Align OKRs with Your Product Roadmap for User-Driven Growth

Are your product development efforts somewhat disconnected from your business goals? Or perhaps you prioritize features without clearly understanding how they contribute to those objectives.

Moreover, the lack of alignment between product teams and others like marketing and sales can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

This is where OKRs and product roadmaps come in. Understanding their differences and how they complement each other can bridge the gap between your product and what your customers want.

This blog will uncover actionable strategies to integrate them effectively with practical examples and a real-world case study.

What is the role of OKRs in a product roadmap?

OKRs are a guiding framework within a product roadmap, ensuring teams stay focused on strategic objectives while navigating the development process.

Objectives set the overarching goals, such as increasing user engagement or launching new features, while Key Results outline specific, measurable steps to achieve these objectives. 

This alignment fosters collaboration, drives focus, and- enables agile decision-making, ultimately leading to more successful product launches and achieving business objectives.

How are OKRs and product roadmaps different?

OKRs show your team the right strategic direction for your product and business growth so that your product roadmap and development efforts are focused and well collaborated.” Gaurav Sabharwal, CEO of JOP.

You get a high-level view of what needs to be achieved by using OKRs, which help your teams align their efforts toward common objectives. You can use them to set crucial business goals and track measurable outcomes.

Product roadmaps help you create detailed plans outlining the features, enhancements, and timelines for product development. You create a strategy for executing tasks and delivering specific product functionalities.

OKRs set the direction by defining overarching goals and guiding teams towards them. Product roadmaps translate those goals into actionable plans, outlining the steps required to achieve them through product development efforts.

The OKRs for the company might include objectives like increasing customer engagement and improving product performance. 

The key results would outline specific metrics, such as increasing the number of active users by 20% or reducing app loading time by 30%. These OKRs provide a strategic direction for the entire organization to work towards common goals.

The product roadmap for a specific software product within the company would detail the features, enhancements, and timeline for its development.

For example, the product roadmap might include milestones like releasing a new user interface design in quarter one, implementing a new payment gateway in quarter two, and launching a mobile app version in quarter three.

This roadmap guides the product development team on the sequential steps required to bring the product to market, aligning with the broader objectives outlined in the OKRs.

Why OKRs cannot replace product roadmaps?

You cannot replace goals with an execution plan for a team. Similarly, OKRs and product roadmaps serve different purposes and provide complementary perspectives on product development. For instance, let’s consider a real-life scenario in a software company.

The OKRs for the company may include objectives like increasing customer satisfaction and expanding market reach. The KRs would define measurable outcomes such as achieving a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70 or increasing sales revenue by 20%.

While OKRs provide a high-level direction for the organization, they lack the detailed roadmap necessary for product development. This is where product roadmaps come in.

A product roadmap for a specific software product within the company would outline the features, enhancements, and timeline for its development.

For example, it might detail the release of new features like a chatbot integration in Q1, a social media sharing feature in Q2, and an analytics dashboard in Q3 to achieve the KR of higher NPS score.

Product roadmaps provide a tactical plan for executing tasks and delivering specific product functionalities while ensuring alignment with the broader objectives set by OKRs.

In this way, OKRs and product roadmaps work together to guide product development efforts effectively.

Using OKRs to make a customer-centric product roadmap

As a product company, almost every product development initiative is taken up from user feedback and behavioral insights.

You should create meaningful customer-centric OKRs and align the product team with them to guide and prioritize things in your product roadmap.

1. Define your product vision and priorities

To start, gather inputs from various stakeholders. Engage with key players across departments, including product managers, developers, marketers, salespeople, and customers, if possible.

Their insights will provide a holistic view of what’s important for the product’s success.

The next step is to analyze and prioritize features. One realistic example of a priority could be improving the onboarding process for new users.

This could involve streamlining the signup flow, providing helpful tutorials, and ensuring a smooth transition into using the product. This feature is often a high priority as it directly impacts UX and can influence long-term retention rates.

Another example could be enhancing the product’s performance and scalability. If stakeholders have identified issues with slow load times or system crashes during peak usage periods, prioritize improvements in essential areas.

This might involve optimizing code, upgrading infrastructure, or implementing caching mechanisms to handle increased traffic more efficiently.

It’s crucial to align these priorities with the overarching product vision and company goals. For instance, if the company focuses on expanding into new markets, we may need to prioritize features that support internationalization or localization efforts.

2. Create the OKRs for product

Once you have a good grasp of everyone’s perspectives, you can align your product roadmap to business goals and define OKRs to measure success.

Let’s say one of the business goals is to increase user satisfaction. You can translate this into an Objective for OKRs, such as “Enhance User Satisfaction and Retention.”

Now, let’s dive into crafting KRs to measure your progress toward achieving this Objective. These KRs should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For instance:

1. Increase Net Promoter Score (NPS) from 7 to 8 by the end of the quarter.
2. Reduce customer support response time from 24 hours to 12 hours within six months.
3. Achieve a customer retention rate of 90% by the end of the year.

These key results provide tangible metrics that indicate whether you are making progress toward your Objective of enhancing user satisfaction and retention.

