Tag: goal setting software

10 Best Goal Setting Software in 2026 (Reviewed and tested)

Setting goals is easy. Keeping those goals visible, measurable, and connected to business priorities is where organizations often struggle.

A manager may set quarterly targets in a spreadsheet. Employees might document individual objectives somewhere else. Progress updates happen in meetings, performance reviews live in another system, and by the end of the quarter, nobody has a reliable view of what is actually on track.

That is the problem goal-setting software is designed to solve.

Modern employee goal-setting software helps organizations create goals, cascade company priorities across teams, track progress, manage OKRs, and bring goals into regular manager-employee conversations.

Some platforms focus almost entirely on OKRs. Others connect goals with performance reviews, feedback, learning, projects, or broader strategy execution.

So, which solution is right for your organization?

What Is the Best Goal-Setting Software in 2026?

The best goal-setting software in 2026 includes Engagedly, Betterworks, Lattice, 15Five, Leapsome, Profit.co, Weekdone, ClickUp, Asana, and WorkBoard.

The right choice depends on what you want to accomplish.

Goal-Setting SoftwareBest ForPricing
EngagedlyGoals connected with performance and talent management$5–$8/user/month*
BetterworksContinuous performance and goal alignmentFrom $8/user/month
LatticeHR-led goals, OKRs, and performanceGoals & OKRs from $8/seat/month
15FiveManager effectiveness and employee performancePerform from $11/user/month
LeapsomeFlexible goals, OKRs, and people enablementCustom pricing
Profit.coEnterprise OKRs and strategy executionCustom pricing
WeekdoneDedicated OKR management for SMBsFree for up to 3 users; paid plans available
ClickUpConnecting goals directly with tasks and projectsPaid plans from $7/user/month
AsanaCross-functional goal and project managementAdvanced from $24.99/user/month
WorkBoardEnterprise strategy execution and OKRsCustom pricing

*Pricing changes frequently. Check each vendor’s current pricing before purchasing.

1. Engagedly

Best for: Mid-sized organizations that want employee goals and OKRs connected directly with performance management, feedback, development, and talent processes.

Engagedly is an AI-powered talent management platform that combines goal setting and OKRs with performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, 1:1 meetings, skills, learning, recognition, and talent development.

Rather than treating goals as a separate quarterly exercise, organizations can use Engagedly to connect goals with ongoing performance conversations.

Company-level goals can be cascaded to business units, teams, and individual employees. Teams can define measurable key results, assign contributors, manage goal priorities and weightages, and monitor progress through reports and dashboards.

Goals can also be pulled into meetings, feedback conversations, and performance reviews, helping managers evaluate employees with more context around the outcomes they were expected to deliver. Engagedly also provides AI-powered goal suggestions through Marissa AI.

Key Features

  • Company, department, team, and individual goals
  • OKRs and measurable key results
  • Cascading and contributing goals
  • Goal weightages and priorities
  • AI-powered goal suggestions
  • Goal dashboards and reporting
  • Goal discussions during 1:1 meetings
  • Real-time feedback connected to goals
  • Goal integration with performance reviews
  • Mobile access and integrations

Pricing

Engagedly’s Performance Suite is currently listed at $5–$8 per user per month, billed annually, with a minimum annual pricing threshold of $7,500. Goals and OKRs are included within the Performance Suite.

Where Engagedly Stands Out

Engagedly is particularly useful when organizations do not want goal management to operate in isolation. Goals can feed into reviews, feedback, development, learning, and broader talent decisions.

For organizations that only want a lightweight standalone goal tracker, however, the broader platform may offer more functionality than they require.

Best fit: HR teams looking to connect employee goals with continuous performance management and development.

2. Betterworks

Best for: Organizations that want goals to form the foundation of continuous performance management.

Betterworks combines goals and OKRs with feedback, conversations, 1:1 meetings, performance management, and AI assistance.

One of its strengths is keeping goals active throughout the performance cycle rather than revisiting them only during quarterly or annual reviews.

Organizations can cascade company priorities into team and individual goals, monitor progress in real time, and bring goal achievement into performance conversations. Betterworks also uses AI to recommend goals based on strategy and employee roles.

Key Features

  • Company, team, and individual goals
  • Goals and OKRs
  • Cascading goal alignment
  • Real-time progress tracking
  • Goal reminders
  • AI-assisted goal creation
  • Feedback and conversations
  • 1:1 meetings
  • Performance review integration

Pricing

Betterworks currently lists its Performance plan at $8 per user per month, including Goals & OKRs, performance management, feedback, conversations, 1:1 meetings, and AI assistance.

