OKRs: A practical guide to driving focus and execution
Co-Founder & Co-CEO / CFO at Holycode
Most teams don’t struggle with ideas, they struggle with execution. Priorities get blurred, focus gets lost, and strategy slowly turns into day-to-day chaos.
The most important question is: how do you actually get your team out of the chaos and help them execute your vision?
The core operational glue that helps vision become reality: OKRs. Let’s dive into it.
1. What OKRs are
OKRs are a framework companies use to enable alignment, focus, and transparency. It’s simple:
OKRs = Objectives and Key Results.
Objective (O) = What do we want to achieve?
This is a clear, qualitative direction for the next period. It should be a meaningful outcome, not just a task or a project. Think of it as a compass for the next cycle – something that helps everyone understand what direction you’re moving in.
If your Objective doesn’t feel slightly uncomfortable or ambitious, it’s probably too safe to drive real change.
Key Results (KR) = How will we know we achieved it?
This is a small set of measurable signals that show progress toward that direction.
If you can’t clearly measure it, you’ll end up debating opinions instead of looking at facts.
That’s it, quite simple. OKRs simply answer two questions: Where are we going? And how will we know we’re getting there?
2. Why OKRs even matter (the short version)
Startups don’t have infinite time, money, or people.
OKRs give your company three essential things:
Focus & Prioritisation: They force you to prioritise what matters most and focus your team’s energy. If you go in too many directions at once, you can drown.
Transparency & Alignment: Everyone sees clearly the same priorities and direction.
Accountability: They assign clear ownership for measurable outcomes.
OKRs remove “busy work” and highlight the actions with real impact, which is key to achieving sustainable growth.
3. How OKRs actually work and how to set them up
You don’t need software. You don’t need a long template to start. A simple Google Sheet or Notion page is enough. Just make sure that all OKRs are visible to everyone. This will help people align and prevent everyone from running in different directions.
The tool doesn’t matter – consistency and visibility do.
The first cycle can be extremely simple, and then you can adjust it over time to better fit your company.
Step 1: Define the main objective for the next quarter
If you have a yearly strategy, use it. If you don’t, just define the most important objective for the next quarter.
At Holycode, we usually have one company objective for the year, and then two to three objectives for the quarter.
If you’re just starting with OKRs, start with one objective for the quarter and expand later if needed.
Choose something that matters enough to focus the whole company:
- Make onboarding effortless for new customers
- Reduce churn
- Shorten sales cycle
It’s important to make it a moonshot, so that if you achieve 80-90% you’re still happy with it because it gives you the improvement you’re looking for.
If you always hit 100%, you’re probably not aiming high enough.
Step 2: Define 2-3 measurable Key Results per team
Once the Objectives are defined, each team creates 2-3 KRs that directly support those Objectives.
Key Results are supposed to help you figure out if you’re really going towards your Objective, so make them measurable and meaningful.
“Improve onboarding” is not a Key Result.
“Reduce onboarding time from 14 days to 6 days” is. This shows you if you’re on track.
In Holycode, we have small cross-functional OKR teams, and they work together towards the same Objectives. OKR teams are created based on the nature of their work, so, for example, HR and administration are combined into one OKR team and decide together on the Key Results their team will achieve. If you’re a very small team, all of you can simply be one OKR team – you don’t have to split.
Step 3: Assign ownership
One person per Key Result.
Shared ownership equals no ownership.
The KR owner is responsible for the outcome, not for doing all the initiatives. Their job is to track progress, drive alignment and flag obstacles early.
Step 4: Let people come up with initiatives
Teams should then define the initiatives and tasks that will drive defined KRs. This links directly to the actions that drive the result.
For example, if the KR is “Reduce onboarding time from 14 days to 6 days”, initiatives might include rewriting documentation, improving automation or removing approval steps.
This is where execution happens – OKRs without initiatives are just good intentions.
Step 5: A reality check
Once you have all the initiatives, it’s important for the management team to go through them, check resource availability, cut what is unrealistic, and allocate the needed resources. This step prevents wishful thinking – one of the biggest reasons OKRs fail.
Ambition without resources turns OKRs into frustration.
Step 6: Review progress regularly
You don’t need much:
- Weekly 15-minute OKR check-in on the team level (What updates do we have on the progress? What’s blocked? What needs a decision?)
- Monthly review (the same, but on the company level, with a representative from every team)
- Quarterly reset (What did we achieve? What worked? What didn’t? What do we keep? What do we drop?)
Without rhythm, OKRs quickly become a document no one looks at.
Step 7: Start the next quarter
Repeat the entire process.
4. OKRs in calm vs. shaky times
A startup in a stable period and a startup in a crisis are two completely different organisms.
Let’s break it down simply:
When things are going well (“calm period”)
When things are flowing, you can afford to be more democratic. This is the moment to let your team think freely. More bottom-up suggestions. More brainstorming. More exploration. OKRs can be slightly more ambitious. The purpose is exploration + innovation.
When things get shaky (“pressure period”)
This is where the management has to tighten the system.
You need fewer OKRs, fewer voices, and more top-down direction.
- OKRs are decided top-down.
- The company focuses on 1-2 existential priorities.
- Decisions must be fast, not democratic.
The purpose is survival + clarity.
In a crisis, you don’t need more ideas.
You need fewer ideas and faster execution.
5. The biggest OKR mistakes
1) Too many OKRs
If you have more than one or two Objectives per quarter, you are likely diluting your focus.
2) No rhythm
If you aren’t checking regularly, OKRs become a decoration. At Movu, weekly check-ins were the only thing preventing misalignment after 20+ hires.
3) No ownership
If no one owns it, it won’t be done.
4) Using OKRs for bonuses
If bonuses depend on OKRs, people might avoid ambition and optimise for personal gain instead of company direction. This ruins honesty and kills the system.
5) Giving up too soon
It takes time to figure it out, so try sticking to it for a few cycles before you judge if it works for you.
Final thought
Founders often believe they need more ideas, more tools, more speed.
Most of the time, they need something much simpler:
A shared understanding of what matters right now, and a structure that helps the team execute it consistently.
That’s what OKRs are.
A simple way to keep your company aligned, focused, and moving.
OKRs aren’t about perfection. They’re about direction and progress.
If you’re thinking about setting up OKRs in your company or feel like your team is stuck in execution mode, feel free to reach out. Happy to share what worked (and what didn’t) for us.
Co-Founder & Co-CEO / CFO at Holycode
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