To validate these OKRs, it’s essential to discuss them with all the OKR owners, ensuring alignment and buy-in across the team. This collaborative approach drives accountability and ensures everyone works towards common goals.

Now, let’s see how this OKR connects with the product roadmap.

For example, if one of your KRs is to increase NPS from 7 to 8, you can identify features and improvements in the product roadmap that directly contribute to improving user satisfaction.

This could include enhancing user interface design, implementing requested features, or optimizing performance to provide a smoother user experience.

Write all of your company and team OKRs and follow the OKR best practices to create them. For instance, don’t create more than 3-5 company objectives, each with 3-5 KRs.

3. Align every contributor with the product roadmap using OKRs

Once you have gathered the team’s inputs, you can create cross-functional OKRs that align with other team members with the product vision and overarching OKRs.

For example, let’s consider the marketing team. Their role in the go-to-market plan is crucial for the product’s success. You can create an Objective for them, such as “Drive Product Awareness and Adoption,” which aligns with the broader product vision.

Now, let’s define KRs that will measure their contribution towards this Objective:

1. Increase website traffic by 20% within three months through targeted content marketing campaigns
2. Generate 500 new leads per month through inbound marketing efforts
3. Achieve a 10% increase in product sign-ups within six months through optimized landing pages and conversion rate optimization

These KRs provide tangible metrics that indicate whether the marketing team is effectively aligning their efforts with the product roadmap and contributing towards achieving the product’s goals.

It’s important to ensure that these cross-functional OKRs are communicated clearly and transparently across the organization. This promotes alignment, collaboration, and a shared sense of purpose among all contributors.

By creating cross-functional OKRs and aligning team members with the product roadmap, you can ensure that everyone is working towards common goals and driving the product’s success. 

4. Make OKRs transparent with a proper tool

To start, gather inputs from your team to understand their needs and preferences regarding OKR software. You want to ensure that your chosen tool is efficient, intuitive, and aligns with your organization’s workflow.

Once you have a clear understanding of your requirements, you can explore various OKR software options available in the market. Some popular tools include Joy of Performing (JOP),  Profit.co, Workboard, etc.

These platforms offer features such as goal setting, progress tracking, task management, and collaboration tools, making it easier for teams to align their efforts with the product roadmap and OKRs.

When selecting a tool, consider factors such as user-friendliness, integration capabilities, scalability, and cost. It’s essential to choose a tool that not only meets your current needs but also has the flexibility to grow with your organization as it scales.

Once you identify the right OKR software, you will onboard your team and provide training to ensure everyone is comfortable using the tool. This will help facilitate transparency and accountability, as team members will have visibility into each other’s goals and progress.

5. Stay agile with your OKRs based on the user feedback

Staying agile with your OKRs based on user feedback is essential for ensuring that your product remains aligned with customer needs and continues to deliver value.

To start, gather inputs from your team to understand the current state of your OKRs and identify any areas that may need refinement based on user feedback.

Once you have gathered these inputs, you can review progress regularly and gather customer feedback to inform adjustments to the product roadmap and OKRs.

This could involve conducting surveys, interviews, or user testing sessions to gather insights directly from your customers. Analyze this feedback to identify any emerging trends or pain points that must be addressed.

Based on this feedback, you may need to refine your OKRs to better align with customer needs and priorities.

For example, if users consistently request a new feature or are experiencing challenges with existing functionality, you may need to adjust OKRs to prioritize addressing these issues.

Once you have refined your OKRs, continue to review progress and gather feedback regularly to ensure that you remain agile and responsive to changing customer needs.

Examples of product roadmap OKRs

These OKR examples for a product are relevant to a B2B SaaS company’s product roadmap, including contributors from the Product, Sales, and Marketing teams.

Objective 1: Improve new user onboarding

Due date: 9 months

Owners: Product Manager, Growth Manager, and UX/UI Designer

Key results:

• Reduce time to first value by 20% (measured by onboarding completion rates)
• Increase activation rate from 50% to 70% within first 7 days (measured by MAU/NAU)
• Decrease drop-off rate during onboarding process by 15% (measured by user progression through onboarding steps)

Objective 2: Increase paid conversion

Due date: 12 months

Owners: VP Marketing, VP Sales, and Product Manager

Key results:

• Improve free to paid conversion rate from 5% to 8%
• Increase trial to paid conversion rate from 15% to 20%
• Implement A/B testing on pricing page to increase conversion by 10% (measured by conversion rate of visitors to pricing page)

Objective 3: Enhance core workflow

Due date: 9 months

Owners: Engineering Manager, Customer Success Manager, and Support Manager

Key results:

• Implement top 3 most requested workflow improvements from user interviews
• Decrease support tickets related to workflow issues by 30%
• Reduce average time to resolve workflow-related support tickets by 20%

Objective 4: Expand integrations

Due date: 12 months

Owners: Partner Manager, Product Manager, and Customer Success Manager

Key results:

• Launch integration with top CRM tool
• Double the number of active third-party integrations from 5 to 10
• Achieve a 90% customer satisfaction rating for new integrations (measured by post-launch surveys)

Advantages the OKRs bring to the product roadmap

When you start using OKRs and compare them to previous goal-setting methods you will realize the benefits explained below.