Where Betterworks Stands Out

Betterworks is strongest for companies that want goals to provide measurable evidence for employee performance conversations.

Best fit: Mid-market and enterprise organizations adopting continuous performance management.

3. Lattice

Best for: HR teams that want structured goals and OKRs within a broader people management platform.

Lattice combines goal management with performance reviews, feedback, 1:1s, employee engagement, analytics, and talent-management capabilities.

Its Goals & OKRs product supports cascading goals, progress updates, reminders, configurable goal processes, and integrations such as Jira and Salesforce.

That makes it particularly useful for organizations that want employees to understand how individual priorities contribute to broader company objectives.

Key Features

  • Cascading goals
  • OKRs
  • Progress updates
  • Goal reminders
  • Configurable workflows
  • 1:1 meetings
  • Employee feedback
  • Performance management
  • Jira and Salesforce integrations

Pricing

Lattice currently lists Goals & OKRs at $8 per seat per month. Its broader Foundations package, which combines several people-management capabilities, starts at $13 per seat per month. Lattice also lists a $4,000 minimum annual agreement.

Where Lattice Stands Out

Lattice offers a good balance between dedicated goal management and broader HR performance workflows.

Best fit: HR teams looking for configurable OKRs within an established performance-management platform.

4. 15Five

Best for: Organizations that want goals connected to manager effectiveness, weekly check-ins, and employee performance.

15Five allows organizations to create company, department, team, individual, and self-development objectives using the OKR framework.

Employees and managers can track progress over time while bringing goals into weekly check-ins and performance conversations. Its Jira and Salesforce integrations can also automatically update certain key results based on work completed elsewhere.

Key Features

  • Company and employee OKRs
  • Individual development objectives
  • Weighted OKRs
  • Weekly check-ins
  • 1:1 meetings
  • Performance reviews
  • 360-degree feedback
  • Career development tools
  • Jira and Salesforce integrations

Pricing

15Five’s Perform plan costs $11 per user per month when billed annually and includes OKRs & Goals along with performance reviews, 360 feedback, career planning, check-ins, and other performance features.

Where 15Five Stands Out

The platform is particularly strong when organizations want managers to discuss goals frequently instead of treating them as static records.

Best fit: Organizations prioritizing manager effectiveness and continuous employee conversations.

5. Leapsome

Best for: Organizations that want flexible goal frameworks alongside reviews, competencies, feedback, and development.

Leapsome supports company, team, individual, performance, and development goals.

Organizations can use traditional goals or structured OKRs, establish automated goal cycles, assign owners and contributors, and visualize alignment using interactive goal trees.

Its AI capabilities can also suggest OKRs and initiatives, while dashboards provide visibility into completion rates, outdated goals, team progress, and adoption.

Key Features

  • SMART goals and OKRs
  • Company, team, and individual goals
  • Automated goal cycles
  • AI-assisted goal creation
  • Goal trees
  • Goal analytics
  • Progress dashboards
  • Feedback and comments
  • Jira integration
  • Performance-review integration

Pricing

Leapsome uses custom pricing based on employee count, modules, and contract length. A 14-day free trial is currently available.

Where Leapsome Stands Out

Leapsome provides considerable flexibility for businesses that use different goal-setting approaches across departments.

Best fit: Growing and global organizations looking for flexible people enablement and goal management.

6. Profit.co

Best for: Organizations that want OKRs to support broader strategy execution.

Profit.co goes beyond basic goal tracking by connecting OKRs with strategy management, KPIs, projects, employee performance, and other execution workflows.

Organizations can create OKRs at different levels, cascade them across teams, assign priorities, track progress, use more than 300 built-in KPI options, and create dashboards for executives and managers.

Its strategy-focused approach makes it particularly relevant for organizations that want to connect corporate objectives with execution across multiple functions.

Key Features

  • Company, team, and individual OKRs
  • Cascading goals
  • 300+ KPI options
  • Custom priority weights
  • Real-time dashboards
  • OKR templates
  • Automated notifications
  • Strategy roadmaps
  • Task and portfolio management
  • AI-assisted strategy capabilities

Pricing

Profit.co currently uses custom pricing based on selected modules and user count and offers a 30-day trial.

Where Profit.co Stands Out

Its strongest differentiator is the ability to combine OKRs with broader strategy-execution frameworks.

Best fit: Enterprises and strategy teams that need more than employee-level goal tracking.

7. Weekdone

Best for: Small and mid-sized organizations looking for a focused OKR platform.

