OKR Grading Explained: Purpose, Challenges, and Best Practices
How to Effectively Grade OKRs, Overcome Challenges, and Use Insights to Drive Continuous Success, Growth, and Improved Performance in Future Cycles

Purpose of OKR Grading
Measure Progress:Â Provides a clear, quantifiable way to assess achievements.
Identify Gaps:Â Highlights areas where performance fell short, enabling targeted improvements.
Encourage Ambitious Goals:Â Drives teams to aim high without fear of "failure," as even partial progress can indicate success.
Promote Continuous Improvement:Â Encourages reflection and learning for future OKR cycles.
Set the Next Objective: Grading informs the next cycle’s OKRs by identifying what should be continued, improved, or adjusted based on past performance.
How OKR Grading Works
Scoring Scale:Â Typically on a scale from 0.0 to 1.0, where:
0.0-0.2 = No progress
0.3–0.6 = Moderate progress (partial achievement)
0.7–1.0 = Strong progress or full achievement
Self-Assessment:Â Teams often score their own OKRs, followed by reviews from managers or peers to ensure alignment.
Objective-Based: Each Key Result is graded individually, and the average score reflects the Objective’s overall performance.
OKR Grading Common Issues and Challenges
Subjectivity:Â Without clear metrics, grading can become inconsistent across teams.
Misaligned Expectations:Â Teams may set either overly ambitious or too conservative goals, skewing the grading.
Focus on Scores Over Impact:Â Teams might aim for high scores rather than meaningful outcomes.
Lack of Feedback:Â Grading without constructive feedback limits learning opportunities.
Not Using Results for Growth:Â Some teams grade OKRs but fail to apply the insights when setting new Objectives, missing opportunities for improvement.
Best Practices for OKR Grading
Set Clear Metrics:Â Define measurable Key Results with specific success criteria to reduce subjectivity.
Embrace Stretch Goals: Aim for ambitious targets where a score of 0.7–0.8 represents excellent performance.
Separate Grading from Performance Reviews:Â OKR scores should focus on growth and learning, not directly tied to compensation.
Review Regularly:Â Conduct mid-cycle check-ins to track progress and adjust if needed.
Focus on Insights: Use grading results to guide discussions about what worked, what didn’t, and how to improve.
Link to Future Objectives:Â Ensure grading outcomes directly influence the next set of OKRs, creating a continuous improvement loop.