Write Your First Objective

Write Your First Objective

Now that you have a sense of the overall framework, let’s learn how to write an excellent OKR. And we’re going to start by breaking it into manageable pieces.

First, we’ll focus on writing the O, the Objective. It’s the simplest description of your goal – what you are trying to accomplish. It’s your definition of success. I love this step because it focuses the conversation around what’s important to your organization right now.

Keep in mind, this will be our first pass at it. So it might be rough. But we just want to get something on paper that we’ll refine as we go.

Set your North Star Objective

We encourage organizations to first set what we call a North Star Objective – a single Objective that describes success over the course of the year or even longer.

Ambitious, clear goals such as, “Run the Boston Marathon” or “Build the world’s fastest browser,” or, in the case of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, “Global eradication of malaria by 2040.”

Use the North Star OKR as an inspiration for your team. Because what you’re going to do next is break the North Star Objective into shorter time periods. Most organizations use quarterly, 90-day cycles.

Questions to ask when writing Objectives

Jot down ideas, keeping these questions in mind:

• What are the most important things that we need to get done over the next 90 days?
• What needs to change from where you are today?
• What are you going to start doing? Stop doing?

All of these answers are potential Objectives.

Put your thoughts down on paper. Yes, we want you to write them down. Writing reflects clear thinking. And clear thinking is the secret to writing good OKRs.

Now, your first list of Objectives might be long. But remember, OKRs aren’t supposed to represent every single goal you have. They’re your top priorities.

The following questions can help you narrow down your list of Objectives to two or three:

First: Does the Objective describe something you’re already doing? If so, it’s not an OKR. OKRs describe something you’re trying to change or something new that you’re trying to accomplish.

Second: Could I have said this any simpler? Can you be clearer? Use fewer words? Make it more memorable for your team?

Is the Objective significant, concrete, action-oriented, and inspirational? Paring down your list to just two or three Objectives might feel like a big challenge!

Share your draft with your colleagues. That will very quickly help you level up.

And don’t worry if an Objective doesn’t make the cut this time around. You’re about to commit to focusing on these priorities for 90 days. You’ll measure your progress, and then you can prioritize goals for the next cycle.

Setting strong Objectives can take some time and iteration. It’s not a simple task to decide what matters most for your team. But you’ll find that there’s real clarity and momentum that comes from agreeing on team priorities.