OKR Management
Everything you need to know about creating, tracking, and aligning Objectives and Key Results in Leemu. This is your central guide to the OKR workflow.
Company OKRs
Created by Company Admins. Define organization-wide direction and top-level priorities for the quarter or year.
Team OKRs
Created by Team Admins. Translate company goals into department or squad-level objectives.
Personal OKRs
Created by any user. Individual contributions that ladder up into team and company goals.
Creating Objectives
To create a new objective, navigate to the Objectives page from the sidebar and click + New Objective. Fill in the following fields:
| Field | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Title | A concise, outcome-oriented statement. Start with a verb (e.g. "Increase customer retention"). | Yes |
| Description | Additional context explaining the why behind the objective. | Optional |
| Owner | The person accountable for this objective's progress. | Yes |
| Status | Draft, Active, Completed, On Hold, or Cancelled. New objectives default to Draft. | Yes |
| Start Date & End Date | The time window for the objective, typically a quarter. | Yes |
| Weight | Relative importance (0-100). Weights across sibling objectives should sum to 100. | Optional |
| Check-in Interval | How often owners are reminded to update progress: Weekly, Biweekly, or Monthly. | Optional |
| Strategic Goal | Link this objective to a broader Strategic Goal for top-down alignment. | Optional |
| Parent Objective | Nest this objective under a higher-level objective to build an alignment tree. | Optional |
Step-by-step quick start
- Go to Objectives in the sidebar.
- Click + New Objective.
- Enter a clear, outcome-focused title.
- Assign an owner and set the date range.
- Optionally link to a Strategic Goal or Parent Objective.
- Save as Draft, then add Key Results before setting to Active.
Adding Key Results
Key Results are measurable outcomes that define success for an objective. Open any objective and click + Add Key Result to get started.
Key Result Fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Title | A specific, measurable statement (e.g. "Reduce average response time to under 2 hours"). |
| Unit Type | Number, Percentage, Currency, or Boolean. |
| Direction | Increase, Decrease, or Maintain. Determines how progress is calculated. |
| Initial Value | The starting measurement when the key result is created. |
| Target Value | The goal measurement that represents 100% completion. |
| Owner | The person responsible for driving this key result. |
| Weight | Relative importance within the objective. Weights across key results should sum to 100. |
Unit Type Examples
"Acquire 500 new customers"
"Increase retention rate to 90%"
"Reduce customer acquisition cost to $25"
"Launch the new onboarding flow"
Recommended count
Aim for 2 to 5 key results per objective and 3 to 5 objectives per quarter. Too few and you lose measurability; too many and focus gets diluted.
Viewing Objectives
List View
The default Objectives page shows all objectives in a table with the following columns:
- Title — objective name with level badge (Company / Team / Personal)
- Owner — avatar and name
- Status — color-coded status badge
- Progress — aggregated progress bar from key results
- Period — start and end date range
- Key Results — count of attached key results
Sorting & Filtering
You can sort by any column header. Available filters include:
- Status — Draft, Active, Completed, On Hold, Cancelled
- Level — Company, Team, Personal
- Owner — any team member
- Team — filter by team
- Time Period — current quarter, custom range
- Strategic Goal — linked strategic goal
Objective Detail View
Clicking on any objective opens its detail page, which includes:
- Objective metadata (status, owner, dates, weight)
- Description and context
- Key Results list with individual progress bars
- Alignment tree (parent and child objectives)
- Check-in history timeline
- Activity log showing all changes
- Comments and discussion thread
Editing Objectives
Click the Edit button (pencil icon) on any objective detail page to modify its fields. All fields listed in the creation table above can be updated. Changes are saved immediately and logged in the activity feed.
Note: Only the objective owner or an admin can edit an objective. Team-level objectives require Team Admin permissions; company-level objectives require Company Admin permissions.
Archiving vs. Deleting
- Preserves all data, key results, and check-in history.
- Objective is hidden from default views but accessible via the "Archived" filter.
- Can be restored at any time.
- Use when a quarter ends or priorities shift but you want to keep the historical record.
- Permanently removes the objective and all associated key results.
- Check-in history is lost.
- This action cannot be undone.
- Use only for accidental duplicates or test objectives.
OKR Alignment
Alignment ensures that every individual contribution rolls up to team and company priorities. When objectives are properly aligned, everyone understands how their work connects to the bigger picture.
Why Alignment Matters
- Creates transparency across the organization about what matters most.
- Prevents teams from working on conflicting priorities.
- Makes it easy to see the impact of individual work on company outcomes.
- Enables leadership to identify gaps where no team is covering a company-level goal.
How to Create Alignment
When creating or editing an objective, use the Parent Objective field to select a higher-level objective. You can also link to a Strategic Goal directly.
Alignment Rules
Personal objectives align to team objectives, which align to company objectives, which align to strategic goals.
- A Personal objective can have a Team or Company objective as its parent.
- A Team objective can have a Company objective as its parent.
- A Company objective can be linked to a Strategic Goal.
- You cannot align an objective to another objective at the same or lower level.
Status Management
Each objective moves through a lifecycle represented by its status. Here is the status flow:
Objectives start as Draft, move to Active when work begins, and end as Completed or Cancelled. On Hold is a temporary pause that can return to Active.
OKR Templates
Leemu includes a library of over 100 pre-built OKR templates covering common functions like Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Product, Customer Success, and HR. Templates are available in English, French, German, and Spanish.
To use a template:
- Click + New Objective and select Start from Template.
- Browse or search the template library by category.
- Preview the template's objectives and key results.
- Click Use Template to pre-fill the form. You can then customize all fields.
Best Practices
Writing Great Objectives
- Start with an action verb (Increase, Launch, Build, Improve).
- Focus on outcomes, not tasks or activities.
- Keep them ambitious but achievable (stretch goals).
- Make them time-bound with a clear deadline.
- Ensure they are understandable by anyone in the company.
- Limit to 3-5 objectives per quarter.
- Write vague objectives like "Do better at sales."
- Include metrics in the objective itself (that's what key results are for).
- Set more than 5 objectives per quarter — focus matters.
- Copy objectives from quarter to quarter without reflection.
- Create objectives that are really just tasks or to-do items.
- Set objectives without owner accountability.
Writing Great Key Results
- Make every key result measurable with a clear number or state.
- Set 2-5 key results per objective.
- Include both leading and lagging indicators.
- Define what "done" looks like upfront.
- Use specific units (%, $, count, yes/no).
- Ensure the key result owner can actually influence the metric.
- Write binary key results when a metric would be more informative.
- Set unrealistic targets that demoralize the team.
- Use more than 5 key results per objective — it dilutes focus.
- Set vanity metrics that don't drive real outcomes.
- Forget to set initial values — you need a baseline.
- Assign all key results to the same person in a team objective.