Do you think we should have OKRs for early stage startups?

Gaurav Parvadiya
2 replies
I was always a fan of OKRs. We are an early stage startup and not sure if I should follow OKRs at this level. What do you think?

Replies

Maxime Parmentier
OKRs are a pretty difficult process to implement. The creation of great OKRs require a lot of work, then you have to update regularly them and finally close them/reflect on them. For a small team, this can be distracting, especially if you need to align multiple OKRs together. I find that OKRs are great to implement once your team reaches > 20-30 employees. Below that, have couple clear KPIs that everybody can review and access is simpler. You don't want to create distraction. The main goal of OKRs is to align employees on the strategic direction of the company. It becomes important once you have lot of employees/managers and communication top to bottom becomes a bit more complicated.
Henry Miller
​Early-stage startups may not have the capacity or resources to devote to setting up and tracking OKRs, and should instead focus on building a product and growing their user base.​ However, some of OKR's ideas could be applied to start-up operations. For example, in order to achieve OKRs effectively, establish good communication channels to provide timely feedback and ensure that everyone is sufficiently aware of the goals and their progress.