8 OKR examples for Engineering Manager
What are Engineering Manager OKRs?
The OKR acronym stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a goal-setting framework that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s, and it became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s. OKRs helps teams has a shared language to set ambitious goals and track progress towards them.
OKRs are quickly gaining popularity as a goal-setting framework. But, it's not always easy to know how to write your goals, especially if it's your first time using OKRs.
To aid you in setting your goals, we have compiled a collection of OKR examples customized for Engineering Manager. Take a look at the templates below for inspiration and guidance.
If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read more about the OKR meaning online.
Best practices for managing your Engineering Manager 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
Having too many OKRs is the #1 mistake that teams make when adopting the framework. The problem with tracking too many competing goals is that it will be hard for your team to know what really matters.
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
Setting good goals can be challenging, but without regular check-ins, your team will struggle to make progress. We recommend that you track your OKRs weekly to get the full benefits from the framework.
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 Engineering Manager 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 Engineering Manager 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.
Engineering Manager 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!
We've added many examples of Engineering Manager Objectives and Key Results, but we did not stop there. Understanding the difference between OKRs and projects is important, so we also added examples of strategic initiatives that relate to the OKRs.
Hope you'll find this helpful!
OKRs to allocate resources to refactor high-priority tech debt
- Reduce technical debt by allocating resources effectively
- Implement best practices to avoid future high-priority tech debt accumulation
- Achieve a reduction in high-priority tech debt items by 25%
- Establish a clear plan for refactoring high-priority tech debt items
- Prioritize high-priority tech debt items for resource allocation
OKRs to reduce critical tech debt by 50% in six months
- Minimize tech debt
- Develop a plan of action to address targeted tech debt items
- Prioritize critical tech debt items
- Conduct a thorough tech debt analysis
- Implement new development standards to prevent tech debt accumulation
OKRs to enhance workflow efficiency and productivity
- Enhance workflow efficiency and productivity
- Implement at least 3 significant improvements identified from the workflow analysis
- Develop strategies to implement these improvements efficiently
- Evaluate success of implemented improvements periodically
- Prioritize the 3 top improvements identified from workflow analysis
- Reduce workflow steps or stages by 10% to streamline operations
- Implement new workflow and analyze for efficiency improvement
- Review and analyze current processes for unnecessary stages
- Develop a revised workflow eliminating redundant steps
- Increase process efficiency by 20% through process re-engineering
- Identify bottlenecks in the current process
- Train staff on newly engineered process
- Develop a streamlined process blueprint
OKRs to achieve optimal efficiency in engineering operations
- Achieve optimal efficiency in engineering operations
- Lower engineering error rates by 10% through enhanced quality control measures
- Regularly monitor and review error reports
- Conduct regular training for quality control measures
- Implement rigorous testing protocols for every engineering process
- Reduce operation downtime by 20% through improved preventative maintenance procedures
- Implement strict equipment servicing and inspection schedules
- Develop detailed preventative maintenance protocols
- Train personnel in efficient troubleshooting techniques
- Increase operational efficiency by 15% via process improvement initiatives
- Implement new strategies to streamline processes
- Regularly assess and adjust improvements for optimal efficiency
- Identify inefficiencies in current operational procedures
OKRs to eliminate high-risk tech debt over the next year
- Reduce high-risk tech debt to improve system stability
- Conduct a thorough analysis to measure the impact of eliminating each high-risk tech debt item
- Outline and prioritize initiatives to eliminate each high-risk tech debt item
- Complete the elimination of at least 50% of high-risk tech debt items
- Identify top 10 high-risk tech debt items
OKRs to improve system availability to achieve 999% uptime
- Increase system uptime
- Improve system redundancy and failover capabilities
- Use load balancing to distribute traffic across multiple servers
- Create backup systems in different geographic locations
- Regularly test failover and recovery processes
- Implement automated failover mechanisms
- Implement proactive system monitoring
- Regularly review system metrics and identify areas for improvement
- Define and create alerts for critical system events
- Develop a process for reviewing and responding to alerts
- Set up monitoring tools for infrastructure
- Increase system performance by 25%
- Upgrade hardware and software components as per audit recommendations
- Conduct a system audit to identify bottlenecks and inefficient processes
- Optimize system settings and configurations to reduce resource consumption
- Implement a system monitoring and alert system to minimize downtime
- Decrease unplanned downtime by 50%
- Conduct regular equipment inspections
- Increase spare parts inventory
- Improve operator training on equipment maintenance
- Implement predictive maintenance program
OKRs to improve satisfaction and find improvements for engineering stakeholders
- Improve satisfaction and find improvements for engineering stakeholders
- Identify and initiate 3 actionable improvement opportunities from stakeholder feedback
- Analyze feedback for actionable improvement opportunities
- Formulate 3 improvement initiatives and implement plans
- Gather and categorize feedback from all stakeholders
- Increase stakeholder satisfaction rate by 25% as measured by quarterly surveys
- Develop a comprehensive customer feedback system
- Implement regular training sessions for customer service
- Enhance communication between teams and stakeholders
- Reduce issue resolution time by 20% to boost stakeholder content
- Invest in regular team training to improve technical skills
- Enhance team communication for quick problem identification and resolution
- Implement efficient project management tools for faster issue tracking
OKRs to improve software engineering skills through effective time management
- Improve software engineering skills through effective time management
- Increase the number of completed coding tasks by 20% each week
- Identify and address any obstacles or challenges that may hinder coding task completion
- Enhance collaboration and communication among team members for efficient task completion
- Provide regular feedback and support to assist in completing coding tasks
- Set clear and achievable coding task goals for each team member
- Improve adherence to project deadlines by delivering work on time in 90% of cases
- Implement effective communication strategies to address obstacles and ensure timely completion
- Set clear and realistic deadlines for each project task
- Prioritize tasks and create a detailed schedule to ensure timely delivery
- Regularly track progress and provide updates to stakeholders to maintain accountability
- Reduce time spent on non-essential activities by 15% during work hours
- Set specific time limits for non-essential tasks to ensure efficient completion
- Prioritize and eliminate non-essential activities based on their impact and importance
- Identify non-essential activities taking up significant time during work hours
- Regularly assess and adjust the allocation of time to non-essential activities as needed
- Attend and actively participate in at least 2 time management workshops or webinars
- Research and identify 2 time management workshops or webinars
- Apply the learned time management techniques in daily activities for improved efficiency
- Take thorough notes during the workshops or webinars for future reference
- Register for the selected workshops or webinars to secure a spot
More Engineering Manager OKR templates
We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.
OKRs to increase revenue for the SaaS premium subscription OKRs to optimize the Performance of BBPS v2 flows OKRs to enhance customer engagement and satisfaction in the existing client base OKRs to enhance product compatibility for Windows and Linux platforms OKRs to boost customer interaction on the homepage OKRs to successfully transition to platform x with an upgraded redemption flow
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