2 OKR examples for Cost Savings
What are Cost Savings OKRs?
The Objective and Key Results (OKR) framework is a simple goal-setting methodology that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s. It became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s, and it's now used by teams of all sizes to set and track ambitious goals at scale.
Writing good OKRs can be hard, especially if it's your first time doing it. You'll need to center the focus of your plans around outcomes instead of projects.
We have curated a selection of OKR examples specifically for Cost Savings to assist you. Feel free to explore the templates below for inspiration in setting your own goals.
If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read more about the OKR meaning online.
Best practices for managing your Cost Savings OKRs
Generally speaking, your objectives should be ambitious yet achievable, and your key results should be measurable and time-bound (using the SMART framework can be helpful). It is also recommended to list strategic initiatives under your key results, as it'll help you avoid the common mistake of listing projects in your KRs.
Here are a couple of best practices extracted from our OKR implementation guide 👇
Tip #1: Limit the number of key results
The #1 role of OKRs is to help you and your team focus on what really matters. Business-as-usual activities will still be happening, but you do not need to track your entire roadmap in the OKRs.
We recommend having 3-4 objectives, and 3-4 key results per objective. A platform like Tability can run audits on your data to help you identify the plans that have too many goals.
Tip #2: Commit to the weekly check-ins
Don't fall into the set-and-forget trap. It is important to adopt a weekly check-in process to get the full value of your OKRs and make your strategy agile – otherwise this is nothing more than a reporting exercise.
Being able to see trends for your key results will also keep yourself honest.
Tip #3: No more than 2 yellow statuses in a row
Yes, this is another tip for goal-tracking instead of goal-setting (but you'll get plenty of OKR examples below). But, once you have your goals defined, it will be your ability to keep the right sense of urgency that will make the difference.
As a rule of thumb, it's best to avoid having more than 2 yellow/at risk statuses in a row.
Make a call on the 3rd update. You should be either back on track, or off track. This sounds harsh but it's the best way to signal risks early enough to fix things.
Building your own Cost Savings OKRs with AI
While we have some examples below, it's likely that you'll have specific scenarios that aren't covered here. There are 2 options available to you.
- Use our free OKRs generator
- Use Tability, a complete platform to set and track OKRs and initiatives
- including a GPT-4 powered goal generator
Best way to track your Cost Savings OKRs
OKRs without regular progress updates are just KPIs. You'll need to update progress on your OKRs every week to get the full benefits from the framework. Reviewing progress periodically has several advantages:
- It brings the goals back to the top of the mind
- It will highlight poorly set OKRs
- It will surface execution risks
- It improves transparency and accountability
Spreadsheets are enough to get started. Then, once you need to scale you can use a proper OKR platform to make things easier.
If you're not yet set on a tool, you can check out the 5 best OKR tracking templates guide to find the best way to monitor progress during the quarter.
Cost Savings OKRs templates
We've covered most of the things that you need to know about setting good OKRs and tracking them effectively. It's now time to give you a series of templates that you can use for inspiration!
You will find in the next section many different Cost Savings Objectives and Key Results. We've included strategic initiatives in our templates to give you a better idea of the different between the key results (how we measure progress), and the initiatives (what we do to achieve the results).
Hope you'll find this helpful!
OKRs to implement cost savings/automation initiative
- Implement cost savings/automation initiative
- Develop detailed implementation plan for chosen initiative by week 8
- Identify objectives and deliverables of the chosen initiative
- Assign roles and responsibilities related to the plan
- Develop comprehensive timeline for each task by week 8
- Identify 3 potential areas for cost savings/automation by week 4
- Review current expenditures to identify key cost areas
- Analyse processes for potential automation
- Identify inefficiencies within procedures
- Achieve 10% cost reduction or time savings via the implemented initiative by week 12
- Set clear goals for the initiative focusing on cost reduction
- Adapt and improve strategies according to progress
- Regularly track and evaluate the initiative's performance
OKRs to successfully migrate on-premises infrastructure to cloud service
- Successfully migrate on-premises infrastructure to cloud service
- Train all team members on how to use the new cloud service effectively
- Schedule training sessions for all team members
- Identify suitable training course for new cloud service
- Monitor and assess team's proficiency post-training
- Complete migration of all essential data and applications using cloud service
- Begin transferring prioritized data to the cloud service
- Assess and categorize all data and applications for migration
- Conduct thorough post-migration testing and verification
- Achieve cost savings of at least 20% compared to current on-premises setup
- Establish and implement a company-wide energy saving program
- Evaluate and implement more efficient, cost-effective technologies
- Initiate negotiations with current vendors for price reductions
More Cost Savings OKR templates
We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.
OKRs to drive Business Expansion in Saudi Arabia's school sector OKRs to achieve Product-Market fit OKRs to achieve high app store ratings through positive reviews OKRs to validate AI's fit for automating HR processes OKRs to enhance capability as an institutional research analyst in higher education OKRs to improve relationships and delivery results with internet customers and project managers
OKRs resources
Here are a list of resources to help you adopt the Objectives and Key Results framework.
- To learn: Complete 2024 OKR cheat sheet
- Blog posts: ODT Blog
- Success metrics: KPIs examples