OKR Scoring: How to Grade, Track, and Improve Your OKRs

The problem most of the teams face is not the absence of objectives but the inability to see the progress of achieving their goals.

This phenomenon is quite frequent among various teams. OKRs are established, owners are appointed, meetings are held, but after half of the period passes, the progress begins to become invisible. At the end of the quarter, the team has information but not necessarily a clear one.

Here is where OKR scoring plays its role.

What is OKR scoring?

OKR scoring refers to the activity of evaluating how close the team is to reaching their Objective and corresponding Key Results.

Simplified, it means What progress did we make toward the goal?

An Objective sets what you need to accomplish and the Key Results set how success should be measured. OKR grading assists teams in evaluating progress toward a goal in a systematic way.

If your goal was to cut the onboarding time from 14 days down to 7 days, but your team managed to cut it down to 9 days, that would still be considered significant progress toward the goal.

OKR grading is not about judging your results. It is about understanding outcomes, learning from execution and improving the next cycle.

The advantages of OKR scores

Additional agility

Since OKRs get scored, teams can detect any problems early on rather than waiting until the end of the quarter to do so. By having progress evaluated on a regular basis, teams will be able to change their course of action in time before anything major happens. This way, OKRs become more practical and flexible.

Simplified OKR tracking

In the absence of OKR scores, OKR tracking becomes rather subjective. With a good scoring mechanism, everyone gets a standard vocabulary of how well Key Results were completed.

More defined goals

The OKR scorecard approach helps teams define quantifiable key results at the beginning of an OKR cycle. In other words, it is easier to measure something like “increase CSAT from 78% to 88%” than “improve customer satisfaction.”

More accountability

With defined owners of key results, specific target values, and scores, it is easy to achieve more accountability. Teams understand what they should do, and managers can help them achieve their goal. Instead of constantly asking for updates, the focus will shift to removing blockers.

More motivation

Progress can be very motivating. It does not matter whether you made it from 0.3 to 0.7. You understand that you are heading towards your goal.

More alignment:

The OKR scoring makes it easier for leaders to identify discrepancies in teams’ progress towards the same priorities. If various sales departments have different scores for related goals, it becomes easier to identify areas of misalignment. It helps teams work in concert towards common results.

Improved indication of successes and failures

The score only indicates a result, but the discussion shows why it was achieved. Teams will be able to identify what helped them to get closer to completing a key result, as well as what prevented this from happening. Thus, the OKR scoring becomes an informative process.

Greater chances of meeting your objectives

As teams score and review OKRs regularly, goals remain live through all the cycles. It becomes a routine to track the progress and take appropriate actions when needed.

Scoring OKRs

The method for scoring OKRs varies from one company to another. Your OKR maturity, organization culture, and the kind of Key Results you track determine the most appropriate approach. However, an easy scoring process could go a long way in making the OKR review process easier and more productive.

1. Choose the scoring system early

Your teams must not wait until the end of the quarter to know how OKRs would be scored. You have to choose the grading system, the rate of updates, the source of the data, whether the OKRs are committed or aspirational right from the start of the cycle.

2. Score Key Results first

Objectives are usually broad while Key Results are easily measurable. Therefore, it makes sense to start by scoring the Key Results and use the results to score the overall objective.

3. Choose an appropriate scoring formula

If your Key Results are based on increase, compare their actual performance to the target. If your Key Results are based on a baseline, then measure progress performed against required progress. Finally, if your Key Results are based on reduction, then measure reduction accomplished against planned reduction.

4. Distinguish between committed and aspirational OKRs

Committed OKRs are critical for business purposes, so they have to be completed successfully. On the other hand, aspirational OKRs are considered as stretch goals, which is why even the score of 0.6 or 0.7 would mean progress performed.

5. Provide some context along with the score

A score doesn’t tell you everything. A Key Result might have received a poor score due to poor execution, changing priorities, external obstacles, or simply unrealistic objectives. The reflection will help you better understand the situation.

Five approaches to OKR evaluation and scoring

1. Conventional approach to scoring

It is probably one of the most widespread ways of scoring OKRs. This approach utilizes the scale of 0.0 to 1.0, in which scores between 0.0 and 0.3 are considered weak; 0.4 to 0.6 – average; and 0.7 to 1.0 – high. Such scoring system is clear and easy to understand, as well as quite helpful for teams new to OKR scoring.

2. The Andy Grove approach

The Andy Grove approach emphasizes honesty and reflection. In this approach, the score itself plays an important role, but what really counts is a discussion of the score. Teams assess whether the goal set up was good, whether key results could be measured, and how to change things in the following cycle.

3. Scoring of key results by type of OKR

All OKRs cannot be scored using one metric. For numerical OKRs, you need to score the OKR by its percentage completion; for milestone-based OKRs, score it as complete/incomplete, and for improvement target OKRs, use the completion rate of the improvement target. This ensures that OKR scoring is more precise and realistic.

4. Confidence or predictive scoring

The predictive scoring approach helps determine the likelihood of reaching a Key Result during the OKR period. The sales team can score their likelihood of achieving each KR on the 1-5 scale, ranging from “very unlikely” to “very likely.”

5. No-grade method

Another alternative is where some teams do not want to have formal scores for their OKRs. They will use progress reviews and reflections to identify what has been achieved, what has been learned, and how things could be improved next time.

Score & grade your OKRs with JOP

Scoring OKRs can be made simpler if it’s not done manually at the end of the quarter.

Using JOP allows teams to set their OKRs, set Key Results, track progress, conduct check-ins, make comments, and finally score results all from one single tool. This allows leaders to see what is on track, at risk, and needs help before the completion of the goal cycle.

With the use of JOP, teams can transition from goal-setting to executing them efficiently. The tool combines everything about goals, progress, alignment, ownership, and reviews that allow the team to know not only the result but the reasoning behind it.

The reason being, the point of scoring OKRs is not about grading the teams.

It’s about helping them perform and improve every cycle.