Weekdone specializes in OKRs, weekly planning, check-ins, and strategy alignment.

Organizations can create annual goals and quarterly OKRs, connect team objectives with company priorities, and visualize relationships through an OKR hierarchy.

Weekly check-ins help teams keep goals active throughout the quarter rather than setting objectives and forgetting about them.

Key Features

  • Annual and quarterly OKRs
  • Company, department, team, and individual goals
  • OKR hierarchy
  • Weekly check-ins
  • KPI tracking
  • Dashboards and reports
  • Feedback and recognition
  • Jira and Asana integrations
  • Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations
  • OKR coaching and training

Pricing

Weekdone is free for up to three users and provides a 14-day free trial for teams with four or more users. Paid pricing varies by team size.

Where Weekdone Stands Out

Its combination of software and OKR coaching can help organizations that are implementing OKRs for the first time.

Best fit: SMBs that want a dedicated OKR tool rather than a full talent-management suite.

8. ClickUp

Best for: Teams that want goal tracking tightly connected to projects and day-to-day tasks.

ClickUp approaches goal management from a work-management perspective rather than an HR perspective.

Teams can create high-level goals and break them into measurable targets based on numbers, currency, true/false outcomes, or task completion.

Goals can then be linked directly to work inside ClickUp, allowing progress to update as associated tasks are completed. Teams can also organize goals into folders for OKRs, sprints, quarterly targets, or employee scorecards.

Key Features

  • Goals and measurable targets
  • OKR tracking
  • Numerical and monetary targets
  • Task-based goal progress
  • Automatic progress tracking
  • Goal folders
  • Dashboards
  • Permissions and sharing
  • Project and sprint management

Pricing

ClickUp offers a Free Forever plan with limited Goals usage. Its Unlimited plan starts at $7 per user per month when billed annually and includes Goals and Portfolio Management.

Where ClickUp Stands Out

ClickUp is especially useful when goals need to connect directly to projects, tasks, and operational work.

It is less HR-focused than platforms such as Engagedly, Betterworks, or Lattice.

Best fit: Product, marketing, operations, and project teams already managing work in ClickUp.

9. Asana

Best for: Cross-functional organizations that want strategic goals connected with project execution.

Asana Goals helps companies connect company-level objectives with the projects and work responsible for delivering them.

Leaders can monitor progress across portfolios while employees can understand how individual projects contribute to broader priorities.

This makes Asana particularly useful when the main goal-management challenge is connecting strategy with everyday work rather than running an HR performance-management program.

Key Features

  • Company goals
  • Team goals
  • Goal progress tracking
  • Project-to-goal connections
  • Portfolios
  • Status updates
  • Dashboards
  • Workload management
  • Project and task management

Pricing

Goals are included with Asana’s Advanced plan, currently priced at $24.99 per user per month when billed annually.

Where Asana Stands Out

Its biggest advantage is the connection between strategic objectives and project execution.

Best fit: Organizations already using Asana for cross-functional project management.

10. WorkBoard

Best for: Large enterprises that need OKRs as part of an organization-wide strategy-execution system.

WorkBoardAI focuses heavily on strategy, business outcomes, OKRs, portfolio management, planning, operating cadence, and performance.

Companies can connect strategic priorities with objectives and key results across teams while giving executives visibility into execution, dependencies, risks, and progress.

Its current platform also uses AI agents to assist with OKR creation, identify alignment issues, generate scorecards, support business reviews, and help managers prepare for conversations.

Key Features

  • Enterprise OKRs
  • Strategy-to-goal alignment
  • AI-assisted OKR creation
  • Goal progress monitoring
  • Strategic portfolio management
  • Scorecards
  • Business-review workflows
  • Strategy dashboards
  • Performance and coaching capabilities

Pricing

WorkBoard does not publicly list standard pricing and generally uses custom enterprise pricing.

Where WorkBoard Stands Out

WorkBoard is considerably more strategy-focused than a typical employee goal tracker.

Best fit: Large enterprises that need executive strategy, OKRs, portfolios, and execution management within one environment.

What Is Goal-Setting Software?

Goal-setting software is a digital platform that helps organizations create, assign, align, track, and measure employee, team, and organizational goals.

Instead of managing objectives through spreadsheets, documents, or disconnected systems, goal-management software creates a central place where employees and managers can see:

  • What needs to be achieved
  • Who owns each goal
  • How progress is measured
  • How individual goals connect with company priorities
  • Whether goals are on track or at risk
  • What progress has been made over a specific period

Many modern platforms also support OKRs, SMART goals, KPIs, cascading goals, check-ins, dashboards, feedback, and performance-review integration.

