Committed vs Aspirational Key Results

One advanced element of OKRs that's not often mentioned is whether key results are committed or aspirational in nature.

It's a nuance that you should consider firstly when it comes to setting the key result, and secondly when scoring.

Read on to find out more.

What is the difference?

In OKR theory, we should set key results so they're ambitious. Each quarter you should meet most of your key results, but not all of them.

If you achieve all your key results, you probably didn't set the targets to be stretching enough. Of course sometimes you will have a great quarter, knock it out of the park and achieve all your goals, but most of the time you won't. So if you're regularly meeting all your goals, then they're not challenging enough.

If you hardly ever or never achieve your key results, then they're too hard! This is the opposite scenario that is also no good.

But why is this so important, and what does it have to do with committed key results and aspirational key results?

Well, because most key results are aspirational. It's the 'normal' mode that most people use when setting key results. You set a target, and you try to get as close as you can to that target.

But committed key results are a bit different - they are either 'done', or 'not done'. There is no grey in between. Plus, the clue is in the name - they're committed. That means you fully expect to achieve the entirety of that key result by the end of the quarter, and if you don't you will consider it a fail. Note: it should still be ambitious!

So think before you set your key result, which is it: Are you aspiring to make progress towards a target, or are you promising to meet that target?

Next we'll talk a bit about when to use each type, and how to score. You should also read this more thorough article on how to score OKRs.

When should you use Aspirational key results?

Aspirational key results are what you can use most of the time, for most of your OKRs.

Any time you have a target that you want to achieve, but you're not entirely sure a) that you can definitely meet it, or b) exactly how you'll meet it.

Perhaps the metric is new to you and you haven't had experience of moving it so you don't know how sensitive it is. Or perhaps it's a very ambitious target that requires a new way of thinking about the problem or opportunity.

Or perhaps you don't yet have any research or evidence, or any ideas for solutions, or any understanding of how technology can play a part in achieving the target. Well, you should have some idea by now otherwise you wouldn't have set the KR, but let's say you don't have a clear path.

All this uncertainty sounds worrying but it's is normal. Building products is about discovery and learning, and OKRs can help structure the way you do that.

When should you use Committed key results?

A committed KR is different. With these you must hit the target otherwise it's considered a failure.

To use a committed key result you probably have a very well known end state that you're aiming for. Perhaps a particular feature has already been designed and validated, and now you have to scale it.

Or perhaps a metric target is within reach because you've made progress in previous quarters and now you're ready to take the last step and hit the ceiling.

Or maybe there's something you have to do to support another team in their work, where they're doing discovery and have all the aspirational key results and you have some known work to do to help them out.

Or maybe there's a date driven deadline by which you have to achieved some goal.

The difference with committed key results is that the outcome and / or plan is more well known. If you can't write down very clearly exactly what you need to do to get to the goal, you probably shouldn't use a committed KR.

Use committed KRs sparingly. They limit the scope and flexibility for discovery, and they tie you in to a particular delivery. But they do help to focus teams around a specific committment, and they make that committment very clear to the rest of the organisation.

You don't need to write them any differently, but they do need scoring differently. We'll see how in the next section.

How do I score Aspirational key results?

Aspirational key results are scored on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0, in increments of 0.1.

0.0 to 0.3 is "made little progress", and usually coloured red. It means you did no work on that key result, or maybe did a few things but didn't launch anything. Basically you didn't get going and so don't get any points.

0.4 to 0.6 is "made some progress", and usually coloured yellow or orange. It means you did some work and shipped some things, and maybe saw metrics move a bit, but you didn't achieve the goal. The higher the score either the more effort you put in or the closer you got to the goal. But you can't meet the goal unless your KR was actually achieved. Putting in loads of effort is good, but it only counts if it leads to the outcome you were shooting for. That's the next score:

0.7 means "target met" and is usually coloured green. Congrats, you hit the target!

0.8 to 1.0 means "target exceeded" and is usually coloured green, or sometimes blue. Congrats, you beat the target! This is where you went above and beyond. Perhaps your metric moved even higher than you hoped, or you delivered faster, or you came up with a cheaper way of doing things.

With this scale you can see how aspirational key result scores can be gradual to represent the level of effort and achievement in the quarter.

How do I score Committed key results?

Committed key results are scored in one of two ways:

0.0 means the goal was "not met" and is usually coloured red.

1.0 means the goal was "met" and is usually coloured green (sometimes... people use 0.7 for "success" instead of 1.0. This is to make it align to the success threshold for aspirational results, and make OKR scoring sheets easier to read. Or if you're aggregating scores of all the KRs up to give an overall objective score, having 1.0's might over-inflate the score).

But there is no middle ground. No scale, no gradual progress, no reward for effort. You either get all the points, or none.

So use committed key results carefully! If you have too many, and you run into bad luck, you could get a wave of red scores across your OKR sheet.

That's a wrap, go forth and OKR!

Try out the free OKR software tool called OKR Dash for tracking your OKRs and visualising progress through the quarter.

It supports both aspirational and committed key results for any of your objectives.