Objectives

Concept

In the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology, objectives are specific and measurable goals that an individual, organization or a team aims to achieve within a set timeframe. These objectives are typically ambitious and represent the desired outcomes. Read our resources https://upraise.io/objectives-key-results-okr/what-are-okrs/ to know more about OKRs.

Objective types and when to use them

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	When to use	Examples
Company	Compnay level objectives are used to set overarching goals for the entire organization. They provide a high-level direction and focus for the company as a whole. Company objectives serve as a guidepost for the entire organization to work towards.	Achieve a 30% increase in market share within the European market by the end of the fiscal year. Attain a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70 or higher, reflecting exceptional customer satisfaction and loyalty across all product lines
Team	Team level objectives are used to set specific goals for individual teams or departments within an organization. They should be clear, specific, and measurable, allowing teams to track their progress towards the defined outcomes.	In the context of above company level objectives, team objectives could be - Develop and implement a proactive customer success program resulting in a 15% increase in customer NPS scores across all product lines. (For Customer Success Team ) Reduce product defects and issues reported by customers by 20% through rigorous quality testing and continuous improvement efforts. (For Product Quality Team )
Individual	Individual objectives are specific goals set for individual employees within an organization. These objectives should align with the team and company-level objectives and contribute to the overall success of the organization. These individual objectives are tailored to the specific roles and responsibilities of each employee. They should be challenging yet achievable, and they contribute to the overall success and achievement of team and company level objectives.	In the context of Customer Success team’s objective above here are some individual objectives based on individual’s roles - Customer Success Manager 1 : Increase customer engagement by 25% through personalized outreach and check-ins to understand their specific needs and goals. Customer Success Manager 2 : Develop and execute customized success plans for top-tier accounts, with a focus on achieving specific outcomes and value realization. Customer Onboarding Specialist : Streamline the onboarding process, aiming to reduce time-to-value for new customers by 30%. Customer Support Liaison : Implement a proactive support approach, conducting regular check-ins with high-value customers to identify and address potential issues.
Adiitional level based on team type	These additional levels work the team level/are similar to team level. However, can be created based on the team types configured in Company directory. Read below related documents- Manage teams https://amoeboids.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/UPFJ/pages/1640693775/Objective+levels#Manage-objective-levels	Products Release at least X number of feature enhancements based on customer feedback. User Adoption and Training Conduct X number of user training sessions/webinars to drive product adoption.

Create objectives

Navigate to OKRs from left navigation >> Click on Add objective >> This opens up and Add objective pop-up. On this pop-up, below explained feilds will be displayed based on the level of objective one is creating.

#Permissions

If logged in user does not see Add objective option or a certain level options in Levels fields, that means they do not have permissions to create objectives at all/for certain level.

#BestPractices

Apart from the above navigations Add objective option is available user and team profiles, Plus icon in the left navigation, while creating alignments.

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Field name	Description
Level Applicable to all levels of objectives	Select the one of the relevant levels of objectives based on what needs to beachived and who is supposed to create.
Objective cycle Applicable to all levels of objectives	Seelect the relevant level of objective in which the objective should contain. This also defines the max duration of the objective. Read more about Objective cycles.
Title Applicable to all levels of objectives	Title of the objective
Start and Due date Applicable to all levels of objectives	Start and Due date of the objective should rely under the start and due date of the selected objective cycle.
Owner Applicable to Individual, Company	Owner of the objective is an individual who is responsible to work on it.
Team Applicable to Team, Adiitional objective levels based on team type	These objectives are owned by teams and the objective achievements is a collective effort of group of people.
Visibilty Applicable to all levels of objectives	This fields helps to define who can access the objective. There are three visibility options All users - Whith this option objective cab be made visible to all active UpRaise users. Selected Units/teams - With this option, make objectives visible to users from selected teams/Units. Selected users - Here select individual who are supposed to view objectives.
Labels Applicable to all levels of objectives	Classifying objectives with different labels can help in different ways. Some examples of labels are Growth, Innovation, Customer Experience, Budget-Intensive, Resource Intensive, Time-Intensive.
Description Applicable to all levels of objectives	Description of the objective.
Contributes to Applicable to all levels of objectives	While creating objective, one can align it right away if the alignments are made clear. Otherwise, skip this option as it is not a mandatory field. Read Alignments for more details.
Weightage Applicable to all levels of objectives	Define weightage of the alignment that decides the impact of contributing objectives progress on the parent one. Skip it if not creating and alignment.

Based on the Objective custom fields there could be more fields for objectives. Read Custom fields.

#BestPractices

In OKRs methodology, it is recommended to have objectives visible to all users. Public OKRs promote transparency, alignment, and accountability within teams. They foster shared understanding, encourage feedback, and enhance motivation.

This visibility also enables learning and development opportunities. However, sensitive objectives may require a balanced approach to maintain confidentiality while still benefiting from public OKRs.

Objective progress updates

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Althought there is a Punch-in action on the Objective details page, the progress of objectives should ideally be derived from its Key Results (KRs) and Alignments. That is why Punch in action is disabled when there are one or more KRs/alingmnets under the objective.

Depending on the weightage or KRs and alignments objective progress is calculated by system. Read below documentations for more details -

Objective statuses

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Through its lifecycle, an objective can go through multiple statuses. Depending on the path objective has taken, change of its status will be reflected in the history.

Statuses explained below are equally applicable to all levels of objectives.

Scheduled - When an objective's start date (or objective cycle's start date) lies in future, its status is automatically set to scheduled. Progress updates cannot be made on a scheduled objective.
Ready - When the objective start date (or objective cycle's start date) is reached, the system automatically updates its status to 'ready'. Ready objectives can be updated for logging progress.
In Progress - An objective whose status is ready, when receives a punch-in or its progress is updated through an auto roll up - turns into 'in progress'.
Ready for Grading - On reaching the objective end date, system auto-updates it is status to 'ready for grading'. End users have 'grade & close' option available when the objective is in this state. (If in OKR settings grading type is set to opinion scale or radio button)
Ready to close - On reaching the objective end date, system auto-updates it is status to 'ready to close'. End-users have to 'close' option available when the objective is in this state. (If in OKR settings grading type is set to 'none')
Carried Forward - When an objective has been worked upon in a cycle and is not yet fully achieved, but still it is important enough to be executed in another cycle - in this case, one can 'carry forward' that objective. Carried forward is the original objective from which another copy is created in the intended cycle. Newly created objective will follow normal lifecycle of an objective whereas carried forward will remain in its original cycle.
Closed - Objective owner or any other user can close the objective either by completing or skipping the grading process. Once closed the objective cannot be edited. If reopened, objective is brought back to ready for grading status.
Abandoned - Apart from the ones in the chart above, there is 'abandoned'. As the name suggests, UpRaise users can set the objective to Abandoned any time a decision is made that the corresponding objective will not be pursued anymore. Do note that, similar to closed, abandoned objectives cannot be edited nor they will have any further progress impact.

Other actions related to objectives

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Once the objectives are created, there are multiple subsequent actions available that make objective management easy and effective.

Below are the possible actions for objectives. Click on the below actions to get more detailed guide for each actions -

Above actions may not be available depending on the UpRaise role permissions. If one does not see a certain action they are supposed to have can connect with UpRaise admins to get relevant permissions enabled.

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