Good OKRs turn strategy into a few measurable changes: more revenue, better retention, faster onboarding, people who stay. Most lists of OKR examples skip the part that matters, which is where each number starts and why it was chosen.
Below are 15 examples across seven teams. Each one has a starting point, a target and a short note on why it works. Copy the structure, not the numbers.
Key takeaways
- A good OKR pairs one clear, qualitative objective with 2-4 measurable key results.
- Key results measure outcomes such as revenue, retention, activation or customer satisfaction. Tasks and projects belong in your plan, not in your key results.
- Every key result needs a baseline and a target. “From 18% to 23%” tells a team far more than “improve win rate”.
- Copied OKRs without your own baselines are either too easy or demoralizing.
- OKRs work when they are linked to daily work and checked every week or two, not once a quarter.
What makes a good OKR
An objective says where the company or team wants to go. It is qualitative, short and easy to remember. Key results say how you will know you got there. Each one is a number with a starting point and a target.
The method started with Andy Grove at Intel in the 1970s. John Doerr learned it there and introduced it to Google in 1999, and from Google it spread across the tech industry. Google’s own guide to OKRs separates two kinds of goals. Committed OKRs are expected to be hit in full. Aspirational OKRs are set high on purpose, and reaching around 70% of them counts as a good result.
Key result or task?
The most common problem is a key result that is really a task. The work is a way to reach the number, not the number itself.
| Task | Key result |
|---|---|
| Launch a new pricing page | Increase pricing page conversion from 3% to 5% |
| Run 10 onboarding calls | Increase 30-day activation from 40% to 55% |
| Implement a new engagement program | Increase eNPS from 12 to 25 |
If a key result starts with launch, build, run or implement, it probably describes the work and not what the work should change.
The four parts of a good OKR
- One objective. A single qualitative sentence.
- 2-4 key results. Each with a baseline and a target.
- One owner. A person, not a committee.
- A time frame. Usually a quarter.
OKR examples by team
The examples below are hypothetical and written for companies with 20 to 200+ employees. Every number is a placeholder. Replace it with your own baseline before you set a target.
Sales OKR examples
Sales OKRs usually focus on new revenue, but the best ones also look at the quality of the pipeline and at existing clients.
Example 1New business
Objective
Build a predictable new business pipeline in Q1 2027
Key results
- KR1Close $750,000 in new annual recurring revenue
- KR2Win 12 new client accounts
- KR3Improve win ratefrom18%to23%
- KR4Shorten the average sales cyclefrom60 daysto45 days
Why it works
Revenue, deal count, win rate and cycle length give four views of the same pipeline. If revenue lands but the win rate drops, the team hit the number by working more leads, not better ones, and you can see it. One sales leader owns the objective.
Example 2Existing clients
Objective
Grow revenue from the clients we already have
Key results
- KR1Increase net revenue retentionfrom98%to108%
- KR2Raise the share of clients on annual contractsfrom40%to60%
- KR3Generate $150,000 in expansion revenue
Why it works
It moves attention from new logos to current accounts. Net revenue retention shows in one number whether your client base is growing or shrinking.
Marketing OKR examples
Marketing OKRs should connect campaigns to pipeline and revenue, not to activity.
Example 3Pipeline
Objective
Create a steady, sales-ready pipeline for mid-market accounts in Q3 2027
Key results
- KR1Increase marketing qualified leads per monthfrom300to450
- KR2Raise MQL to SQL conversionfrom20%to30%
- KR3Improve landing page conversion ratefrom2.8%to4.2%
- KR4Lower cost per sales qualified leadfrom$420to$350
Why it works
Every key result can be traced to sales. “Launch a webinar series” is not on the list, because it is one way to reach these numbers, not a result in itself.
Example 4Organic search
Objective
Make organic search a reliable source of demo requests
Key results
- KR1Grow organic sessions on product and solution pages per monthfrom8,000to12,000
- KR2Increase demo requests from organic search per monthfrom40to70
- KR3Get 10 priority pages into Google’s top 10 results
Why it works
Traffic can grow without bringing a single client. Tying it to demo requests keeps the team focused on visitors who might buy.
