Team OKRs

Team OKRs translate organization objectives into team-specific work. They answer the question: "How does our team contribute to the company's goals this wave?"

How Team OKRs Work

Team objectives connect team work to organization strategy:

1. Organization sets strategic objectives for the wave
2. Teams choose which organization objective to align to
3. Teams create their own objective explaining their contribution
4. Teams define key results to measure their progress
5. Teams track progress and report weekly sentiment

This creates a cascade from strategy to execution while preserving team autonomy.

Creating Team Objectives

Who Can Create

Team members can create objectives for their team. Team leads are responsible for finalizing objectives before the wave goes active.

Alignment Choice

When creating a team objective, you select which organization objective to support. This is a team decision - you're not assigned an alignment.

Why team choice matters:

• Teams know their capabilities best
• Creates ownership and motivation
• Surfaces natural alignment patterns
• Identifies gaps where objectives lack support

Alignment Rationale

Every team objective requires an alignment rationale - a brief explanation of why your team's work contributes to the organization objective.

Example:

Our objective to "Reduce page load time by 40%" aligns to the company objective "Improve customer retention" because faster performance directly reduces user frustration and abandonment.

This creates transparency and ensures teams aren't working in silos.

Key Results

Team key results define measurable outcomes specific to your team's contribution.

Structure

Each key result includes:

Field	Purpose
Title	What you're measuring
Baseline Value	Starting point
Target Value	Goal to achieve
Current Value	Where you are now
Unit Type	How it's measured

Good Key Results

Characteristics:

• Within your team's control
• Measurable without interpretation
• Achievable within the wave
• Connected to the objective

Examples:

• "Reduce API response time from 500ms to 200ms"
• "Increase test coverage from 60% to 85%"
• "Ship 3 customer-requested features"

Avoid

• Metrics you can't influence
• Vanity metrics that don't connect to outcomes
• Goals that depend entirely on other teams

Objective Types

Like organization objectives, team objectives can be:

Roofshots

Achievable stretch goals with 80%+ confidence of success.

Moonshots

Ambitious goals with 50% or less confidence - worth attempting even if you don't fully achieve them.

Most team objectives should be roofshots aligned to organization roofshots.

Progress Tracking

Updating Key Results

During the wave, team leads update key result progress:

1. Navigate to your team's objective
2. Update the current value for each key result
3. Progress percentage calculates automatically

Achievement Status

Track overall objective status:

Status	When to Use
Not Started	No work begun
On Track	Progressing as expected
At Risk	Facing blockers or behind schedule
Off Track	Significant problems
Completed	All key results achieved

Pulse Check

Team members vote weekly on objective health using Red/Amber/Green status via Pulse Check. This provides early warning when help is needed.

Permissions by Role

Team Members

Can:

• View team objectives
• Submit weekly sentiment votes
• See progress on key results

Cannot:

• Create or edit objectives
• Update key result progress

Team Leads

Can:

• Create team objectives
• Edit objectives
• Update key result progress
• Change achievement status

Cannot:

• Create objectives for other teams

Wave Phase Rules

Draft Phase

• Full editing allowed
• Create, modify, delete objectives
• Experiment with alignment choices
• Not yet committed

Ready Phase

• Final preparation before activation
• Objectives can still be edited

Active Phase

• Objectives remain editable by team leads
• Track key result current values
• Report weekly sentiment

Completed Phase

• Read-only
• Review outcomes
• No changes allowed

Multiple Objectives

Teams can have multiple objectives per wave, up to the configured limit (typically 1-3).

Recommendation: Start with one focused objective. Multiple objectives dilute effort and reduce achievement rates.

Viewing Team Progress

Team Dashboard

View your team's objectives, key results, and progress from the team dashboard within the wave.

Organization View

Administrators can see all team objectives and how they align to organization objectives. This reveals:

• Which organization objectives have strong team support
• Which objectives lack alignment
• Overall progress across the organization

Best Practices

For Team Leads

• Involve the team - Don't create objectives in isolation
• Be realistic - Overcommitting hurts morale
• Start with why - The alignment rationale matters
• Track honestly - Update progress even when it's bad news

For Team Members

• Participate in planning - Share your perspective on what's achievable
• Vote honestly - Weekly sentiment helps surface problems early
• Stay aligned - Connect daily work to the objective

For Organizations

• Limit objectives - 1-2 per team is often enough
• Don't over-prescribe - Let teams choose their alignment
• Celebrate progress - Recognize teams that achieve goals
• Learn from misses - Understand why objectives weren't hit

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Next steps: View your team's objectives from the Wave dashboard, or create a new objective if your team hasn't set one yet.