OKR Template

An objective is the direction; key results are the proof you got there. Copy the structure below, and swap in a real objective and three real numbers.

Andy Grove built the discipline behind that structure, not as an abstract framework but as the actual management method he used to run Intel through its shift from memory chips to microprocessors. As What Matters, the platform built around John Doerr's own writing on OKRs, tells it, "Under Grove, Intel increased revenues from $1.9 billion to $26 billion," and Grove himself put the underlying philosophy plainly: "It almost doesn't matter what you know. It's what you can do with whatever you know." That is the same standard a key result should meet: not what you know or intend, but a number that proves you did something with it.

What does a filled-in OKR actually look like?

Field	Example
Objective	Make activation the first thing a new user experiences, not a maze they have to survive
Key Result 1	Lift week-one activation rate from 40 percent to 55 percent
Key Result 2	Cut time-to-first-value from 12 minutes to 5 minutes
Key Result 3	Reduce onboarding drop-off at step 2 from 30 percent to 15 percent

Notice what is missing from that objective: a feature name, a launch date, or a task. Those belong on the roadmap that supports this OKR, not inside the OKR itself.

How do you tell a real key result from a task with a number attached?

A task states an activity: "ship the new onboarding flow." A key result states a measured change: "lift week-one activation from 40 percent to 55 percent." The test is whether the number could move without the specific activity you had in mind, or whether the activity could complete without the number moving at all; if either is true, you have written a task, not a key result, and the fix is to ask what the activity was actually supposed to change and measure that instead.

Why does mixing stretch and confident key results matter?

Three stretch key results in one objective produces a predictable pattern: the team either misses all three and stops trusting the framework, or quietly lowers ambition until the numbers become safe, which defeats the purpose just as thoroughly. A workable mix pairs one or two key results the team is genuinely confident it can hit under normal execution with at most one real stretch, so the end-of-quarter score reflects actual performance instead of a habit of sandbagging the targets or a habit of setting numbers nobody expected to hit.

How does this trace back to where OKRs actually came from?

Grove developed the method at Intel after concluding that valuing expertise without execution produced mediocre outcomes, building on Peter Drucker's earlier Management by Objectives work from the 1950s. What Matters records that Intel's shift under Grove, from memory chips to microprocessors, helped put personal computers in "95 percent of American households by 2024." John Doerr, who studied under Grove and later introduced the framework to Google's founders in 1999, carried the same method forward into "Measure What Matters," the book most teams now cite when adopting OKRs. The through-line from Intel's revenue growth to a template you fill in this quarter is the same idea Grove insisted on from the start: execution, measured, matters more than the plan on paper.

When should OKRs get reviewed, and how does that connect to the rest of the quarter?

Weekly, briefly, at the team level, with a formal check at the midpoint and a real close-out at the end of the quarter. A key result that is quietly off track in week 3 is a small correction; the same drift discovered in week 11 is a missed quarter with no time left to fix it. Pair this OKR template with the product roadmap template for the work itself and the PRD template for any single initiative that needs more detail than an objective and three numbers can carry.

Builders Camp's How to Design OKRs bootcamp covers writing objectives that hold up under scrutiny, choosing key results that are actually outcomes, and running the review cadence that keeps OKRs from quietly becoming a task list with extra formatting.