Planning
How to set OKRs for growth
Set growth OKRs with one objective, three key results, and numbers you can read weekly. Examples for SaaS, ecommerce and services, plus the mistakes that make OKRs useless.
- 3 August 2026
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How do I set OKRs for growth?
Good growth OKRs have one objective, no more than three key results, and every key result is a number you can read weekly without building a report. The most common failure is writing activities as key results — "publish 20 posts" is a task list; "raise trial-to-paid from 12% to 18%" is a key result. Set them quarterly and review them every Monday in under ten minutes.
Last updated 3 August 2026
| Weak | Stronger | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Publish 20 blog posts | Grow non-brand search visits 400 → 1,200 | Measures the outcome |
| Improve the website | Lift signup conversion 2.1% → 3.0% | Has a baseline |
| Grow social following | Get 40 qualified conversations from social | Ties to revenue |
| Launch the new plan | 30 accounts on the new plan by 31 March | Countable |
| Increase brand awareness | Branded search 300 → 500 a month | Readable weekly |
Do this
The steps, in order.
- Step 1
Write one objective in plain language
"Make trials turn into customers reliably" beats "drive scalable growth". If someone outside the team can't repeat it back after hearing it once, rewrite it.
- Step 2
Pick three key results with baselines
Every key result needs a starting number and a target. Without a baseline you can't tell in week six whether you're ahead or behind, which is the entire point of the exercise.
- Step 3
Make each one readable in under a minute
If checking progress needs a custom report, it won't get checked. Use numbers you can pull from one dashboard or one query.
- Step 4
Set targets you'd take a 60–70% chance on
Targets you'll definitely hit produce sandbagging; targets with a 10% chance produce disengagement. Aim for uncomfortable but plausible.
- Step 5
Keep the task list separate
Tasks change weekly as tests fail. Key results shouldn't. Mixing them means the objective quietly gets rewritten to match whatever happened.
- Step 6
Review Monday, revise only at quarter end
Ten minutes each Monday: current number, direction, one blocker. Changing targets mid-quarter because they look hard removes the only useful signal OKRs produce.
Worth knowing
The bits people get wrong.
Three key results is the practical ceiling for a team under ten people. Beyond that, each one gets a fraction of attention and none of them move.
A quarter is long enough for conversion and channel work but too short for search and brand. For those, set a leading indicator as the key result — pages published and indexed, or branded search volume — and keep the revenue read annual.
Missing an OKR isn't a failure if you know why. A quarter that ends with "we hit 60% and here's what we learned about the channel" is worth more than one that hit 100% on a target set deliberately low.
Questions
Follow-up questions.
How many OKRs should a small marketing team have?
One objective and up to three key results per quarter. Solo marketers often do better with a single key result.
Should OKRs be tied to bonuses?
Generally no. As soon as pay depends on them, targets get set low and the honest signal disappears.
What's the difference between a KPI and a key result?
A KPI is a number you always watch. A key result is a number you're deliberately trying to move this quarter, with a start point and a target.
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