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As a startup or early stage company, most of your time is committed to scaling your company through those next growth milestones. After all, growth is the biggest driver towards building your dream company and achieving the vision your team set out to reach. Unfortunately, often overlooked during this period of high growth is building a framework that allows your company to create cumulative momentum to build upon the key wins and successes. Setting the proper framework for growth can accelerate your company’s trajectory and set achievable goals that have a compounding impact for more ambitious goals down the road. That is exactly where a methodology called OKRs or Objectives and Key Results can be helpful. Further, an OK software for startups built to help you scale with limited strategy and ops resources can provide an intuitive, easy-to-use framework to how you achieve growth.
When we are talking about objectives and key results, we are talking about a specific type of goal-setting framework. This is a methodology that was first put in place by Intel, and recently made popular by Google. Using this framework, Google, Intel and others have quickly grown to represent some of the most success companies in the world. Today, technology companies across the world have tried to implement similar frameworks to Google, using OKRs.
However, the framework for implementing OKRs for early startups can be tricky, and looking at an example of OKR for software company might not be enough.
For many examples, they reference using a simple spreadsheet to keep track of your goals, but is simply not going to be a scalable, efficient way to track your objectives and key results. Instead, there are countless OKR tools and solutions built to help early stage startups. From insights and notifications to integrations and OKR Dashboards, we will cover just how you should think about evaluating an OKR Software for your startup. But first, it may be helpful to take a closer look at a few examples of objectives and key results.
If you are curious about the best OKR examples for startups, you may want to take a look at a few startup OKRs template options. There are several startup OKR examples that might be helpful.
For example, you may have a goal to increase the monthly active users you have at your company. There are several key results that may be helpful if you would like to meet this goal. They include:
These are specific key results that may be helpful for achieving that objective. Additionally, you may want to increase your company's ACV (Annual Contract Value) by $5,000. There are a few ways that you may be able to do this, including:
Of course, there are plenty of OKR examples for operations that could be helpful for your startup company as well. For example, you may have a specific goal to launch a new implementation process by the end of the year. What are a few key results that may help you get there? They may include:
These are all key results that can help you get your startup company off the ground in the software space.
If you are looking for a free OKR template, you can start by heading over to our website to check out our content section. Included we have outlined many of the common questions when doing an OKR software comparison to help you first see if OKRs are right for you. Once confirming OKRs are the right fit for your team, you can start to evaluate the OKR software features that are best for your business.
So now that you are onto the evaluation process, you need to make sure you can manage the roll out plan you have for your company. Many times we find that the implementation of OKRs will be held up or have a false start, simple because teams try to implement a framework that is too complex or not tailored towards their business. For example, you should be able to simplify the rollout of your strategic plan. This includes your KPIs, your OKRs, and even goals that you may have set for specific teams in your company. That way, you can take a look at which goals you are meeting, which goals you are in danger of missing, and which goals you may need to work on.
Next, you should also try to find a software platform that can help you automate the follow-up process. You need to keep your team focused on executing the plan. For example, if you can find a software platform that can help you automate your email reminders, you will not have to send messages to your individual team members, asking them for an update. That way, you can save time.
You might also want to work with a software solution that can help you produce company scorecards. Scorecards are important because you can take a look at which departments are on track in which teams need more assistance.
Finally, you should try to use a software platform that can help you optimize the meetings you have with your leadership team. You need to focus your conversations on the most important topics to the future of your company. If you can use a software program to help you create an agenda, you can foster a feeling of transparency regarding the nature of feedback at your company. That is how you can make sure everyone stays on the same page.
Clearly, there is a lot you need to think about. If you are trying to get a software company off the ground, you may not know exactly where to begin. You could get overwhelmed by the amount of information that is presented to you. That is why it is important to work with a platform that provides you with access to an OKR dashboard. You might think this is unnecessary. For example, you may be comfortable using a free OKR Excel template. You might even want to use an OKR template Google Sheets. It is true that these programs can help you save money; however, keep in mind that they have not been specifically designed for objectives and key results. Therefore, you are still not going to have all the information you need in front of you to make quick decisions. One of the major benefits of using an OKR software is that you can save a lot of time.
With a helpful dashboard that’s set up to automate updates, measure performance, and centralize information for your team, you can have all you need right in front of you. You don’t have to worry about going through endless spreadsheets, jumping into multiple different platforms, or running your meetings out of powerpoint. The OKR dashboard will provide you with access to all the information you need at your fingertips. That way, you can make decisions proactively, helping you keep your teams aligned and on track.
In the end, there is a lot you need to think about if you are trying to get the most out of your objectives and key results framework. That is why it’s helpful to use an OKR software that can help you implement and roll out real OKR examples. Whether it is setting and measuring objectives at a company level or empowering individuals to set their own personal OKRs, you need to find a solution that is flexible and dynamic enough to scale with your company. Keep in mind that you can develop OKRs for individual members, teams, and apartments, but you need something to help them get started.
Meet Elate.
Elate is the leading strategic planning software for high growth companies. Elate was built to help set individual OKRs for team members, as well as company themes that align your departments around common goals. With Elate you will be able to focus on driving accountability for goals and outcomes, automate follow-up, and communicate your company’s vision to the whole organization.
Elate was built to help your startup get the most out of OKRs by giving you a place to start. If you’d like to meet with our team to see how we are helping other startups implement OKRs, reach out today for a demo!
