The one thing an [OKR] system should provide par excellence is focus. This can only happen if we keep the number of objectives small …. Each time you make a commitment, you forfeit your chance to commit to something else.

But make no mistake. For anyone striving for high performance in the workplace, goals are very necessary things.

yardstick for success: We’re going to build this product, and we’ve proven the market by talking to twenty-five customers, and here’s how much they’re willing to pay. At medium-size, rapidly scaling organizations, OKRs are a shared language for execution. They clarify expectations: What do we need to get done (and fast), and who’s working on it? Th

KEY RESULTS benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective. Effective KRs are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable. (As prize pupil Marissa Mayer would say, “It’s not a key result unless it has a number.”) You either meet a key result’s requirements or you don’t;

A lack of flexibility. Since it takes so much effort to formulate cascaded goals, people are reluctant to revise them mid-cycle. Even minor updates can burden those downstream, who are scrambling to keep their goals aligned. Over time, the system grows onerous to maintain.

Google turned to its mission statement: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

My objective has two key results: win the Super Bowl and fill the stands to at least 90 percent capacity, which is HOW I will make money for the owner. If I fulfill both of those HOWs, there is no way we can fail to show a profit. So it’s a well-constructed OKR.

As general manager, I cascade my goal down to the next level of management, the head coach and the senior vice president of marketing. My key results become their objectives. (See OKR Chart 2.)

In most cases, the ideal number of quarterly OKRs will range between three and five.