Recipe: OKRs writer for a quarter

Ingredients

• Last quarter's OKR retro notes
• Company or team strategy doc (1-pager max)
• Blank OKR canvas (Notion, GDocs, or whiteboard)
• Timer set to 90 minutes

Steps

1. Retro scan (15 min)

   Review last quarter's wins, misses, and carry-over work. Tag anything that still matters.

2. Strategy alignment (10 min)

   Read the strategy doc aloud. Highlight the 2-3 bets the company is making this quarter.

3. Draft Objectives (20 min)

   Write 3-5 qualitative, inspirational Objectives. Each must answer: “Where do we want to be in 13 weeks?”

4. Draft Key Results (25 min)

   For each Objective, write 2-4 measurable KRs. Use the formula: [metric] from X to Y by [date]. No KR without a number.

5. Pressure test (15 min)

   For each KR ask: “If we hit this, is the Objective achieved?” If no, rewrite the KR. If yes, check for sandbagging.

6. Lock and share (5 min)

   Publish in the team channel. Set a mid-quarter check-in calendar event now.