Product OKR examples
Product OKRs work best when they measure what users do, not which features shipped.
Example 5Onboarding
Objective
Help new users get value from the product in their first week
Key results
- KR1Increase activation, from sign-up to first key actionfrom45%to65%
- KR2Raise 4-week retentionfrom30%to45%
- KR3Cut onboarding support tickets per new accountfrom1.5to0.5
Why it works
The product team owns onboarding, and all three numbers show whether new users get stuck. Support tickets are a useful check: if activation rises but tickets do too, the friction has only moved.
Example 6Feature adoption
Objective
Make reporting part of how customers work every week
Key results
- KR1Increase weekly active accounts using reportsfrom25%to40%
- KR2Cut time to first report for new accountsfrom3 daysto1 day
- KR3Raise the reporting satisfaction scorefrom3.6/5to4.2/5
Why it works
A shipped feature that nobody uses is not progress. These key results measure use, speed and satisfaction, so the team cannot hit the objective just by releasing something.
Engineering OKR examples
Engineering OKRs should balance speed and stability, so one is not bought at the cost of the other.
Example 7Delivery speed
Objective
Ship faster without breaking things
Key results
- KR1Increase deployments per weekfrom3to10
- KR2Reduce change failure ratefrom15%to8%
- KR3Cut time to restore service after an incidentfrom6 hoursto2 hours
Why it works
These are three of the four DORA metrics, a widely used way to measure software delivery. Deployment frequency shows speed. Failure rate and restore time show whether that speed costs quality.
Example 8Reliability
Objective
Make the product dependable for our largest clients
Key results
- KR1Raise uptimefrom99.5%to99.9%
- KR2Reduce 95th percentile page load timefrom3.2 secondsto1.8 seconds
- KR3Cut critical incidents per quarterfrom6to2
Why it works
Large clients judge a product by whether it works when they need it. Each key result is something a client would notice.
Customer success OKR examples
Customer success OKRs link the team’s work to retention and renewals, which matter most in a subscription business.
Example 9Early retention
Objective
Turn new clients into long-term clients
Key results
- KR1Reduce churn in the first 6 months of new accountsfrom12%to6%
- KR2Increase the share of accounts that finish onboarding within 30 daysfrom55%to80%
- KR3Raise post-onboarding CSATfrom7.8/10to8.5/10
Why it works
A client who never finishes onboarding has little reason to renew. The second key result is the leading signal, and the first one shows whether it paid off.
Example 10At-risk accounts
Objective
Spot at-risk accounts before they leave
Key results
- KR1Increase the share of accounts with a health scorefrom40%to100%
- KR2Move 50% of accounts flagged red back to green within the quarter
- KR3Reduce monthly gross revenue churnfrom3%to2%
Why it works
You cannot save accounts you cannot see. The first key result builds visibility, the second measures recovery and the third measures the money.
HR OKR examples
HR OKRs link changes in how people work and feel to numbers the leadership team can track.
Example 11Retention
Objective
Make this a place people want to stay
Key results
- KR1Increase employee net promoter score (eNPS)from12to25
- KR2Reduce annualized voluntary turnoverfrom18%to14%
- KR3Raise engagement survey participationfrom60%to85%
Why it works
All three are outcomes. New engagement programs, manager training or a revised onboarding plan are initiatives that support these numbers. They do not belong in the key results.
Example 12Hiring
Objective
Hire faster without lowering the bar
Key results
- KR1Cut average time to hirefrom45 daysto30 days
- KR2Raise offer acceptance ratefrom70%to85%
- KR3Keep 90-day retention of new hires above 95%
Why it works
The third key result is a guardrail. Hiring faster is easy if you stop caring who you hire, and this number makes that visible.
Company OKR examples
Company OKRs give the leadership team one shared target for the quarter. They bring revenue, profit, delivery and retention into the same picture.
Example 13Profitability
Objective
Build a more predictable and profitable business in Q3 2027
Key results
- KR1Increase quarterly revenuefrom$1.1Mto$1.3M
- KR2Increase average gross marginfrom24%to30%
- KR3Reduce the share of projects delivered below target marginfrom20%to10%
- KR4Keep client retention above 90%
Why it works
These numbers cover the main areas a growing service business needs to watch. The CEO can see how sales, delivery and operations perform against the same goals and where something needs attention.
