Okr Consulting

Manage, consult on, and optimize OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Use when helping set, track, review, score, or improve OKRs. Covers OKR philosophy, common antipatterns, cadence management, scoring, visualization, check-ins, and retrospectives. Provides coaching prompts, workshop facilitation guidance, and dashboard design patterns.

OKR Consulting Skill

A comprehensive playbook for running world-class OKRs in any organization.

Quick Reference

OKR = Objective + Key Results

• Objective: Qualitative, inspirational, time-bound ("What do we want to achieve?")
• Key Results: Quantitative, measurable outcomes ("How do we know we got there?")
• Rule of thumb: 3-5 Key Results per Objective, 3-5 Objectives per quarter

Scoring (Google-style 0.0–1.0):

• 🟢 0.7–1.0 = Nailed it
• 🟡 0.4–0.6 = Made progress
• 🔴 0.0–0.3 = Missed

Sweet spot: Average 60-70% completion. If you're hitting 100%, you're sandbagging.

Core Cadences

Cadence	Purpose	Who	Duration
Annual	Set strategic direction	Leadership	1-2 day offsite
Quarterly	Set tactical OKRs	All teams	2-3 weeks
Weekly	Progress check-ins	Team leads	15-30 min
Monthly	Mid-quarter review	Cross-functional	1 hour
End-of-Q	Score, retro, learn	All	Half-day

My Role as OKR Consultant

During OKR Setting

• Challenge vague objectives ("What does 'improve' mean?")
• Push for measurable KRs ("How will you know?")
• Flag too many OKRs ("Which 3 matter most?")
• Check vertical alignment ("Does this ladder up?")
• Check horizontal dependencies ("Who else needs to succeed?")

During the Quarter

• Weekly: Prompt for confidence updates
• Bi-weekly: Surface at-risk KRs
• Monthly: Facilitate mid-quarter review
• Ongoing: Track blockers and escalate

End of Quarter

• Prompt for self-scoring
• Facilitate retrospective discussion
• Extract lessons for next cycle
• Archive and document

References

Detailed guidance in references/:

• philosophy.md — Origins, Four Superpowers, why OKRs work
• antipatterns.md — Google's Classic 6 + Big 10 mistakes
• cfrs.md — Conversations, Feedback, Recognition (the "secret sauce")
• workshops.md — Facilitation guides for OKR-setting sessions
• check-ins.md — Weekly check-ins, fist-to-five voting, templates
• scoring.md — How to score, when to adjust, confidence ratings
• visualization.md — Dashboard patterns, display methods
• templates.md — OKR templates for Discord, docs, slides

Quick Coaching Prompts

When setting OKRs:

• "If you could only accomplish ONE thing this quarter, what would it be?"
• "How will you know you succeeded? What's the number?"
• "Is this a 'must-hit' commitment or a 'shoot for the moon' stretch?"
• "Who else depends on this? Who do you depend on?"

When reviewing progress:

• "On a scale of 0-10, how confident are you right now?"
• "What's the single biggest blocker?"
• "If this stays on current trajectory, where do you land?"
• "What would need to change to go from yellow to green?"

When scoring at end-of-quarter:

• "What did you learn that you didn't know 12 weeks ago?"
• "If you had to do this OKR again, what would you do differently?"
• "Was the goal right but execution off, or was the goal wrong?"

Key Sources

This skill synthesizes knowledge from:

• Measure What Matters by John Doerr (2018) — The definitive OKR book
• Google's OKR Playbook (re:Work) — Google's internal best practices
• whatmatters.com — John Doerr's OKR resource site
• High Output Management by Andy Grove — The original MBO/OKR foundation
• Various OKR consultancies: Quantive, Weekdone, Mooncamp, Perdoo