OKRs Tips 3/10 - Cadence your OKRs

Humans are creatures of routines. The scientific research is unequivocal: we perform better following a cadence. And the same thing is valid with organizations because they are composed of humans working together.

At the company level, strategic OKRs are often annual. That's OK as long as they are regularly checked quarterly. How bad can it be to check annual goals at least four times per year?! Yet, most companies check the figures at the end of the year.

At the team level, you certainly need to reach a higher frequency. The good news is that the cadence for teams is consistent across organizations.

• Set quarterly OKRs

• Check on them weekly with the team and management.

A quarter may seem long, but it's very short 13 weeks. Let's imagine your KR is a monthly average. To get to the most accurate final KR value, you'll need to release with confidence by week 9. If you iterate on your features every two weeks, you have four shots between weeks 2 and 8 to discover, collect feedback, learn, test, polish and get it right.