Hello community,

In the last article, Pedro Gil, Portfolio Manager of Bcombinator, talked about the importance of detecting which metrics are most important for your type of business and how to improve them.

That’s not only significant to face a conversation with an investor, but to have a current photo of the company’s situation and be able to make decisions based on it. Knowing which are the most essential metrics and tracking them is vital if we want to talk about OKRs. 

In order to improve them, we have to define strategies and specific actions that will lead to the achievement of our objectives. That’s where the OKRs appear as the perfect tool to keep focus on what really matters and align your team in a unique direction.

In this article, I will try to help you avoid the most common mistakes that I have encountered implementing OKRs in 2 very different organizations and show you how useful they can be for your startup.

¿What problems do the use of OKR’s avoid?

In the entrepreneurial ecosystem, startups often struggle to stay focused amid rapid growth and constant change. Without a structured goal-setting framework, teams can quickly lose direction, leading to projects that don’t align with the company’s strategic goals. This misalignment results in wasted resources, missed opportunities, and scattered efforts, putting the startup’s success at risk.

Without OKRs, your teams may set their own priorities, creating conflicts and inefficiencies. This lack of cohesion hampers your startup’s ability to achieve its objectives. Measuring progress becomes difficult, making it hard to adjust strategies and make informed decisions. Poor communication and collaboration further fragment the organization, reducing the potential for innovation. The urgency to implement OKRs is clear: they are essential for maintaining direction, alignment, and measurable success in startups.

OKRs are a key tool if you want to become a high-performance team.

Understanding OKRs

The most common error when implementing OKRs in your organization is doing it without asking yourself the right questions, and understanding what is the culture that we have to generate in the company so we have success.

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

Before defining objectives, key results, and key actions, it is important to take into account that everything has to be aligned with the vision and mission of the organization. That’s how we ensure that we are always working to the same direction.

An Objective is a clear, ambitious, time-bound goal, while Key Results are specific, measurable actions that track its achievement. OKRs ensure alignment and a unified approach toward strategic goals. 

• Objective: In startups, objectives are a qualitative statement to provide clear direction and inspiration, answering “What do we want to achieve?” 
• Key Results are quantitative and measurable outcomes, break down these objectives into measurable steps, answering “How will we know if we are making progress?” 
• Key Action are direct inputs and to-do’s, the path we’ll have to follow in order to achieve the key results established “How are we going to achieve it?”

Transparency is crucial; OKRs should be visible across the organization to ensure alignment, foster accountability, and promote collaboration.

Careful! OKRs are not KPIs

OKRs set ambitious goals and drive strategic change, focusing on what the organization aims to achieve and how to get there. They consist of qualitative objectives and quantitative key results. OKRs are dynamic, designed to be ambitious, and can be adjusted as priorities change.  

KPIs measure ongoing performance and operational efficiency, tracking specific activities or processes. They are quantitative metrics providing benchmarks for performance measurement, offering a long-term view of performance. 

Unlike OKRs, KPIs are stable and consistent over time, maintaining operational health rather than driving strategic change. 

How to Do the Follow-Up? 

Regular check-ins, such as weekly or bi-weekly meetings, are vital for monitoring progress on OKRs. These meetings ensure everyone stays on track and provides a space to resolve problems. We normally call them PPP (Plans, Progress, and Problems). This meeting has to be very agile, and it must have a maximum duration of 20 minutes.

Quarterly reviews are essential for evaluating progress toward OKRs. In the startup ecosystem, as context and conditions can change easily, we normally define quarterly objectives.

So this meeting is really important to analyze how our performance has been and define new objectives. The duration of it tends to be more extended, with a recommended maximum length of 60 minutes.

Continuous feedback is crucial for keeping teams motivated and focused. Leaders should offer constructive feedback and recognize achievements to encourage ongoing progress. Feedback loops foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning, driving sustained success.  

How long do we have to Follow Up on our objectives? 

As you already know, in the startup ecosystem, It is critical to remain adaptable and adjust the frequency of OKR cycles based on your unique needs and dynamics. Some startups might benefit from shorter monthly cycles, especially in rapidly changing environments. Flexibility in cycle length helps respond to new opportunities and challenges more effectively.  

That’s why, although I recommend establishing quarterly cycles, continuous monitoring through the Regular check-ins and adjusting of OKRs are essential.

What platforms should we use to do the Follow-up?

Several software solutions aid in effectively tracking OKRs. 

Popular options include:

• Google Sheets:  As you all know, it’s a flexible and cost-effective manual tracking option, allowing customization and easy sharing among team members. 
• Asana: Integrates goal setting with task management, ensuring alignment between daily activities and strategic objectives.
• BetterWorks: Simplifies performance management, fostering greater manager effectiveness, higher employee engagement, and intelligent decision-making for HR leaders and organizations. 
• Weekdone: Plataforma fácil de usar que facilita la alineación con los objetivos de la empresa, con check-ins semanales y actualizaciones de progreso.
• WorkBoard: Helps organizations align, localize and measure Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) across the business.

That would be all for today, community, I hope this article helps you to avoid the most common errors when using OKRs in your startup. If you want to contact us with any doubts or desires, you can simply do it through this link.

See you around!!