You must also remember that you can only get these advantages when you commit to OKRs and follow specific best practices.

1. Enhanced transparency

Your teams can easily track their progress toward OKRs, understand how their work contributes to broader goals, and identify areas for collaboration and support.

This transparency promotes open communication, empowers teams to make informed decisions, and drives collective efforts toward shared success.

2. Clarity on priorities

Your teams get a clear understanding of the company’s most important objectives, which enables better alignment and focus across teams.

With defined goals and measurable outcomes, employees know exactly what they need to prioritize, reducing confusion and enabling efficient resource allocation.

This clarity enables teams to channel their efforts towards achieving strategic objectives.

3. Purpose and motivation

Empower your team by providing a clear sense of purpose and connecting their work directly to the value they deliver to product users.

By setting meaningful OKRs, you inspire team members to strive toward impactful outcomes, creating a sense of ownership and motivation.

4. Increased focus

You can align the entire company around critical objectives and ensure everyone works towards common priorities by using OKRs.

They help minimize distractions and enable teams to concentrate their efforts on achieving key outcomes.

5. Alignment to goals and product roadmap

Enable your teams to clearly see how their work aligns with strategic objectives and ensure that their tasks and initiatives contribute directly to overarching goals.

6. Better measurement and feedback on performance

OKRs provide you a framework for quantitatively measuring impact and achievement for the business.

By setting measurable KRs, teams can track progress objectively and receive clear feedback on their performance.

7. Improved agility

Teams can quickly pivot and realign their objectives in response to shifting priorities or market conditions, ensuring that resources are effectively allocated and efforts remain focused on achieving strategic outcomes.

This flexibility promotes innovation, responsiveness, and resilience, allowing the organization to thrive in a rapidly evolving environment. 

Case study: Using OKRs to scale the product at Prezi

This case study will help you understand how using OKRs can aid a team in driving innovation and growing a customer-centric product. We picked this story from whatmatters.com

Prezi, a video and visual communications software company, was started in 2009 by Peter Arvai, Péter Halácsy, and Adam Somlai-Fischer.

Prezi has over 100 million users and serves Fortune 1000 companies and startups. The company evolved during the pandemic, expanding its offerings and user base and transitioning from a startup to an established firm with enhanced tools.

Goals and Challenges of Prezi

Jim Szafranski became the CEO of Prezi in 2020. Prezi has used OKRs since 2016. As a COO, Jim introduced them to improve the company’s business practices.

When Jim joined, Prezi was transitioning to a new phase. The company’s main product was presentation software, primarily used in education and commercial businesses.

However, Prezi wanted to expand its user base and re-platform its product accordingly.

How did Prezi use OKRs to develop their product for success?

Product and marketing teams led the OKR initiatives with cross-functional managers as KR owners.

The OKR processes helped the company unite towards a common goal when they acquired Infogram. 

They aimed to create and launch a combined product called Prezi Design, which integrated Infogram’s value into the Prezi platform.

The seamless integration and coordination between the Prezi legacy team and the new Prezi (formerly Infogram) employees were crucial.

By setting a shared Objective and defining what success meant for the company, the team achieved their goal. 

The Key Results outlined the necessary user success and business outcomes for Prezi Design, which justified the effort put into the pre-acquisition Infogram product.

The OKR structure provided essential guidance for the team to collaborate and successfully develop and launch Prezi Design as an integrated solution.

Conclusion

You need both OKRs and product roadmaps to drive success in a product-based business. While they serve distinct purposes, they complement each other effectively, ensuring a well-rounded approach to product development and business growth.

You can provide your product teams and other contributors with a clear framework for prioritization. You can use OKRs to focus your efforts on the most crucial aspects of product improvement and enhancing user satisfaction and experience.

For those new to OKRs, piloting it with your product team can be a transforming initiative. As you embark on this journey, be open to learning and adaptation, leveraging OKRs to refine your product strategy continuously.

Frequently asked questions

1. What is the difference between product goals and OKRs?

Product goals are specific targets or outcomes related to a product’s development or performance, while OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) provide a broader framework for setting and measuring goals across the organization, encompassing various departments and initiatives.

2. How do you create a product vision and roadmap?

To create a product vision and roadmap, start by defining a clear vision statement that articulates the purpose and goals of the product, then outline the strategic direction and key milestones in a roadmap to guide its development and evolution.

3. How do you write OKRs for a product?

To write OKRs for a product, identify specific objectives related to product goals, then define measurable key results that indicate progress towards achieving those objectives.

4. How many OKRs should a product have?

A product team typically has around 3-5 OKRs to ensure focus and clarity on key objectives and results.

5. What is the difference between product OKR and KPI?

Product OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) focus on setting and achieving specific goals and measurable outcomes, which align the team members with overarching business goals. KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are standalone metrics used to track the performance and effectiveness of various aspects of a product or business.