I recently read the book “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr. Judging from the title, I thought it was going to be about goal tracking and metrics, which it is, but more specifically it’s about OKRs.

John Doerr, a venture capitalist, introduced OKRs to Google 20 years ago. Since then, it has been used by the company to help drive their massive success. As a Google employee, it was interesting to read about OKRs from the person who is directly responsible for my engagement with them. Getting a sense of the theory and history of OKRs put what I do in every planning cycle in perspective.

Now I’m expanding the use of OKRs to my personal life because taking measurable actions towards my goals makes me happy. Before I go in to further details about OKRs and happiness, let me give you a definition.

OKR Definition

OKRs are a management methodology that ensures employees in a company focuses efforts on the same important issues throughout the organization.

OKR

The “O” in OKRs stands for “objective” which are meant to be:

• Aspirational and inspirational
• Significant, concrete, action-oriented
• A little uncomfortable but possibly attainable

OKR

The “KR” stands for “key results” and should be

• Specific, measurable, and time-bound
• There should be 3 to 5 quality and quantity KRs per O
• And completing all your KRs should mean that you’ve reached your O

Example OKR

O: Reach 1 billion hours of watch time per day by 2016
KR1: Grow engagement and gaming watch time by X% 
... 

YouTube's OKR in 2012 

In 2012, YouTube’s objective was to reach 1 billion hours of watch time per day by 2016. One of their key results was to grow engagement and gaming watch time. (Side note: The YouTube team achieved their 4-year stretch goal a few months ahead of schedule).

To get the nitty-gritty details on how to write OKRs, for yourself or your company, I’d strongly recommend picking up the book Measure What Matters by John Doerr (affiliate link).

Why use OKRs?

You might be wondering why you should employ OKRs instead of any other goal setting and tracking method. In his book, John Doerr puts forward that there for 4 superpowers that OKRs afford.

OKR Super Powers

1. Focusing on, and committing to priorities. OKRs help you and your management structure identify what’s important and what’s not. And committing to priorities forces everyone to make tough decisions on where to focus their time and energy.
2. Align and connect. If everyone is focused and committed, the second superpower is enabled and allows you to align and connect your day-to-day activities to the organization’s vision for maximum impact.
3. Tracking and accountability. Once everyone is focused, committed, and aligned, the third superpower activated is the ability to track for no judgment accountability. This is done with periodic check-ins, scoring, and continuous reassessment to pivot if need be.
4. Stretching for amazing. The last superpower is to stretch for amazing outcomes. If we’re focused, aligned, and tracking progress you are better positioned to take on huge and daunting goals over longer periods. Like YouTube did back in 2012.

OKRs and happiness

Happiness is not a state of being, it’s a state of doing. To be happy you have to make meaningful progress towards your desired outcomes. OKRs force you to define your desired outcomes and milestones. The closer you get towards a milestone and desired outcome, the happier you’ll be.

This process is not easy. It’s hard to be precise about what your goals are. For example, a long time ago, I had the goal of becoming a rapper. I used to do shows and make music videos but I never felt like I “made it.” My goal wasn’t precise enough. By rapping, I was a “rapper” but that’s not exactly what I wanted. I wanted to make a living off of the music I produced. Even the phrase “make a living” is vague. If I used OKRs to define my overall objective, it may have been something like, “I want to earn X amount in Y years from the music I produce.” A key result would have been to, “earn Z amount in the first year.” If I articulated what I wanted in this manner I would have made different decisions to get to my objective.

I’m working new OKRs for myself to be more precise along my happiness journey.

Get started today

Pick up the book Measure What Matters to learn more about how to write good OKRs and get started “doing” happy today.