Example 14New segment
Objective
Grow into the mid-market segment
Key results
- KR1Increase the share of revenue from clients with 100+ employeesfrom15%to30%
- KR2Raise average contract valuefrom$18,000to$26,000
- KR3Win 5 new clients with 200+ employees
Why it works
“Move upmarket” is a common plan that stays vague for years. These key results show quarter by quarter whether the client mix is actually changing.
Example 15Scaling the team
Objective
Grow the company without the founder becoming the bottleneck
Key results
- KR1Reduce decisions escalated to the CEO per monthfrom25to10
- KR2Raise the share of departments with a named owner and a weekly scorecardfrom30%to100%
- KR3Keep on-time delivery above 90% while headcount grows
Why it works
Founder dependence is hard to measure directly, so these key results track its symptoms. The third one makes sure that handing over decisions does not cost the client anything.
Company OKRs work best when they sit on top of a clear metric structure. A KPI tree shows which team metrics feed each company number, so every team can see how its own key results move the company’s.
Copy the structure of these examples, not the numbers.
Common OKR mistakes founders make
Confusing tasks with key results. “Run 10 onboarding calls” is a task. “Increase 30-day activation from 40% to 55%” is a key result, and the calls are one way to get there. If most of your key results are actions, your OKRs are a to-do list.
Writing key results you cannot measure. “Increase brand awareness” or “be more data-driven” say nothing on their own. A useful key result names the metric, the starting point, the target and the date.
Copying other companies’ numbers. A 30-person company should not borrow revenue targets from a 300-person one. Two teams can share an objective and still need very different numbers, because they start from different baselines.
Setting too many key results. When an objective has 8 to 10 key results, the team focuses on none of them. Keep it to 2-4 per objective and 3-5 objectives per team.
How to turn OKR examples into your own OKRs
The examples are a starting point. To write OKRs that fit your company, follow six steps.
- Start with a business outcome. Decide what has to change this quarter for the company to make real progress.
- Write the objective. One qualitative sentence that a team can remember without looking it up.
- Choose 2-4 key results. Each one gets a metric, a baseline and a target.
- Decide how ambitious to be. Committed OKRs should be fully achievable. Aspirational ones should feel like a stretch, where 70% is a good result.
- Assign one owner. One person is responsible for the objective, even if many people contribute.
- Map the initiatives. List the projects and work that should move each key result.
Check key results every week or two. If a number moves the wrong way, you see it early and can change the plan before the quarter ends. After each cycle, look at what you learned and adjust the next set of OKRs.
Keeping OKRs connected to daily work
Writing OKRs is the easy part. Keeping them visible is harder. In many teams the OKR spreadsheet gets updated once a month, while the real work happens in project boards and dashboards somewhere else. By the time the numbers are updated, they describe last month.
Enforcium is a business operating system that connects objectives and key results to the metrics and work behind them. Every objective has an owner, every key result has a clear responsibility, and departments see how their work feeds the company goals. Each key result tracks its own progress, and Enforcium rolls it up into the overall progress of the objective automatically, so leaders see where every OKR stands without chasing updates.
If your team has outgrown spreadsheets, see how Enforcium Goals keeps OKRs and daily work aligned.
FAQ
A complete OKR usually has five parts: an objective, 2-4 key results, an owner, a time frame and the initiatives that should move the key results. The objective and key results define the goal. The other three make sure someone is responsible, there is a deadline and there is a plan.
A KPI is a metric you track all the time to see how the business is doing, such as revenue or churn. An OKR is a goal to change something within a set period. Key results often use KPIs: “reduce churn from 3% to 2% this quarter” turns a KPI into a target.
Start with what needs to change this quarter. Write that as one qualitative objective. Then pick 2-4 metrics that would prove the change happened, and set a baseline and a target for each. Finally, name one owner and list the initiatives that should move the numbers.
Good objectives are short, qualitative and say where you want to go. For example: “Build a predictable new business pipeline”, “Help new users get value in their first week” or “Make this a place people want to stay”. The numbers go in the key results, not in the objective.