What is an OKR framework?

Whether you start from scratch or let Collato set up an OKR template for you, it’s important to first have a strong understanding of the OKR framework to know what elements your template should have.

An OKR framework is an approach to organizational strategy. It outlines how companies can identify objectives and realize them with key results. OKRs are valuable because they guide teams and leadership toward a common goal, leading to increased employee engagement, autonomous working, and even more productivity.

There are two primary components of an OKR framework:

1. Objectives are the overarching goals of your organization. They are what you want to achieve. Objectives are concrete, actionable, and aspirational.

2. Key results are measurable outcomes that drive the path to achieve the objectives. Think of them as how the objectives will be attained. Key results are time-bound, specific, data-driven, and challenging yet achievable.

✍️ Don’t let the fear of writing OKRs deter you from reaching your goals! Use Collato’s free guided worksheet to create clear and effective OKRs in minutes.

What is an OKR template?

An OKR template serves as a model for defining your strategic objectives and key results. It helps structure your overarching strategy by clarifying goals, ownership, and progress.

Who can use an OKR template?

In the workplace, OKR templates are used to support organizational or team-based goal-setting. This implies that an OKR template would most aid leadership, team leads, and managers. However, if they’re done right, they should benefit everyone in the organization by providing transparency and accountability.

Benefits of using an OKR template

Creates alignment between teams - OKRs align teams by creating transparency between dependencies and clarifying relationships between various goals. When teams can visualize how tasks, projects, and objectives fit together, they can better reach their goals together.

Keeps company priorities in focus - Company OKRs act as the north star, guiding everyone’s efforts in the right direction. So when you successfully complete an OKR template, it indicates that you’re confident in your long-term organizational goals.

Increases employee engagement - OKRs can inspire employees to work harder toward achieving organizational priorities while still providing the freedom to get the job done in an autonomous and innovative way. Since established OKRs create a unified direction, teams will take more ownership of delivering results to drive company success.

Gives purpose to daily work - Employees want to connect purpose and meaning to everyday work and understand how they contribute to larger organizational goals.

Achieve goals with an OKR template

Step 1: Understand organizational priorities

Start with your overall strategy and company mission. What is your vision? These statements will clarify your organization’s meaning and purpose for stakeholders and employees. They describe the desired long-term results for the company’s efforts.

For example, if your mission is to create a more human-centric future of work, your values could incorporate humility to celebrate success, positivity to embrace a “yes” mentality, and honesty to communicate openly and honestly. Understanding these elements will drive your OKRs for years to come. (And yes, this is Collato’s mission and top three values!)

Step 2: Establish strategic goals

Choose three objectives that align with the organization and its strategy; these will be your strategic goals. They identify where you want to go and what goals you need to achieve within three to five years. Strategic goals are broader than yearly objectives but shorter than long-term vision statements.

When devising strategic goals, try to answer the question, “Where do we want to be five years down the road?”

Step 3: Plan annual OKRs

Take into consideration your business priorities and decide which three goals could support your mission this year. Annual OKRs will put your organizational efforts in the right direction.

Step 4: Break down annual OKRs into quarterly OKRs

Now that you’ve figured out which direction you want to go, the next step is to figure out how to get there. This is where you’ll break down annual OKRs into quarterly objectives and key results.

How will you divide larger goals into smaller and more manageable pieces? Typically a business quarter is a 13-week period, so make sure your OKRs reflect that cadence.

Step 5: Transform quarterly objectives into team OKRs

The beauty of OKRs is that once you have a direction to steer the organization, your work here is done. Leave it to the teams to formulate quarterly OKRs that support the company’s overarching goals.

When leaders trust employees to create and take ownership of objectives and key results, goals become a part of daily work. It fosters employee engagement, passion for the work being done, and works toward a more productive and goal-reaching company.

🍦 A sweet tip: OKR examples can inspire your own OKR template. See what a strong and weak OKR looks like in our free ebook.

Step 6: Track and revise

Tracking and revising OKRs is a critical element in organizational growth and development. Encouraging teams to give OKR updates, whether in a meeting or in a software, will help everyone stay on top of the most important initiatives to keep work moving forward.

