There are many different methodologies and business terms that help you run the business or measure the health and success of it. The more variety of business terminology there are, the more confusing it gets around what is exactly what. Mixing the definitions and the purposes of those methodologies or frameworks brings no benefits. In many cases, it leads to more confusion and it fails to bring clarity and focus that companies need to succeed.
One business concept or process doesn’t replace the other, and all of them fit together and serve their own purposes. They all have their own benefits, principles and cadence. Most of them are used at the same time.
Let’s get some important definitions straight.
Mission
Mission is a company’s purpose, a reason why the company exists. It’s a short sentence that is rather broad but inspiring and clear to all stakeholders. It is usually not time-bound and only tells what kind of value the company is contributing to the world under no specific terms. Normally, a mission statement sounds like this: we want to (solve a problem) for (the people who will benefit from it) by (the main means of operation or a very general “how”). For example, we want to make managers’ lives less stressful by helping them align their remote teams.
Vision
The vision is a long-term (2-5 years) directional statement that explains what a company needs to become in order to fulfill its mission. It’s a faraway destination that provides clearer understanding of the future. For example, our digital product should offer a status reporting and check-in tool that is easy to use and timesaving for middle managers.
Strategy
Sometimes referred to as ‘annual objectives’ – your strategy is the bigger direction for the company – Where the company wants to be in about a year. What is the first big step towards our vision? Are you planning to grow, or focus on generating more profit? Maybe you need to change the current direction? Or choose new markets to expand to? An annual Objective is a goal that could only be achieved through setting smaller and more focused quarterly Objectives.
KPIs, Metrics & Targets
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Metrics are the same thing; some companies also refer to them as health metrics, indicators, etc. KPIs show you how your company is performing in different areas.
Usually KPIs have specific targets which reflect a level of performance that a company (or a team) hopes to achieve. When KPI targets are off-track, it draws your attention to the areas that are not performing well. But KPIs & targets don’t tell you what the teams need to improve to move forward.
There can be many different metrics you want to keep an eye on but it’s often best to focus on 4-6 that are most important for each team and the company in general.
KPI examples:
- Revenue
- NPS
- Churn rate
- Sales meetings
- Amount of marketing leads, etc.
Read more about the difference between KPIs and OKRs.
If we want to get somewhere, we need to set a goal. KPIs (mentioned above) help us monitor how we are doing and whether we are okay, but they don’t tell us where we want to go. Actionable goals put into a forward-looking and inspirational statement are called Objectives.
Company Quarterly Objectives
Your high-level over-arching focus areas that need improvement. Company Objectives set direction for the whole organization for the next three months. Achieving them will take the company closer to the strategic annual objectives. Company objectives need to be more specific than just “Increase revenue” and they should answer the question “how are we going to improve?”.
For example, if a company wants to increase its revenue but their customers are unhappy with the quality of their product then improving a certain aspect of the product quality could be a good quarterly Objective to focus on.
While Objective is what we want to achieve then Key Results are the measurable outcomes we need to achieve to call our Objective a success. You can think about them like success measurements.
Objective is a focus area for a quarter: what problem are you solving or which opportunity you are going to explore as a team? Key Results help define success or failure of that Objective in measurable terms: have you achieved the Objective?
Team OKR
A collaborative improvement goal with a particular structure – Objective and 3-5 measureable outcomes (aka Key Results).
Team OKRs should align with a high-level company overarching Objective and contribute to it.
Based on the context provided and explained by leaders, functional teams/departments write their team-specific Objectives and Key Results to contribute to one or several of the overarching Objectives.
👉 Here are some OKR examples, videos, and tips for writing good OKRs.
Performance Management Goals
These are goals set so the company could set clear expectations regarding business-as-usual work performance for each team and employee. Meeting personal performance targets should be possible with clearly defined business processes and regular day-to-day work. Performance management is often used to see if a person is really up for the job, to calculate bonuses or to know which areas the organization could help the employees to grow.
Personal Development Goals
These individual goals are for personal development and career growth. Although professional development of employees is an extremely important addition to a company’s skillset, the only real beneficiary of achieving these goals is the person who will be working on them. Different methodologies can be used to set personal goals, and OKR principles can be followed as well. The bottom line is that these goals are for personal development and do not reflect or guide the success and improvement of a company.
That doesn’t mean personal goals are not important because they are! Especially for people looking to grow their career, and for companies that want to support their employees’ development. Personal goals focus on the individual and team, and company goals focus on the company.
Initiatives / Projects
Initiatives are sometimes referred to as projects, they are activities and ideas the teams will work on to achieve progress on their OKRs. Goals can be great but if you don’t have any ideas on how to achieve them, they become useless. Initiatives are set at the beginning of the quarter and if nothing works, they should be changed based on the learnings.
Usually, initiatives are set on a team level and later, while planning on a weekly basis, divided into smaller individual plans. When agreeing on the priorities (most impactful initiatives), the team should critically think if this helps them with their Objectives or if they are drifting away from the main focus.
Weekly Plans & Reporting
The process of weekly planing and reporting help co-workers and team members stay up to date with each other’s priorities and weekly achievements. With the right software, managers can easily see what the team has been doing and achieving with no need to micromanage day-to-day work. This way problems can be spotted and solved faster and there’s continuous flow of communication which helps to avoid blindspots and confusion.
Team OKR Check-ins
These are weekly OKR meetings where the team discusses the progress of their OKRs, what kind of learnings they get from last week’s progress and what they are planning to do next. It’s a quick 15-20 minute check that can be a part of a team’s regular weekly meeting. Apart from the regular progress update and staying in sync, the point of these meetings is to ensure regular exchange of information that will improve mutual understanding, and build trust.