How to write Key Results that actually mean something
Most Key Results are disguised to-do lists. Here is how to write ones that measure an outcome, and tell you when you are behind.
The fastest way to kill an OKR program is to fill it with Key Results that are really just tasks in a trench coat. “Launch the new onboarding flow” isn’t a Key Result; it’s an initiative. It’s either done or it isn’t, and “done” tells you nothing about whether it worked.
A Key Result measures a result
An Objective describes a state of the world you want to reach. A Key Result is the number that proves you reached it. If you can’t put a baseline and a target on it, it’s not a Key Result yet.
- ❌ “Improve onboarding”
- ❌ “Ship the new onboarding flow”
- ✅ “Lift week-1 activation from 38% → 55%”
The third one is uncomfortable in the right way: it can be missed. That’s the point. A Key Result you can’t miss isn’t measuring anything.
Three to five per Objective
More than five and nothing is a priority. Fewer than three and you’re probably measuring a single output, not the outcome. Aim for a small set that, taken together, would convince a skeptic the Objective is genuinely achieved.
Make it visible every week
A target you only check at the end of the quarter is a target you’ll miss. The value of a Key Result is that it lets you see pace: are you ahead, on track, or behind right now, with enough quarter left to react? That weekly read is worth more than the number itself.
In Hespia, every Key Result carries a pace pill that compares expected-vs-actual completion, so a slipping quarter surfaces in week 4, not week 13.
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