OKRs for Startups: How can Startups Successfully set up Business OKRs?

Recommended reading: The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution for Growing Startups

Introduction

Vision and Mission statement- sounds familiar? No, right? 

Most companies discuss their mission and vision with their employees during the onboarding process. The HR managers keep reminding employees of their targets and deliverables, forgetting about the vision alignment. There are only a few instances where the mission, vision, and goals are discussed. 

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.”

– Anonymous

As the famous quote says, growth is not a result of luck by chance; it results from people and teams working together towards a shared goal/vision. 

What is OKR startup, and why do startups need it?

According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, only 25% of new businesses survive up to the 15-year mark. Most likely, the company fails within the first ten years. Most companies will have a vision board unknown to the executive level employee. Our startup environment had tabooed vision and mission statement as a ‘C’ level management employee responsibility. We don’t see any entry-level or mid-senior-level employees involved in the goal-setting process. 

OKR – Objective and Key Results is a comprehensive yet simple method for goal setting that enables the company and its employees to be on track with the goals and objectives to attain growth. Startups need OKR in business to witness seamless growth in a controlled environment. Google was the first company to employ the OKR in business for goal setting in the initial stages. Let us delve further to see how startups can effectively set up OKRs.

How to set OKRs for startups?

• Startup OKR: Set your long-term vision:

Goal Setting is the first step in setting up a specific business OKR. Any startup with a team size of 50 or 200 must have a long-term baseline goal. A clear long-term goal in OKR is the base on which the other key indicators can be derived in terms of inputs and short-term goals.

• Startup OKR: Convert your long-term vision into multiple short-term visions:

The next step is converting your long-term goals into multiple, achievable short-term ones. For example, if your organisation’s long-term goal is to reach $ 100M revenue then the short-term goals must be divided into 1st three years what you want to achieve and what is the target you want to achieve in subsequent years. Then set your yearly OKRs and then quarterly input or sales to achieve the said long-term goal.

• Startup OKR: Collect valuable Data:

Collecting valuable data about your organisation and its growth is vital to set an effective OKR for your business. With viable data collection of the current state of your organisation, you will be able to decipher the areas that require attention.

• Startup OKR: One tangible and unique metric for your organisation:

You must identify the measurable north star metric for your business and set goals for the decided metric. Choosing an aspect of growth to measure will help you understand the areas where your organisation might need support to grow. 

• Startup OKR: Choose Better Planning Cycles and Structure

You can choose a quarterly goal-setting cycle for startups with a team size above 100. But there are no said templates of OKR applicable to all organisations. The leader can opt for a monthly structure for an early stage startup with a team size of 25-50. This helps is getting your MVP and GTM ontime.   

• Startup OKR: Choose the right Goal Setting tools for Business OKRs.

Business OKRs require utmost attention as the whole organisation will be pulled with the reigns of the OKR. Any minor development accounts for a significant impact on the organisation. So, carefully choose the goal-setting tool for your team size and the one that aligns with your requirements.

• Startup OKR: Increase awareness of OKRs:

Involve every other employee while deciding the annual OKR for your business. Value each employee and tutor them on the benefits of OKR and why they should start implementing the method for their growth. 

• Startup OKR: Identify your measurable vital results.

According to the tangible metric derived, identify the measurable key results for your objective. Re-evaluate the substantial measure set for every OKR cycle, Yearly, quarterly or monthly. Weekly check-ins and one-to-one conversation between the managers and subordinates are very important to achieve the OKRs within the planned cycle. OKRs are measured in the scale of 0.0 to 1.0, aspirations OKRs are considered as achieved when the total score is 0.7 and whereas the committed OKRs are considered as achieved only when the score 1.0. 

• Startup OKR: Decide on initiatives and share responsibilities.

Identify the leaders in your organization, share your vision with them and empower them with entrusted responsibilities. Make your employees more involved in every aspect of setting up OKRs.

• Startup OKR: Iterate by the end of every OKR cycle.

Periodical reiteration of the OKR cycle is vital to understand if or not the set goal can be achieved within the cycle. 

Conclusion

Setting up Startup OKRs for your business might be challenging. With the development of softwares, we have softwares that is developed to identify the organisation needs with the customisable data presets. 10xWinners’ OKR for business development, will cater to all sizes of organisations. We have templates and presets that can be customised according to your tangible metric. Our agile and robust OKRs for startups can be used for remote working and hybrid environments to keep the open culture intact. To know more about how our software can help you grow your business, click here