10 OKR examples for Engineers

What are Engineers 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 Engineers. 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 Engineers 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.

Tability's audit dashboard will highlight opportunities to improve OKRs

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.

Tability's check-ins will save you hours and increase transparency

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 Engineers 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 Engineers 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

We recommend using a spreadsheet for your first OKRs cycle. You'll need to get familiar with the scoring and tracking first. Then, you can scale your OKRs process by using a proper OKR-tracking tool for it.

Tability's Strategy Map makes it easy to see all your org's OKRs

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.

Engineers 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'll find below a list of Objectives and Key Results templates for Engineers. We also included strategic projects for each template to make it easier to understand the difference between key results and projects.

Hope you'll find this helpful!

OKRs to improve engineering performance and reliability

Build a world-class infrastructure
Increase Apdex above 0.95
Cache requests wherever possible
Identify and resolve to 5 application bottlenecks
Reduce build time to be under 5 minutes
Audit test suite to reduce duplicates
Switch to a more performing build infrastructure
Our stress tests show that we can support 10,000 concurrent users

Track these OKRs

OKRs to achieve promotion to software engineer 3

Achieve promotion to software engineer 3
Complete advanced software development certification
Mentor and provide guidance to junior software engineers
Schedule regular one-on-one meetings to discuss progress, challenges, and career goals
Offer constructive feedback and actionable suggestions for improvement on their code
Actively involve them in meaningful projects to gain real-world experience and build confidence
Provide resources and recommend learning opportunities to enhance their technical skills
Receive positive performance reviews from team members and supervisors
Regularly check in with team members and supervisors to receive feedback and updates
Actively listen to team members and supervisors, and address any concerns or suggestions
Set clear and measurable goals with team members and supervisors
Continuously improve skills and knowledge through training and professional development opportunities
Deliver three high-impact software projects successfully
Implement effective project management methodologies to ensure efficient coordination and communication
Define clear project goals, timelines, and deliverables for each software project
Assemble a skilled and dedicated team with the necessary expertise for each project
Regularly monitor and evaluate progress, making adjustments as needed to meet project objectives