Over time, you’ll start to see what works and what doesn’t, and you can readjust your OKRs accordingly.

The contents of a sweet OKR template

Basic information - Every OKR template includes the business cycle, the team responsible for the OKR or key result set, and the name of the owner. This is the information that needs to be available at first glance.

Company strategy and KPIs - Strategy is the compass that points to your company’s future. It provides direction and is what will determine your objectives. Having your strategy on your OKR template ensures that your team can see the business's direction and how each individual initiative feeds into the long-term plan.

Objectives - Your OKR template would be useless without the objectives. If you’re working with multiple sets of OKRs, then your “main” objectives will be the company objectives.

Measured key results - Your key results go underneath your objectives. For multiple sets of OKRs, the company's key results will serve as the team objectives. The team's key results will go underneath that. This way, it’s easy to visualize how each team contributes to overall company priorities, breaking down silo barriers and creating transparency.

Context - In some cases, goals and objectives need background context for teams to understand the aim and expectations. On your OKR template, there should be an allocated space for any additional information needed.

Progress chart - An OKR template should contain a bar or chart that displays the last identified actual and expected progress. Progress is typically calculated based on start date, updates, and confidence levels.

Confidence levels - A confidence level is another important indicator. It will tell your team whether the person leading that specific OKR or key result believes it’s still achievable, given the current circumstances.

👆 Remember that while OKRs and KPIs are not the same things, it’s helpful to include key performance indicators alongside your strategy on your OKR template, as they are the “health metrics” that track the success of your strategy.

Grading forecast - OKRs are typically graded on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0. At the top of the scale, 1.0 means the goal was fully achieved. Each key result is graded, and then the objective is graded.

Updates - Spaces designed for updates help your team stay on track and make necessary changes to outdated objectives. Even more, updates within an OKR template ensure people spend time on what matters.

Comments and feedback - A large part of successful OKRs is transparency. Comments and feedback on an OKR template can help keep information open, remembered, and actionable.

But now the question is, how do you organize all this information within an OKR template? Collato will show you how it's popsicle.

The magic of an OKR template and Collato

OKR spreadsheets are still commonplace in many organizations, but the reality is that after the initial peek, the document goes unopened until the final days of the quarter. That defeats the purpose of implementing OKRs in the first place!

OKR software tools like Collato have many features that keep companies on track and employees engaged in the process:

✅ Fast, easy, and effective templates

There’s no need to manually set up an OKR template because we’ve done it for you. Just write in your OKRs and share them with your team. In addition to the OKR template, Collato also has a large range of ready-made templates for you to choose from (and we’re always adding new ones!).

🍦 A sweet tip when writing your OKRs: Use a checklist to ensure high-quality objectives and key results that suit your OKR template.

✅ Link team, department, and company objectives

On Collato’s OKR template, employees can see how their work positively affects organizational goals. Within the template, unlimited hierarchy levels allow your team to visualize the connection between their initiatives and company goals. It’s a perfect way to see which projects need immediate attention.

✅ Follow and update OKR progress

Precisely track progress in real-time to see which initiatives are advancing your goals. When progress is explicit, your team can better understand which individual levers are making an impact.

✅ Comment, give feedback, and celebrate success

Keep employees engaged in strategic discussions and goal progression through comments. Your team can leave their thoughts directly on any file with precise annotations or record a video to make feedback interactive and enjoyable. There’s even a space to celebrate success and cultivate a company culture through positivity and appreciation.

🍦 About Collato: We have a space called “ice cream and onions” where we hand out ice cream to colleagues who’ve been great team players or to celebrate their wins. You can, of course, give one to yourself too. Successes often go unseen when they deserve to be shouted from the rooftops! If you’ve made a mistake, you can reward yourself with an onion and share what you’ve learned. Learning from your mistakes is like cooking with an onion: it stings at first but adds essential flavor to your dish.

✅ Get help anytime

We’re here to help you navigate through the OKR template or anything else you may need to make the magic happen. We have a help center with tutorials, or reach out to our friendly team by booking a demo.