How to write good objectives
An Objective is a qualitative, memorable statement of what you want to achieve. Its job is to give your team a clear sense of direction, not to describe every detail of how you'll get there. That's what key results are for.
What makes a good objective
- Clear: anyone on the team can understand it without explanation
- Inspiring: it describes an outcome worth working toward, not a task
- Time-bound: it belongs to a specific cycle, not an ongoing responsibility
- Owned: one person or team is clearly accountable for it
Common mistakes to avoid
- Writing an objective that's really just a task ("Launch the new website")
- Making it so broad it could apply to any quarter ("Improve the organization")
- Including numbers in the objective itself instead of in the key results
- Setting more than 3-5 objectives per cycle at any single level
Examples
Weak: "Increase sales"
Better: "Become the go-to OKR tool for small teams in our market"
Weak: "Fix the onboarding flow"
Better: "Make it effortless for new customers to get value in their first week"
Choosing the right level
When adding an objective in Easy OKR, choose the hierarchy level it belongs to: Company, Team, or Individual. Company objectives should be few and set the direction for everything below them. Team and Individual objectives should clearly support at least one objective above them.
Next step
Once your objective is clear, add key results to make it measurable. See how to write good key results.