Templates

Free OKR templates

Three plain-text templates that cover the whole quarter: planning, the 15-minute weekly check-in, and the retrospective. Copy them straight into any doc. No signup, no email.

Use in the last 2 weeks before a quarter starts.

Quarterly OKR planning template

One objective, 3 to 5 measurable key results, one owner each. If a key result has no baseline number, it is a task, not a key result.

OBJECTIVE (the outcome, not the work)
"[Verb] [outcome] so that [why it matters]"
e.g. "Win our first paying customers so the product is funded by users, not hope"

KEY RESULTS (3 to 5, each with a number)
KR1: [metric] from [baseline] to [target] | Owner: [name] | Confidence: [x/10]
KR2: [metric] from [baseline] to [target] | Owner: [name] | Confidence: [x/10]
KR3: [metric] from [baseline] to [target] | Owner: [name] | Confidence: [x/10]

SANITY CHECKS before you commit
- Can each KR be measured every single week? If not, rewrite it.
- Would hitting all KRs mean the objective is true? If not, a KR is missing.
- Is any KR a project ("launch X") instead of a result ("X users active")? Rewrite it.
- Total confidence across KRs around 6-7/10. All 9s means you sandbagged.

Use every week, same day, same time. Week 2 through week 12.

Weekly OKR check-in template (15 minutes)

The whole discipline of OKRs lives in this ritual. Numbers first, then pace, then one blocker and one next step per key result. Fifteen minutes, not a meeting.

For each key result, fill in four lines:

KR: [name]
Current number: [x] (was [y] last week; needs to be [z] by now to stay on pace)
Pace: AHEAD / ON TRACK / SLIPPING
Biggest blocker: [one sentence]
Next step this week: [one action, one owner]

Then answer one team-level question:
"If the quarter ended today, which KR would we regret most, and what are we
doing about it this week?"

Rules
- The number is the number. No "basically on track."
- A KR that is SLIPPING two weeks in a row gets a recovery plan or a rescope.
- Skipping a week is how quarters die. Do it at 80% quality rather than skip.

Use in the final week of the quarter, before planning the next one.

Quarter retrospective template

Score every key result, find the week each miss actually started, and turn that into one process change. Learning is the only output of a quarter you keep forever.

SCORING (per key result)
KR: [name] | Final: [x] of [target] | Score: [0.0-1.0]
0.7+ is a hit. 1.0 every time means targets were too soft.

THE THREE QUESTIONS
1. What landed, and what did we do differently on those KRs?
2. For every miss: in which WEEK did it start slipping, and when did we notice?
   (If the gap is more than 2 weeks, your check-in ritual failed, not the team.)
3. What is the ONE process change for next quarter? One, not five.

CARRY-OVER TEST
For each missed KR: still the right goal? Carry it over with a fresh baseline,
rescope it, or kill it deliberately. Never let it drift into next quarter by default.

Templates remember. They don't chase.

A template in a doc still depends on someone opening the doc. Hespia runs this exact ritual for you: Nova, the AI coach, reads pace on every key result weekly, flags what is slipping in week 4 instead of week 13, and writes the digest nobody wants to write. $100/month flat, whole team included.

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Template questions

How do I use these OKR templates?

Copy any template straight into your doc, spreadsheet, or notes tool: the quarterly planning template before the quarter, the weekly check-in template every week, and the retrospective in the final week. Each one is plain text with fill-in blanks, takes 15 minutes or less, and works for teams of 2 to 200.

Are these OKR templates free?

Yes. All Hespia OKR templates on this page are free to copy and use with no signup, no email, and no credit card. Hespia itself, the AI-coached OKR tool where Nova tracks pace on every goal weekly, costs $100/month flat for the whole team if you want Nova to run the ritual for you.

Do I still need OKR software if I use these templates?

Templates capture the ritual, but they cannot chase anyone. In a doc, a slipping key result hides until someone rereads the sheet. Hespia runs the same weekly check-in and adds Nova, an AI coach who reads pace on every goal, flags slips in week 4 instead of week 13, and writes the digest for you.