Stretch vs Committed OKRs

What are Stretch Goals (OKRs)

As popularised by Google, the real benefit of OKRs come from setting ambitious stretch goals. This is a way to allow people to think creatively about how they can take massive leaps instead of incremental gains. In stretch goals, the outcomes are not guaranteed, the path to success is not defined and teams will often experiment and learn along the way. Sometimes they will achieve 50% of their ambitious goal. Sometimes 20% or if they’re lucky they’ll get to 70% of the target number.

When planning, it is essential to calibrate and set expectations with the management teams if this is a stretch goal or a committed goal.

☞ Read how Google CEO Sundar Pichai used OKRs to build the world’s most popular web browser

What are Committed Goals or OKRs

There are also times when teams can commit to an outcome. The OKR is something the team feels confident about and the path to achieving the goal is well-defined.

Let’s look at an example of a stretch goal or OKR

How to score stretch and committed OKRs

When closing goals and OKRs at the end of the quarter, it is important to consider how committed vs stretch goals should be rated.

When closing a goal or a key result in North, there are 4 outcomes to choose from; Completed, Partial, Missed and Dropped. In case of a stretch goal or key result, it is OK to mark them as completed even when they are only 70% complete. This expectation, however, must be decided between the manager and the team when setting the goal.

% Complete of a Stretch Goal	Outcome
> 70%	Completed
40%-70%	Partial
< 40%	Missed

% Complete of a Committed Goal	Outcome
100%	Completed
60%-99%	Partial
< 60%	Missed

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