Setting goals can be tough, especially when your team juggles a dozen priorities. That’s where OKRs—Objectives and Key Results—come in. They’re designed to help you and your team focus on what matters most and track progress in a clear and actionable way. But what makes OKRs more than just another buzzword?
If you’ve heard about OKRs, chances are you’ve also heard about Google. They’ve been using OKRs since their early days, and the system has been a key part of how they’ve grown into one of the world’s most innovative companies. So what’s their secret?
In this article, we’re going to explore how Google uses OKRs in a way that’s simple and easy to understand. Whether you’re just starting or looking to sharpen your approach, we’ll walk through what OKRs are, why Google has stuck with them for so long, and how you can start using OKRs to bring clarity and focus to your goals.
By the end, you’ll see how this framework can work for anyone—whether you’re running a small team or building something bigger.
What is Google OKR?
At its core, OKR is a simple framework designed to help teams and organizations set clear, measurable goals. It’s a way to take big, often vague ideas and turn them into actionable steps. Google didn’t invent OKRs, but they’ve made them famous for fostering innovation and aligning teams across a massive, fast-moving company.
So, how do OKRs work? Let’s break it down:
- Objectives are the “what” – what do you want to achieve? Objectives should be bold, inspiring, and ambitious, yet clear enough that everyone understands them. For example, an objective could be “Launch a new product that revolutionizes cloud storage.”
- Key Results are the “how” – how will you measure your achievement of that objective? These should be specific, measurable outcomes that track progress. For the cloud storage example, key results could be “Increase storage capacity by 50%,” “Gain 500,000 new users,” or “Achieve 99.9% uptime.”
NOTE: To learn more about OKRs, check out the Oboard OKR Guide!
When Google adopted OKRs in its early days (thanks to John Doerr, an early investor who introduced the system), it transformed how it set goals. Google’s leadership embraced focusing on what matters and letting their teams aim for ambitious goals without fear of failure. That’s a key part of the OKR philosophy: aiming high and learning from what doesn’t work.
At Google, OKRs are everywhere. Everyone uses OKRs to stay aligned and drive progress from individual teams to company-wide goals. Each quarter, employees set their OKRs that tie into larger company objectives. However, Google also encourages a sense of openness—OKRs are transparent across the company, so anyone can see what the other team is working on. Such a level of visibility fosters collaboration and ensures everyone works toward the same big-picture goals.
What makes OKRs at Google unique isn’t just the process itself but the culture around them. Google’s OKRs are ambitious by design. The company aims to hit around 70% of its OKRs each quarter, leaving room for experimentation and growth. So the teams are encouraged to stretch themselves, take risks, and not worry about perfection.
Google’s use of OKRs proves that innovation flourishes when a company empowers its teams to set ambitious goals and allows them to adjust along the way.
Google OKR Examples
Nowadays, Google sets OKRs at all company levels—from top-level corporate goals to individual team objectives. But it wasn’t always that way. One example truly changed how the company perceived OKRs and started implementing them in a mandatory fashion.
When Google was designing Chrome, the goal was to build a fast, reliable browser that would stand out and be used by most Internet users worldwide (of whom there were about 1,000,000 at the time). So, to underscore their ambitions, the team settled on this OKR:
- [O] Develop the next-generation client platform for web applications by 2010.
- [KR] Chrome has 20 million seven-day active users by the end of 2008
Now, these numbers are ridiculous. Even Google, already a more-or-less monopolist on the web search engine market, did not have the resources to achieve these goals realistically. But that’s fine—since OKRs are all about ambition, the (at the time) Chrome project manager Sundar Pichai was willing to shoot for the moon anyway. He was realistically expecting to get maybe 70% of that result, but that was still more than enough for his ambitions.
To do that, he designed a series of initiatives that would help his team hit the target numbers:
- Broaden distribution deals with the OEMs (original equipment manufacturers);
- Embark on a “Chrome Fast” marketing campaign to heighten product awareness in the United States;
- Expand their demographic by launching Chrome for OS X and Linux;
- Create a passive alert for former Chrome users who’d been dormant.
And yet, this wasn’t enough — the team suffered technical difficulties and ultimately failed to reach even 70% of their first OKR. But Sundar knew that by overcoming each growing pain, his product improved, and his team grew more and more aligned. Having 20 million users wasn’t a challenge to them anymore, so in 2009, he expanded the Key Result to 50 million users instead.
And they failed again, but they failed better. By the end of 2009, Sundar had 38 million active Chrome users — just over the required 70% from the 50 million mark. So for 2010, Sundar set the next target of 111 million users… and blew past it by the end of the year.
NOTE: Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and President of Products at the time, wanted Sundar to set an even more ambitious mark for 2010, but the Chrome team argued for more conservative targets.
During his TED Talk on the OKRs, John Doerr specifically mentioned Chrome’s launch as the moment when Google’s paradigm truly shifted into the OKR mindset. Since then, Google has used OKRs for most of its products, and the framework has become one of the company’s backbones. It is also among the Measure What Matters OKR Examples.
