Free OKR Tools: A Comprehensive Guide for Startups and Small Teams

You are a startup and need to steer your company in the right direction. You've decided to implement OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Once you have defined your OKRs, the next step is to find a reliable tool to help you manage them effectively. Budgeting for software can be challenging for startups. Fortunately, there are several free OKR software options available.

In this article, we'll explore various free tools for managing your OKRs that your company can use even as it grows. We'll discuss each tool's pros and cons and guide you in getting started. We'll also address its limitations and offer solutions to overcome them.

3 Free OKR Tools

If you're looking for OKR tools that remain free even as your business grows, the following three options are the best. They enable you to manage your OKRs in one place for everyone to see. While there are some limitations, we will address them in the next section. First, let's explore these three options.

Notion

Notion is a versatile tool that combines notes, databases, and task management into one platform. For OKR management, you can create pages for each Objective and use tables to list and track Key Results. Notion's flexibility allows you to link different pages and databases, making organizing and navigating your OKRs easy.

Pros:

• Highly customizable and flexible.
• Easy real-time collaboration with team members.
• Supports integration with other tools through APIs.

Cons:

•  Customization can be overwhelming for new users.
•  Lacks automated features like reminders and progress tracking.
•  Some features require a paid subscription.

Getting Started:

•  Start with free templates, or create your dashboard from scratch.

Spreadsheet (Google Sheets/Excel)

Spreadsheets like Google Sheets or Excel offer robust features for creating custom OKR tracking sheets. You can set up a sheet with columns for Objectives, Key Results, owners, deadlines, and progress status. Use conditional formatting and data validation to visualize progress and ensure data consistency.

Pros:

• Widely accessible and familiar.
• Allows extensive customization.
• There is no need for additional software when using Google Workspace or Microsoft Office 365.

Cons:

• Requires manual updates, which can be time-consuming.
• Lacks automated features and centralized communication.
• It can become hard to manage as the team and number of OKRs grow.

Getting Started:

• Use a basic OKR template and customize it according to your needs.
• Get your template here.

Trello

Trello uses boards, lists, and cards to organize tasks, making it a simple and intuitive tool for managing OKRs. You can create a board for OKRs with lists for each Objective and cards for Key Results. Use labels, due dates, and checklists to track progress and assign tasks.

Pros:

• Simple and intuitive visual layout.
• Easy setup and use.
• It can integrate with other tools and add-ons.

Cons:

• Not explicitly designed for OKRs, it lacks analytics and automation.
• Customization may be required to fit the OKR framework.
• The free version has limitations

Getting Started:

• Use Trello's templates or create a custom board to organize your OKRs.

Free Tools come with limitations

Because these tools are built for generic use cases rather than specifically for OKRs, they come with some limitations. Here are some common challenges you might encounter:

Lack of Automation: One of the main drawbacks of using general-purpose tools is the absence of automated features such as check-in reminders and progress tracking. This means you must assign someone to check everyone's progress and manually follow up if needed, which can be time-consuming and inconsistent.

Limited Analytics and Reporting: These tools do not offer built-in analytics and detailed reporting specific to OKRs. While you can manually create reports, the process can be labor-intensive and needs real-time insights, making it difficult to assess overall performance and identify areas needing attention quickly.

Scalability Issues: As your team grows, the limitations of these tools become more apparent. For instance, a spreadsheet can quickly become unwieldy when getting a quick overview of all the individual team OKRs. Maintaining consistency across multiple users when updating their key results or ToDos every week is also hard. This can lead to errors and inefficiencies in tracking and updating OKRs.

Multiple Tools for OKRs and Initiatives: Managing OKRs and the initiatives to achieve them often requires multiple tools. For example, while OKRs might be tracked in a spreadsheet or Trello, the specific tasks and projects (initiatives) necessary to achieve these key results might be managed in a separate project management tool. It's hard to track which initiatives belong to which OKRs and you must constantly switch between tools. Teams lose focus on the OKRs themselves as they juggle between different platforms.

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A Better Alternative Free Tool for OKRs – Loach

While the free tools we've discussed can be useful, they often come with limitations when fully managing OKRs. For those looking to overcome these challenges, there's a bonus option worth considering: a dedicated OKR management solution.

And, of course, we've built one!

Loach is for early and later-stage startups specifically designed to streamline your OKR processes. It offers features that address the gaps left by general-purpose tools. With Loach, you get automated check-ins and reminders, eliminating the need for manual follow-ups and ensuring consistent progress tracking. Its real-time analytics and reporting capabilities provide the insights to make informed, data-driven decisions.

What sets Loach apart from other free or general-purpose project management tools like Monday, Airtable, Asana, and many others is its integration of OKR tracking with initiative management. This allows you to oversee your OKRs and the specific actions needed to achieve them all in one place, and it is super user-friendly.

And the best part? Loach offers a free package, perfect for startups and small businesses looking to enhance their OKR management without any initial cost. 

You can try Loach for free today.

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