Project management encompasses several moving parts that involve different teams or people. The only way to successfully complete tasks and meets deadlines is to ensure organization and coordination. The OKRs just do that.
OKRs empower your team with a goal-setting framework to help you identify immediate objectives and define how to achieve them. This framework lets you align your team and stakeholders through transparency while boosting productivity and engagement.
Let’s explore how OKRs promote accountability and focus and align strategic goals with project objectives as we discuss how they drive organizational growth.
What Are OKRs in Project Management?
Project management and OKRs perfectly complement each other. Every project has long-term goals that OKRs help to break down into actionable goals.
Projects focus on output because the goal is to have deliverables, while OKRs aim to generate value or outcomes. You can influence output directly since it depends on your work.
For instance, if your output is analyzing a set of data per day, you can scale up to two data sets. You can further scale by hiring more people so the output is within your control.
In contrast, outcomes are beyond your control, so you can only influence them indirectly. For instance, the purpose of analyzing the data sets is the outcome in this case.
Let’s say you’re analyzing the data to help boost sales. Does hiring more people to explore more data sets guarantee better sales? There’s no direct way to determine this outcome.
Ultimately, project management optimizes output; therefore, implementing OKRs helps you focus on the outcomes. OKRs show you how the smaller tasks fit into, the bigger picture.
They allow you to measure outcomes and provide the answer to why every initiative exists.
Examples of OKRs in Project Management
You can leverage OKRs to develop strategies to get underperforming or failing projects back on track. Let’s say you have a team of game developers who wish to re-establish a broad player base.
Objective: Objective: Improve the quality of patches for the live gaming service
Key Result 1: Decrease the volume of bug reports from 60% to 20%
Key Result 2: Enhance player satisfaction from 50 % to 80%
Key Result 3: Increase player retention from 60% to 75%
Key Result 4: Achieve a reduction in operating expenses from 55% to 25% through cost-avoidance strategies
Key Result 5: Minimize downtime caused by unexpected maintenance by 90%
Example 2
OKRs are an excellent way to boost team performance as they provide motivation to achieve goals through smart goal setting.
Objective: Provide exceptional customer support services
Key result 1: Increase first contact resolution (FCR) rate from 80 % to 98%
Key result 2: Reduce the average first response time (FRT) to below 7 minutes
Key result 3: Expand the customer support team by hiring ten additional agents
Key result 4: Boost the average Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) to at least 4.8
Example 3
In some cases, output could be your primary objective. For instance, your goal may be to deliver as you originally planned.
Objective: Safeguard the company’s reputation by finishing the project based on the scope
Key Result 1: Limit scope creep to less than 10%
Key Result 2: Successfully deliver 100% of the required features
Key Result 3: Keep the budget variance below 5%
Key Result 4: Complete the final deliverable within 6 months( may vary depending on the project & deadline).
Benefits of Integrating Project Management with OKRs
In any project, the ideal scenario is where everyone involved is clear about their responsibilities and works within the deadline.
Integrating OKRs into project management helps you achieve this. It ensures alignment between the teams and stakeholders by creating an environment where they understand their responsibilities and the tasks that will get them there.
This integration impacts your business or company in several ways, such as:
- Ensuring Transparency and Collaboration
Every project needs transparency and collaboration to ensure success. Once you introduce OKRs, they become the transparent focal point of truth for all team members. They become the reason and logic that drives every action while creating a feedback channel.
- Enhancing Focus
Project management monitors every action’s output. Integrating it with OKRs helps you focus on the desired outcomes and project or company vision. Every team member can focus and prioritize tasks rather than doing random tasks.
As John Doerr explains in an engaging Q&A session, having a north star or beacon helps to set priorities. Having visibility into all team members’ OKRs makes it easier for everyone to link their work to the business goals.
- Enhancing Productivity and Motivation
Focus paves the way for productivity and clarity. Everyone understands what they must do to propel the business or company in the desired direction. It’s easy to boost productivity when everyone knows what to do and why.
- Boosting Employee Satisfaction
OKR project management helps team members understand how they contribute to achieving the business goals and vision.
They provide a sense of direction while creating a feeling of satisfaction because they know their daily tasks count for something. It becomes easy to see the value of even minor or mundane tasks.
- Holistic Tracking
Project management leans more towards KPIs that monitor activities but OKRs come with tracking capabilities that focus on the overall vision or bigger picture. They provide an all-rounded view of the goals you’re working towards.
- Nurturing Collaboration
OKRs help your team keep track of shared objectives, nurturing a culture of cooperation and continuous feedback.
Conclusion
OKRs and project management go hand in hand because they complement each other. Although you can choose to implement one, you’ll achieve more by combining them.
Integrating project management and OKRs empowers you to enhance outcomes and output. In this symbiotic relationship, well-defined OKRs take project management to a greater level of success, and project management ensures OKR initiatives prosper.
Author Bio:
Nisha Joseph, Content Manager, Profit.co
In her current role, she leads the content marketing team with experience in various fields, such as science, education, law, and management. She is a well-rounded individual with diverse interests and skills.
