How to Plan the Next Quarter with OKRs Like a Scale-up

Staying focused and aligned in the fast-paced world of scale-ups is crucial to achieving rapid growth and success. One proven framework that can help scale-ups maintain this focus is OKRs—Objectives and Key Results.

At its core, the OKR framework is designed to help organizations set clear, measurable goals and track their progress. Yet, the success of such a framework comes and goes with how you implement it in your business.

In fact, research shows that setting goals is the most effective way of improving productivity when done right. This shows the power of a well-implemented goal-setting framework like OKRs.

In this blog post, we will break down the quarterly planning process with OKRs into simple, actionable steps. By the end, you'll have a clear roadmap to get you and your team to set impactful OKRs that drive your scale-up forward.

Whether you're new to OKRs or looking to refine your approach, this guide is tailored to meet the unique needs of scale-ups, ensuring you can execute faster.

Understanding OKRs

What are OKRs?

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) is a goal-setting framework that helps organizations define and track objectives and their outcomes.

An Objective is what you want your team to achieve. It is the direction you set for the team. A Key Result explains how you measure that you are getting closer to the desired destination.

An Objective is significant, concrete, action-oriented, and inspirational. A Key Result is specific, time-bound, aggressive, realistic, measurable, and verifiable.

Examples of well-defined OKRs for scale-ups:

Objective: Our customers love us and spread the word.

• Key Result 1: Get 100 positive reviews on G2
• Key Result 2: Generate 20 leads from our referral program.
• Key Result 3: 5 customer success stories published.

This example is effective because it provides a clear direction (Objective) and measurable outcomes (Key Results). Setting such specific and ambitious targets creates a roadmap for your team to follow.

For more information on OKRs, check out this detailed guide on OKRs.

Initiatives: The Thing That Makes OKRs Work for Scale-ups

How often have you set a goal only to reflect a few months later and realize you didn't take any steps to achieve it?

No worries, we all have been guilty of it.

But how do you fix that? By connecting daily/weekly tasks to your OKRs. We call these tasks initiatives. Initiatives are the things you and your team do to achieve the OKRs.

By tracking them alongside your OKRs, everyone knows every single day what they need to do to achieve your business's goals. It immediately becomes visible when someone is struggling and not completing their initiatives.

In most cases, you will only reach your goals if the initiatives are completed.

The Benefits of Using OKRs + Initiatives for Scale-ups:

• Focus: Helps teams concentrate on what truly matters.
• Alignment: Ensures everyone in the organization is working towards the same goals.
• Commitment: Creates a culture of accountability.
• Tracking: Allows for close progress monitoring and makes it visible to everyone.
• Stretching: Ensures you reach more than everyone thought they could.

The Importance of Quarterly Planning

Why quarterly planning is crucial for scale-ups:

Quarterly planning allows scale-ups to remain agile and responsive to market changes. It provides a regular cadence for reviewing performance, adjusting strategies, and setting new priorities. This ensures that the team stays aligned and focuses on the most critical objectives.

In the fast-paced environment of a scale-up, things can change rapidly. Quarterly planning helps maintain momentum while providing the flexibility to pivot as needed. Breaking down annual goals into quarterly objectives ensures everyone remains focused on achieving short-term milestones that drive long-term success.

‍How OKRs fit into quarterly planning:

OKRs provide a structured way to set and achieve goals within a quarter. They help translate high-level company vision into actionable and measurable targets that can be tackled over three months, ensuring continuous progress and alignment.

Setting OKRs every quarter creates a rhythm that keeps your team engaged and motivated. Each quarter, you can assess what's working, make necessary adjustments, and set new objectives that align with your evolving business priorities. This regular review process ensures that your team stays aligned with the company's strategic direction and can adapt quickly to new challenges and opportunities.

The Step-by-Step Planning Process

‍Step 1: Reviewing the previous quarter's OKRs and performance:

If you have set OKRs before, then start here.

Analyze which objectives were met and which were not. Discuss what worked, what didn't, and why. This retrospective will provide valuable insights for the next planning cycle.

Understanding past performance helps you identify patterns, learn from mistakes, and build on successes. It sets the foundation for more effective planning and execution in the upcoming quarter.

Step 2: Define the company-level OKR

When it comes to OKRs in scale-ups, less is more. Don't overcomplicate the OKR-setting process by defining too many OKRs. Start with your company's most important goal.

How do you define the company-level OKR? Look at your goal for this year and ask yourself: "What must we change or improve to achieve that goal?"

The answer to this question will be your company-level OKR. Focusing on a single, impactful objective ensures the entire company is aligned and working towards a common purpose, maximizing your chances of success.

