OKR Template
One objective, three or four key results, and honest status against each.
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| Period | [period] |
| Owner | [owner] |
| Updated | October 14, 2026 |
Objective
[the ambition, in plain words — no numbers here]
Key results
| Key result | Baseline | Target | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| [add one key result per line] |
What is an OKR Sheet?
An OKR sheet holds one objective — a short statement of what you are trying to achieve this quarter — and three or four key results that say how you will know you got there. It matters because without written key results, a team spends the last week of the quarter arguing about whether the objective was met. Numbers agreed in advance settle that argument before it starts.
Product, engineering, marketing and operations teams use OKR sheets at the start of a quarter or half-year, usually one sheet per team and one for the company. Founders use them to stop a small business chasing six directions at once. Managers use them as the agenda in a one-to-one: read the key result, say the current number, say what changed since last time. They also appear in board packs, where an investor would rather see the same four numbers each quarter than a fresh set of slides.
What varies is not the format but what the sheet becomes once it touches pay or performance management. If a key result is written into a bonus scheme, whether that creates an entitlement depends on local employment law and on the wording of the scheme — check your jurisdiction, and in parts of the EU check whether employee representatives must be consulted before performance measures are introduced. Where key results track named individuals, data protection rules such as the UK and EU GDPR apply to that record. Keep company OKRs separate from anything appraisal-related unless you have taken advice.
An OKR sheet is not a task list and not a project plan. It records outcomes — what will be true when the quarter ends — not the work that produces them, and if a line on the sheet can be finished by one person in an afternoon it belongs on a task list instead. It is also not a complete record of the team's work. Most of what a team does is keeping the existing thing running, and OKRs deliberately ignore that. A team judged only by its OKR sheet will stop maintaining anything.
What to put in an OKR Sheet
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Issuing organisation | For example: Maple Grove Homeowners Association |
| Organisation address | For example: 1420 Kinnear Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| Period | For example: Q3 2026 — July to September |
| Owner | For example: Sarah Chen, Operations |
| Objective | For example: Make the trade counter the fastest way for a small builder to get materials in Central… |
| Key results | One per line: Key result | Where we started | Target | Status |
How to write an OKR Sheet
Write the objective as a sentence
The objective is qualitative and short. It should read like something you would say out loud: 'Make the first week of onboarding something new customers finish without help.' Keep numbers out of it — they belong in the key results. Avoid stacking two ambitions with an 'and', because a joined objective cannot be scored and will be half-met every single time.
Pick three or four key results
Each key result needs a metric, a starting number and a target: 'activation rate from 34 to 55 per cent' rather than 'improve activation'. Write the baseline even when it is embarrassing, because a target with no baseline cannot be judged. Three is usually enough. Above four, the team stops reading the sheet and the objective loses its edge.
Name one owner per key result
One name, not a team name and not two names. The owner is not the only person doing the work; they are the person who reports the number and says whether it is on track. Where two functions share a result, split it into two results with two owners, or accept that neither will feel responsible for it in week nine.
Set the cadence for updating status
Decide now how often the numbers get refreshed — weekly or fortnightly is typical — and who refreshes them. Put the date of the last update on the sheet. An OKR sheet nobody has touched since the planning meeting is worse than no sheet at all, because people still quote it while the figures behind it have moved on.
Score honestly at the end
At the close of the quarter, write the final number beside each target and a one-line reason. 'Reached 46 against a target of 55; the redesign shipped six weeks late' teaches the next planning meeting something. 'Partially achieved' teaches it nothing. Keep the scored sheets — a stack of them is the only reliable record of what your team can move in a quarter.
Common mistakes
- Writing key results that measure activity rather than outcome, so 'publish twelve blog posts' counts as done the day the twelfth goes live whether or not anyone read them.
- Leaving out the baseline, which means nobody can tell at the end whether the target was ambitious or had already been met before the quarter started.
- Setting eight or nine objectives, so the sheet becomes a list of everything the team does and directs attention at nothing.
- Tying OKR scores directly to bonuses, which teaches everyone to set targets they know they will hit and hides the real state of the business.
- Never updating the sheet after planning week, so the numbers people quote in month three are the ones that were true in month one.
Frequently asked questions
How many OKRs should one team have?
One objective per team per quarter is enough for most teams, with three or four key results under it. Larger teams sometimes carry two. The limit is attention rather than arithmetic: if a person cannot recite the objective from memory in week seven, there are too many. Company-level and team-level OKRs are separate sheets, and the team's should visibly support the company's.
What is the difference between an OKR and a KPI?
A KPI is a number you watch continuously because it describes the health of the business — churn, gross margin, uptime. An OKR is a number you are deliberately trying to move this quarter. Most KPIs never become key results; they sit on a dashboard and you act only when they move. A useful test: if you would still track it while nothing is being changed, it is a KPI.
Should OKRs be linked to performance reviews?
Many organisations deliberately keep the two apart, because a target that decides someone's pay stops being an honest forecast. If yours does link them, check how local employment law treats performance measures written into a bonus scheme, and whether employee representatives must be consulted before you introduce them. Take that question to HR or an employment adviser rather than settling it on a template.
What score counts as a good OKR result?
There is no universal answer, and the number matters less than the note beside it. Some organisations set stretch targets deliberately out of reach and treat falling short as normal; others expect targets to be met in full. Decide which convention you are using before the quarter starts and write it on the sheet, because the same score means opposite things under the two systems.
Can I use one OKR sheet for a whole company?
Yes for a small company — under a dozen or so people, a single sheet on a wall works better than a cascade. Beyond that, one company sheet plus one per team is the usual shape, with each team sheet naming which company key result it supports. What fails is a cascade four levels deep, where the bottom sheets are restatements of the level above.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.