What is a key result?

- Now that we understand more about Objectives, how about Key Results? Just what are they? With OKRs, Objectives must have a set of Key Results, and Key Results must be tied to an Objective. Key Results benchmark and monitor our progress towards our Objective, and they validate that we've achieved it. As John says, "If the Objectives are the what, Key Results are the how," as in how we know we've succeeded. Let's say our Objective is to safely summit the mountain. How will we know when we've achieved it? Do we succeed if we trained, booked our guide, and bought all of our supplies? The answer is no. Those are all important action steps, but they don't measure progress towards the goal to safely summit the mountain. Actually let's push ourselves. What would it take to reach the mountain summit in record time? How would we define that? We know we've done it if we, first, completed the climb in six days or fewer. Second, we make it to base camp before sundown each day. Third, we get to the summit with at least 50% of our food and water remaining, and of course, fourth, no one on the team experiences a major injury. Key Results must be measurable. They leave no room for argument about how much was accomplished. Let's watch a video from Andy Grove, the creator of OKRs. - The two key phrases of the Management by Objective systems are the Objectives and the Key Result and they match the two purposes. The Objective is the direction. I want to dominate, we want to dominate the mid-range microcomputer component business. That's an Objective. That's where we want to go. Key Results for this quarter, win 10 new designs for the 8085, one Key Result. It's a milestone. The two are not the same, but that's the first milestone that, in the next time period, we can pass. Then we can measure. The Key Result has to be measured, but at the end, you can look and without any arguments say, "Did I do that, or did I not do it? Yes/no?" - That's right, without argument. Once all of the Key Results are completed, the Objective is achieved. However, if you completed all the Key Results and the Objective was not met, then the KRs were missing something. That's because Key Results work as a set. In our mountaineering example, if any one of the Key Results fails, our Objective is at risk. So where do we start with crafting Key Results? Look at your Objective and ask, "What are the three to five critical outcomes that need to be met to achieve this Objective? Remember, a great Objective is significant, concrete, action-oriented, and inspirational, and a great set of Key Results, well, they're specific. They're time-bound. They're aggressive yet realistic and measurable and verifiable. Let's rewind to my very first experience with OKRs when I was part of the fixer team for HealthCare.gov. When the website was launched, it just didn't work, and everyone on the team had different ideas about how to fix it. To make the site work, we needed a common way to decide which problems to prioritize. After a long group discussion, Mikey Dickerson, an ex-Googler, summarized the challenge as an OKR. He walked up to the whiteboard and wrote, "We have to fix the website for the vast majority of people, and that's measured by 70% of people being able to get through, a one-second response time, a 1% error rate, and a 99% uptime." Those four items were how we'd know, at least in that moment, that we had fixed the website for the vast majority. Over the next few weeks, Those KRs helped us prioritize our actions and initiatives. They told us what we should say no to. We would only undertake an effort if it enrolled more people, significantly improved reliability, or improved response time. That clarity helped us be more judicious with our time and resources. In the end, we ultimately enrolled millions of people into affordable healthcare. One common mistake teams make is to jam their to-dos and deliverables into their Key Results. They'll take their project plan and pick three to five milestones of deliverables that they want to track. After all, to-do lists can sound specific and time-bound and measurable, and they're familiar lingo in meetings, but action items don't capture the impact you're trying to make. They're actions, not results. They don't tell us, "If we do all these things, what will get better?" Your Key Results need to capture what will change or improve because of your actions. Finally, Key Results don't include everything that will change. They're just those few outcomes that need special emphasis from the team, so no matter what gets delivered at the cycle's end. we'll be clear-eyed about what we defined as success and how close we came to achieving it. You know, it can feel uncomfortable to hold yourself accountable to results instead of activities and to write those results down where everyone can see them. OKRs spark a different kind of conversation than many teams are used to, but eventually, that conversation transforms those teams. They learn how to look at a challenge to align around what's most important and measure their impact. As teams strengthen their goal-setting muscle by setting precise Key Results, their performance can dramatically improve.