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OKR template

Security OKR examples

This is a free security OKR template with 2 objectives, 6 key results, and 8 starter initiatives you can copy. Exposure that actually shrinks, and trust reviews that stop holding up deals — no “get certified” goal in sight. It is written for Seed, Series A and Growth companies.

  • 2 objectives
  • 6 key results
  • Seed
  • Series A
  • Growth

What does a security OKR look like?

Copy these as they are and edit the numbers to your own baselines. The objective is the outcome you want to be true by the end of the quarter; the key results are how you will know it happened; the initiatives are the bets you are making to get there.

Objective 1 Operational

Shrink the window an attacker would have

Security is an operational outcome: how much is exposed, and for how long. The annual goal is a company where a serious issue closes in days rather than quarters — this quarter is about time-to-close and the incidents that reach production.

KR 1.1 Headline

Median days to close a critical finding 47 → 7

How it is measured: Median days from a critical finding being raised to it being closed

Baseline: 47 days · Target: 7 days

Initiatives

  • Give every critical finding a named owner and a due date the day it lands
  • Review the open critical list at the same time every week
KR 1.2

Critical findings open past their due date 22 → 0

How it is measured: Critical findings still open past their 30-day close date

Baseline: 22 · Target: 0

Initiatives

  • Close or explicitly accept every finding older than a quarter
KR 1.3

Production services with a named on-call owner 55% → 100% of the services we run

How it is measured: Production services with a named on-call owner, over services we run

Baseline: 55% · Target: 100%

Initiatives

  • Publish one page per service with its owner, its data, and its blast radius
Objective 2 New business

Stop the trust review from being the reason a deal slips

Every enterprise deal now carries a security review, and ours is the slow part. The annual goal is a review that answers itself; this quarter cuts the days it adds to pipeline and the questions we answer by hand.

KR 2.1 Headline

Median days a security review adds to a deal 21 → 4

How it is measured: Median days between a security questionnaire arriving and the deal moving again

Baseline: 21 days · Target: 4 days

Initiatives

  • Publish a trust page answering the 40 questions we get asked most
  • Give sales a pre-approved answer set they can send without us
KR 2.2

Questionnaires answered without an engineer 10% → 75% of the questionnaires we receive

How it is measured: Security questionnaires completed with no engineering time, over questionnaires received

Baseline: 10% · Target: 75%

Initiatives

  • Route every new question into the answer library the same day
KR 2.3

Deals lost on a security objection 9 → 2

How it is measured: Closed-lost deals where security was the recorded reason

Baseline: 9 · Target: 2

Initiatives

  • Log the security objection on every lost deal and review the top one monthly

Why are these key results written this way?

Every example above passes the same quality rubric Hespia grades real OKRs against. Four rules do most of the work, and they are worth keeping when you edit the numbers:

  1. The objective has no number in it

    An objective is a qualitative state of the world you want to be true. The number belongs one level down, on the key result. An objective with a metric in the title is really a key result that lost its parent.

  2. Every key result shows a baseline, not just a target

    "Median days to close a critical finding 47 → 7" is readable at a glance because the movement is visible. A target with no starting number cannot be paced weekly, so nobody can tell in week 4 whether it is slipping.

  3. Every ratio names a denominator the team cannot shrink

    "Of the accounts that started the quarter" is a fixed denominator. "Of active accounts" is not — the definition of active can move, and the percentage improves without anything real changing.

  4. Enabling work sits in initiatives, not in key results

    "Launch the new onboarding" is work; "activation in week one from 31% to 45%" is the result the work is meant to produce. Shipping the project is not the same as the outcome arriving, so the two live at different levels.

A template remembers. It doesn't chase.

Copied into a doc, these 6 key results depend on someone reopening the doc every week. Hespia seeds this exact board in one click, then 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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Security OKR questions

What are good security OKRs?

Good security OKRs pair a qualitative objective with key results that each carry a number. In this template the objectives are "Shrink the window an attacker would have" and "Stop the trust review from being the reason a deal slips", and every key result underneath states the metric, where it starts, and where it needs to land — for example "Median days to close a critical finding 47 → 7". If a key result has no starting number, it is a task rather than a key result.

How many key results should a security team have?

Three to five key results per objective, and no more than two or three objectives per team in a quarter. This template uses 2 objectives and 6 key results in total, which is a realistic quarter for one team. More than that and the weekly check-in stops fitting in fifteen minutes, which is how the ritual dies.

Are these security OKR examples free to use?

Yes. Every objective, key result, and initiative on this page is free to copy into any doc, spreadsheet, or goal tool, with no signup and no email. Hespia, the AI mentor that tracks weekly pace on each of these key results and chases the owners, is $100/month flat for the whole team.

Why does every key result here name its denominator?

Because a ratio without a stated denominator can be improved by shrinking the bottom number instead of growing the top one. A team that reports "percentage of active accounts" can quietly redefine "active" and post a win it did not earn. Every percentage in this template names a denominator the team cannot move, such as the accounts that started the quarter.

More OKR templates

Security prevention and detection OKR examples

The easy attack paths closed — phishing, stale access, silent intrusions — and detection fast enough to matter.

Company and founder OKR examples

The two goals a founder-led company runs on: win the segment you chose, and make the business predictable enough to plan a year around.

Engineering OKR examples

Delivery and reliability as outcomes, not story points: how fast a change reaches customers, and how rarely it hurts them.

Engineering quality and tech debt OKR examples

Bugs found before customers find them, and the accumulated debt that taxes every change — paid down where it slows you most.

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