Goal-Setting Software vs. OKR Software: What’s the Difference?

Goal-setting software is a broader category.

It can support individual employee goals, team targets, development goals, SMART goals, performance objectives, KPIs, or company priorities.

OKR software, meanwhile, is specifically designed around the Objectives and Key Results framework.

An objective defines what you want to achieve, while key results define how success will be measured.

For example:

Objective: Improve customer retention.

Key Results:

  • Increase renewal rate from 85% to 90%.
  • Reduce customer churn from 8% to 5%.
  • Improve customer satisfaction score from 4.1 to 4.5.

Many platforms in this list support both traditional goals and OKRs, so organizations do not necessarily need separate systems.

What Features Should You Look for in Goal-Setting Software?

The most important features depend on how your organization manages goals, but several capabilities are particularly valuable.

Goal Alignment and Cascading

Employees should be able to understand how their work contributes to team, department, and company priorities.

Look for tools that allow goals to be connected or cascaded across organizational levels.

Flexible Goal Frameworks

Not every organization uses the same methodology.

The platform should ideally support frameworks such as SMART goals, OKRs, KPIs, individual development goals, or custom goal structures.

Measurable Progress Tracking

Managers need more than a list of objectives.

Good goal-tracking software should allow teams to define measurable targets, update progress, and quickly identify goals that are on track, behind schedule, or at risk.

Check-Ins and Reminders

Goals should remain part of regular conversations.

Automated reminders and recurring check-ins can prevent goals from disappearing after they are created.

Dashboards and Reporting

Managers and HR leaders should be able to see progress at individual, team, department, and organizational levels without manually compiling spreadsheets.

Performance Management Integration

For employee performance goals, connecting goals with feedback, 1:1s, and performance reviews creates more context for evaluations.

Integrations

Look for integrations with the tools employees already use, such as Jira, Salesforce, Slack, Microsoft Teams, HRIS platforms, and project-management systems.

AI Assistance

AI is increasingly being used to suggest measurable goals, improve OKR wording, summarize progress, flag risks, and reduce the administrative work involved in goal management.

How to Choose the Best Goal-Setting Software

Start with the problem you are trying to solve.

If your primary goal is employee performance and development, platforms such as Engagedly, Betterworks, Lattice, 15Five, or Leapsome are likely to be more relevant.

If your priority is dedicated OKR management, Weekdone or Profit.co may be stronger options.

Organizations focused on project execution may prefer ClickUp or Asana because goals connect directly with tasks and projects.

Large enterprises trying to connect strategy, OKRs, portfolios, and executive execution may find WorkBoard more suitable.

The best platform is therefore not necessarily the one with the longest feature list. It is the one that fits how your organization actually sets goals, discusses progress, evaluates performance, and adjusts priorities.

Final Thoughts

The best goal-setting software should do more than provide employees with a place to enter objectives.

It should help people understand what matters, how their work contributes to company priorities, how progress will be measured, and when priorities need to change.

For organizations primarily focused on project execution, tools such as ClickUp and Asana make it easier to connect goals with everyday work.

For companies implementing dedicated OKR programs, Weekdone, Profit.co, and WorkBoard provide stronger strategy and OKR-focused capabilities.

And for organizations that want employee goals connected with performance reviews, feedback, 1:1s, development, and broader talent management, platforms such as Engagedly, Betterworks, Lattice, 15Five, and Leapsome provide a more integrated approach.

Engagedly is particularly suited to organizations that want goals to remain connected to the complete employee performance cycle—from setting expectations and tracking progress to providing feedback, evaluating results, and supporting development.

Want to see how Engagedly can help connect employee goals with performance and development? [Request a demo].

Frequently Asked Questions About Goal-Setting Software

What is the best goal-setting software for employees?
Engagedly, Betterworks, Lattice, 15Five, and Leapsome are among the strongest options when employee goals need to connect with performance management. Engagedly is particularly suitable for organizations that want goals, reviews, feedback, development, and broader talent-management capabilities within one platform.

What is the best software for tracking employee goals?
The best choice depends on your workflow. Engagedly and Betterworks work well for performance-focused organizations, while ClickUp and Asana are better suited to teams that want goals tied closely to project execution.

What is OKR software?
OKR software helps organizations create and track Objectives and Key Results. Objectives describe what the organization wants to accomplish, while key results provide measurable outcomes that indicate whether the objective has been achieved.

