How to Conduct Quarterly Review of OKRs Successfully

Why is a Quarterly review of OKRs a must-do?

OKRs are the new goal-setting trend in the business world. From Google to Netflix, OKRs have been used by many renowned companies. You must have already heard companies going gaga over the success of the framework. 

OKRs are a means to carefully select priorities and manifest those choices. It’s a tool through which you can coordinate the actions of individuals across teams to achieve broader organizational goals.

OKRs have been proved to help companies align, engage and increase performance. It increases productivity, gives your company the right direction, and brings clarity and transparency to your company. 

But to make OKRs work for your organization you need to relentlessly work on it- keep track, measure, make changes and plan again for the next time. 

Here comes the Quarterly OKR Reviews.

Although the fortune of the OKR framework largely depends on successful Quarterly review of OKRs. Not much has been talked about how to conduct the quarterly reviews of OKRs.

So, here we are with everything you need to know about conducting a Quarterly Review of OKRs.

Click here to read about how to successful wrap up your quarterly OKRs

What is Quarterly Review?

A Quarterly Review is a scheduled assessment conducted every three months to evaluate progress, performance, and goals. It involves analyzing achievements, identifying areas for improvement, and adjusting strategies if needed. This practice helps maintain focus, track milestones, and ensure alignment with long-term objectives in a dynamic business environment.

What is a Quarterly Review of OKRs? Why do you need them?

At these Quarterly Review meetings, the team leaders of each team explain their respective OKR grades. And what changes are necessary for the upcoming quarter.

At Google, teams meet quarterly to review OKR grades and set new OKRs for the next quarter.

In the Quarterly Review of OKRs, you and your teams can discuss questions like-

1. How do your teams feel about the Company Objectives?
2. How do your teams feel about the team and individual-level Objectives?
3. Were their priorities set right? 
4. Were the OKRs aligned?
5. Did any unanticipated changes occur?
6. What improvements have your teams noticed?
7. What things should be changed for the next quarter?
8. What could have been done better?
9. What will be the OKRs for the next quarter?

Click here to read about 5 Reasons Why Frequent OKR Review Meetings are Important

Quarterly Review of OKRs can help you to-

• It creates room for discussion. And creates room for further collaboration. 
• It makes everyone part of the decision-making for further improvement. Thus it helps employees feel heard. 
• It fosters and maintains the right mindset important for OKR success.
• It creates a culture of constructive feedback.
• It helps everyone in the organization remain focused on the large picture.
• It creates a space for everyone to learn from each other’s experiences.
• It’s okay to make mistakes but “only an idiot persists in its error”

 Quarterly Review meetings ensure mistakes are never repeated.

How to Conduct a Successful Quarterly Review of OKRs

1Always start with team reviews

If your teams don’t know how much they have progressed and what they have missed. There is no point in holding company-wide Quarterly reviews.

Provide them with the right questions. Your teams have to be prepared to share their experience with context. So that other teams can understand and learn from their experiences.

Teams need to answer-

• What did they do?
• How did they do it?
• What are the lessons learned?

2Next is company-wide quaterly reviews

After teams’ OKR reviews are done. Go for Company-wide Quarterly reviews of OKR. Here teams can present a short overview of their individual OKR success and failures. 

Company-wide Quarterly reviews bring team OKRs together. Since OKRs within an organization are designed in an interrelated way. Each team needs to know what others have achieved. And individual teams’ contribution towards realizing the larger organizational goals.

Company-wide Quarterly reviews of OKRs help every part of the organization in one place. Teams get to see what didn’t work for other teams. So that they don’t repeat mistakes others have done.

Successful Company-wide Quarterly reviews will give you a sketch of how teams have contributed towards your company-wide achievements.

3Celebrate the Wins

It’s important to recognize the achievements and stimulate a culture of feedback.

You can even start by saying a simple “Good job.”

“You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on life.” – Zig Ziglar

Recognize your people for their actions and results. Recognize for completion of their key results. Share the OKR success stories within the organization through company newsletters and internal communication mediums.

For your OKRs to work best, remember to ask for feedback as much as you give them.

Bonus Tips For Conducting Successful Quarterly OKR Reviews

1)Create a culture of respect and trust. So that everyone can share their OKR reviews honestly.

“You can have all the right strategies in the world; if you don’t have the right culture, you’re dead.”-Patrick Whitesell

2) Welcome constructive feedback. 

In an HBR research, 72% of respondents said that corrective feedback from their managers would positively impact their performance. 92% of respondents agreed that negative (redirecting) feedback can also be effective at improving employee performance if given the right way. 

3) Prepare the right questions based on what you want to know during the Quarterly OKR Review meetings. This will ensure a more fruitful discussion. And avoid any diversion from the main points.

4) Carry forward the aspirational objectives from quarter to quarter if necessary. Because omitting them from the OKR list because of slow or insufficient progress is a mistake.

5) Some high-priority objectives may continue quarter after quarter, like “Ensure satisfactory customer service over XY%,”. For these objectives,  you can simply evolve the key results. And drive teams towards innovation and efficiency.

What About Large Size Organizations?

If you are a big company and Company-wide Quarterly OKR reviews are not possible.

Run quarterly reviews for each department.

And discuss departmental Success, achievements, initiatives, actions, shortcomings, and lessons learned.

In these Quarterly OKR reviews, departments will discuss briefly their OKR progress as a department. Along with a brief overview of how their individual teams have performed in general.

You can discuss the key initiatives that brought the maximum results, the success story, or the major mistakes of a particular team. Department’s OKR representative may share their key takeaways which other departments can use for their next cycle.

Questions to ask during quarterly OKR reviews

“Asking the right questions takes as much skill as giving the right answer”

Here is a list of questions you can place to make the most out of the Quarterly OKR Reviews-

Questions to understand what has been done.

1. How did your team perform?
2. Do you think your priorities were set to write?
3. Did you have the required support from us?
4. Was your team sure about their roles?
5. How often did you measure progress throughout the quarter?
6. Was your team consistent with their OKRs?

Questions to evaluate progress.

1. How would you scale your OKRs?
2. Are you on the right track in achieving your OKRs? If not, what’s blocking your way?
3. Are you satisfied with your OKR progress?
4. Which initiative brought the highest results?
5. Did OKRs improve your teams’ performance?
6. Have OKRs opened up new opportunities?

What About Large Size Organizations?

1. Are there any issues you are facing?
2. Where do you need assistance?
3. Do you have all the resources to achieve your OKRs?
4. What didn’t go well in your OKRs?
5. Was the bar too high or too low?
6. Is there anything you are not sure about your performance yet?

Questions to prepare for the next quarter

1. Are you adequately prepared for the next quarter?
2. What are your plans to make progress in the next quarter?
3. What do you think needs to change in the next quarter?
4. How will you use the lessons learned in other areas?
5. What have you learned?
6. Is there something you would want us to include in the OKRs for the next quarter?

Quarterly OKR reviews are a critical and inextricable part of OKR success at any organization.

If you have decided to conduct a quarterly review of OKRs at the end of this quarter, you are already a step ahead. 

If not, what are you waiting for? “Start Now”

If you are facing any issues with the successful creating, implementation, rolling, or reviewing of OKRs book a slot with our OKR experts now for free.