OKR, KPI, and Metric - What Do These Words Even Mean?
I cannot believe I am writing about this on my newsletter.
All throughout my career, I have always scratched my head when someone has used OKR in a meeting. It’s this gobblyfnlejfekfjse word that never made any sense to me.
If you still haven’t heard it, God bless you, but trust me, as you progress in your career, you'll increasingly encounter three big words in your offsite and quarterly meetings: OKR, KPI, and Metric.
Last week, during my off-site, I was the one using these terms confidently, I've come to realize they aren't as scary as they seem. In fact, they are incredibly useful tools that can help you track progress and achieve your goals.
So, I want to share the simplest definitions of these terms to help you understand and embrace them, just as I did. Let's demystify OKRs, KPIs, and Metrics together.
OKR - Objectives and Key Results
Think of OKR as a goal-setting tool. Imagine your goal is to increase your company's online presence.
Objective: This is your big goal. For example, “Increase online presence.”
Key Results: These are the steps that tell you how close you are to reaching your goal. For example, “Increase website traffic by 30%,” “Gain 5,000 new social media followers,” and “Publish 20 blog posts.”
So, OKR is all about setting a big goal (Objective) and figuring out the steps to get there (Key Results).
KPI - Key Performance Indicator
KPIs are like your report card. They show how well you're doing in different areas of increasing your online presence. For example:
How many new visitors your website got this month.
The number of new followers gained on social media this month.
How many blog posts were published and how many views they received.
KPIs help you understand if you’re doing a good job on your marketing journey and where you might need to improve.
Metric
Metrics are just measurements. They are like numbers on a ruler or a thermometer. They tell you specific details about your marketing activities. For example:
The exact number of website visitors today.
The number of likes and shares on a single social media post.
The number of comments on a blog post.
Metrics give you the exact numbers about what’s happening during your marketing campaign.
Wait, KPI and Metric sound same…
KPIs and Metrics might sound similar, but they serve different purposes:
Metrics are raw data points. They provide specific measurements, like how many website visitors you had or how many likes a post received.
KPIs take those metrics and show how well you're doing in reaching your goals. If your objective is to increase online presence, a KPI might be the number of new visitors your website gets each month, which indicates your progress towards the goal.
Remember, using terms like OKR, KPI, and Metric doesn’t make you a good or bad leader or manager. They are simply tools to help you measure progress and understand where you’re going. I've spent about 9 years in my career without using these terms, and I did well (well, I guess!)
Use these tools when you're ready, and use them to your advantage. They are here to guide you, not define you.
Keep moving forward, and don't worry if you hear gobblyfnlejfekfjs whenever someone uses them in the meeting ;)