OKR Best Practices
While OKRs are a simple framework, getting the most out of them requires thoughtful implementation. Google has honed its approach to OKRs over years of trial and error, and a few key best practices help make their OKRs so effective. Here’s what Google does—and what you can learn from it.
1. Set Ambitious but Achievable Objectives
Google’s OKRs are famous for being bold and challenging. It is no accident—OKRs work best when they push teams beyond their comfort zone. At Google, an objective is something inspiring that teams are excited to work toward. It shouldn’t be easy to accomplish, but it shouldn’t feel impossible.
For example, an objective like “Become the number one search engine in the world” may have seemed overly ambitious at Google’s inception, but it inspired the team to think big and innovate. The key is to balance aspiration and realism, encouraging growth without setting teams up for failure.
2. Make Key Results Measurable and Specific
A good Key Result leaves no room for vagueness. Google’s Key Results are always tied to numbers or specific outcomes. As we explained before, this helps the team know exactly what success looks like and keeps everyone aligned. Whether it’s “Increase user adoption by 20%” or “Reduce downtime by 50%,” KRs should be quantifiable.
The reason is simple: what gets measured gets done. Using concrete metrics, Google’s teams can track progress, adjust their approach if needed, and stay accountable to their goals.
3. Prioritize a Few Key OKRs
Google’s OKR framework emphasizes focus, meaning teams don’t try to do everything simultaneously. Instead, they choose 3 to 5 high-priority objectives to focus on each quarter. This allows teams to concentrate on what truly matters without being overwhelmed by too many goals.
By narrowing the focus, teams can devote their energy to making real progress on critical objectives, rather than spreading themselves too thin.
4. Embrace Transparency and Alignment
One of Google’s most powerful OKR practices is transparency. Google’s OKRs are open for everyone in the company to see, from the CEO’s objectives down to those of individual team members. This visibility creates alignment across the entire organization, ensuring that everyone understands how their work contributes to larger company goals.
Transparency also encourages collaboration. Teams can see where their objectives overlap and work together to achieve shared goals, fostering a sense of unity and purpose across departments.
5. Aim for 70% Completion
A unique aspect of Google’s OKR philosophy is that hitting 100% of your OKRs isn’t necessarily the goal. In fact, Google believes that if you’re hitting all your OKRs perfectly, you’re probably not aiming high enough. They encourage teams to aim for about 70% completion.
Risk-taking and learning from failures are the key here; to achieve themt, the team must be able to act without the pressure of expectations. By accepting that some OKRs might not be fully met, Google creates an environment where teams can take bold steps and experiment, knowing that the goal is growth rather than flawless execution.
6. Continuously Review and Adjust
OKRs aren’t static at Google. Teams regularly check in on their progress, adjust key results if needed, and course-correct as new information arises. Whether it’s a weekly check-in or a quarterly review, consistent reflection is a key part of the process.
With OKRs, the teams stay agile, responding to challenges or opportunities in real-time. They also ensure that OKRs remain relevant throughout the quarter, keeping everyone focused on what’s most important.
7. Use OKR Software
While you may be tempted to start with an OKR template and do all the work in Excel afterward… don’t. There is a reason why Google and all the other companies that use OKRs eventually shifted to using dedicated OKR software. That reason is that OKRs include many data points that need to be tracked, and as the company grows, they eventually break any unspecialized system.
What OKR Software Does Google Use?
Google uses OKRs on a massive scale, so it makes sense that they’ve developed internal tools to manage them. Unfortunately, these tools aren’t available to the public. But that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Plenty of OKR platforms offer functionality similar to Google’s, and they’re designed to be just as powerful for organizations of any size.
While Google’s tools are custom-built, many companies rely on user-friendly and customizable software like Oboard OKR App and OKR Board for Jira to manage their OKRs. These tools are designed to make setting and tracking OKRs seamless, with features that help teams collaborate, visualize progress, and stay aligned with company goals—just like Google does.
Oboard OKR App
Oboard OKR App is an excellent solution whether you’re using Jira or other platforms. It allows you to connect Jira and non-Jira teams in the same workspace, making it a versatile choice for teams that operate across different tools. With customizable OKRs and intuitive tracking, Oboard makes it easy for teams to stay on top of their goals without getting bogged down by unnecessary complexity.
OKR Board for Jira
OKR Board for Jira is a natural fit if you’re already using Jira. It integrates directly into your existing Jira workflows, making aligning your engineering and product teams with OKRs effortless. With built-in reporting and progress tracking, the OKR Board for Jira keeps your OKRs right where your teams already work.
Both platforms offer the flexibility and power needed to manage OKRs in fast-paced environments. They can also scale alongside your organization as it grows—just like Google’s internal systems.
Ready to Supercharge Your OKRs?
Whether you’re a startup or an established business, using OKR software is essential to keeping your teams aligned and focused on what matters. With Oboard OKR App, you can bring the power of OKRs to your organization—no matter the size or platform you use.
Book a demo with Oboard today to see how it can help your teams set better goals, track progress, and achieve more.
