on the KR.
2. Enter the Current value (or check Delivered), the Status light and, if you like, a note.
3. Click Record.

#E-mails

In the Goals & OKRs category of E-mails from this community, on by default, with the link to turn the category off in the footer:

#Through the assistant (MCP)

The owner and the admin create, edit and close cycles through the assistant. Anyone looks up the tree and the objectives they can see, creates and edits objectives and KRs with the same rules as the app, checks in and asks about their own pending KRs. Closing the cycle and deleting an objective or a KR ask for your confirmation. See Tools · Members. list_goal_cycles returns each cycle's summary: the overall progress, how many objectives and KRs, the OKR score, the KRs met, in progress, missed and without check-in, and each one's status light, only from what the person asking can read.

On an open cycle, list_goal_cycles also returns the next reminder (next_reminder_on), the KRs without a check-in (needs_check_in), your own (my_key_results, my_needs_check_in) and the top objectives (top_objectives), as in the current cycle's featured card.

#Common errors and how to fix them

#Related

• Performance review
• Development Plan
• Groups and org chart
• Modules