Step 3: Ask each team to define team-level OKRs (optional)

Now that you have defined the company-level OKR ask each team to define team-level OKRs that align with the company-level OKR.

They can ask themselves the same question as with the company-level OKR: "What must our team change or improve to help us achieve our company-level OKR?"

OKRs ensure that all team members focus on the top priorities. Adding more OKRs creates more priorities and distractions.

Therefore, I only recommend adding team OKRs when they make sense. For example, a team cannot contribute to the company-level OKRs through initiatives.

Step 4: Assign accountability

Assigning accountability is a critical step in ensuring the success of your OKRs. Once your company-level and team-level OKRs are defined, it's essential to designate specific individuals for each Key Result.

Being accountable means providing an account of what's happening regarding the Key Result. Other people can hold you accountable by asking questions regarding the Key Result.

As you can see, accountability does not mean that the person does the work; it means they know what is going on and report on it.

Just being accountable to someone else can help drive performance. This creates a sense of ownership and responsibility, ensuring everyone is committed to achieving the objectives.

Step 5: Create initiatives

The most crucial step in the planning process is creating initiatives. This is where you connect higher-level goals with people's daily activities.

Start by thinking about what you must do to achieve your OKRs and writing them down. Let each team do this for themselves. They could create initiatives for the company-level and team-level OKRs.

In the end, you want teams not to work in silos but rather help each other to achieve their goals. So, push for collaboration. This will not happen automatically.

Step 6: Communicate the OKRs and initiatives with everyone

Share the finalized OKRs and initiatives with the entire team. Do this in such a way that progress on the OKRs and initiatives is visible to everyone all the time.

Use an OKR management solution such as Loach to easily manage all your OKRs and initiatives in one place.

How do you ensure your team remains focused on the OKRs throughout the quarter?

Make progress visible:

As mentioned, ensure that everyone knows the current status of the OKRs and the initiatives. You want to create a culture of accountability where everybody says what they will do and does what they have said.

The best way to do this is by making the progress transparent to everyone. Utilize dashboards, regular updates, and visual tracking tools to keep everyone informed about the progress toward the OKRs. This visibility keeps the team motivated and aligned with the goals.

Regular check-ins and progress reviews

Ensure all team members update their OKRs and initiatives weekly. Ask them what they achieved that week and what is holding them back from achieving more.

I suggest you schedule a weekly all-hands meeting to review progress, check-ins, and discuss blockers with the team. From what I have seen, this is the best way to hold people accountable and remove blockers quickly. Regular check-ins help maintain momentum and ensure that any issues are addressed promptly.

Adjusting and pivoting as needed:

Be flexible and ready to adjust OKRs if necessary. Rest assured, updating your OKRs as market conditions change or new opportunities arise is a sign of staying relevant and effective.

Don't be afraid to pivot if specific objectives no longer align with your overall strategy or if external circumstances change. This adaptability ensures that your team remains focused on the most important goals, even as the business environment evolves.

Tips for Success

Keeping OKRs simple and focused:

Avoid overloading with too many objectives. Focus on a few key priorities that will drive the most significant impact.

Simplifying OKRs helps prevent overwhelm and ensures that everyone understands what is most important. Aim for clarity and precision in your objectives and key results so your team can easily grasp and focus on their goals.

Encouraging team collaboration and ownership:

Involve the team in setting OKRs and emphasize their role in achieving them. This fosters a sense of collaboration and commitment to the shared goals.

When team members participate in the OKR-setting process, they are likelier to feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for the outcomes. Encourage open communication and collective problem-solving to strengthen team cohesion and drive success.

Avoiding common pitfalls in OKR planning and execution:

1. Setting Unrealistic Goals: Ensure OKRs are ambitious but achievable. Unrealistic goals can demotivate your team and lead to frustration.
2. Neglecting Regular Reviews: Consistent check-ins are crucial for staying on track. Without regular reviews, it's easy to lose sight of progress and miss opportunities for course correction.
3. Lack of Alignment: Ensure all OKRs and initiatives align with the company's priorities. Misalignment can lead to wasted effort and resources.

Conclusion

Quarterly planning with OKRs doesn't have to be complicated. These simple, actionable steps can create a clear roadmap for your scale-up's success.

Remember, keeping your OKRs straightforward and focused is key. This will enable your team to execute faster and more effectively. Embrace the OKR framework, tailor it to your needs, and watch your scale-up achieve new heights of growth and success.

Start your quarterly planning with OKRs now and drive your scale-up forward with clarity and purpose.

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