Can goal-setting software improve employee performance?
Goal-setting software can improve the structure around performance by giving employees clearer priorities, measurable targets, progress visibility, and regular opportunities to discuss goals with managers. The software itself does not improve performance automatically; effective goal design, manager coaching, and regular check-ins remain important.

What is the difference between goal-setting software and performance management software?
Goal-setting software primarily focuses on creating, aligning, and monitoring goals.
Performance management software typically covers a broader set of processes, including performance reviews, 360-degree feedback, competencies, 1:1 meetings, development planning, and sometimes compensation.
Platforms such as Engagedly, Betterworks, Lattice, 15Five, and Leapsome combine both capabilities.

What is the best free goal-setting software?
ClickUp offers limited Goals functionality on its Free Forever plan, while Weekdone is free for teams of up to three users. Free plans can work for small teams, but larger organizations generally need paid plans for advanced reporting, integrations, administration, and enterprise controls.

Can goal-setting software be used for SMART goals?
Yes. Most modern goal-management tools can support SMART goals—goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Some platforms also support OKRs, KPIs, development goals, and custom goal frameworks.

Benefits of A Goal Setting Software

In the workplace, goals are crucial for success. Goals keep you on the course during rough times and help you stay focused on issues that matter. Goals provide employers the benefits of helping employees stay on course, aligning employee goals with organizational goals, etc. The very process of goal-setting can be further enhanced by using goal-setting software for your business needs.

Continue reading “Benefits of A Goal Setting Software”

10 Reasons to Use Goal Setting Software

Setting goals is a crucial task any organization should take with great importance. It gives the management and employees a sense of purpose and direction. Imagine running a race without knowing where the finish line is. How meaningless it would seem to most people – putting in the effort of working every day without an end goal. And because we would like to avoid such a situation, we have to set goals. Goal setting has its many pecks, and that’s where goal setting software comes into play. Goal-setting software helps you plan, manage, and track your goal, ensuring you are working with a sense of direction.

The goal setting software can assist any business with a goal-setting strategy, and in this article, we will discuss ten reasons you should use a goal-setting application.

Provides Clarity and Transparency

Goal setting provides clarity to management and employees of an organization. And using goal-setting software helps you to achieve this. A study by Inc. showed that 70% of companies ranked “communicating business goals” as an effective way to have high-performing staff members. 

Another study by Gallup shows that employees whose managers engage them in the goal-setting process perform 3.6 times better than their counterparts in the dark. Meaning employees show better engagement when they understand why they should achieve their goals.

Transparency means that everyone within the organization knows the goals, why the company sets those goals and their part in achieving them. Transparency allows for inclusion, which helps with the business direction. Clarity and transparency are at your fingertips if you use the target-setting software. Employees can access the breakdown of the company objectives into goals and where they come in.

Helps Employees See the Bigger Picture

The first reason ties into this point. Staff members who see themselves as part of the bigger picture are likely to work harder towards achieving their goals. They do this because they see how their contribution affects the overall organizational goals.

According to an article in Harvard Business Review, employees should see how their goals fit into the larger organizational goals to get the best from them. Their Interaction with the goal-setting software can aid this process.

The best goal setting software in the market has the features to help achieve this. 

Also Read: 5 Most Common OKR Myths Busted

Helps to Automate and Track Progress

In recent years, automation has become something of a buzzword. It’s a term often thrown about, and the surrounding hype is something to be envied. The truth is, there is a good reason for this hype.

Various studies like this have shown us proof of the buzz – a primary reason being an increase in productivity and reduced costs.

Automating activities like tracking, managing, and scoring makes it easier to attend to other essential activities. Artificial intelligence will carry out the repetitive process for you. Doing this makes it easier to carry out goal-setting strategies.

The goals can be customized for each employee and easily tracked from the platform by the manager in charge. The automation allows for tracking and feedback to be seamless. 

Keeps Employees Accountable

Staying accountable is one of the hardest and overlooked activities in a company. It’s easier to give end-of-year feedback to an employee than to monitor and track the employee’s progress. According to The American Society of Training and Development, you are 65% more likely to achieve your goal if you have someone tracking your progress.

A goal-setting software presents you with the platform to achieve this goal. 

Being accountable can bring out the best in an employee, and the best goal setting software in the market can help you achieve such.

It Becomes Easier to Manage a Team

Managing a team of people can be a tough task, and it isn’t unusual for team leaders to lose sight of the progress reports of team members because of other pressing matters. One of the many factors that ensures a company achieves its organizational goals is teamwork. When you and your team have a common goal in mind, it helps unify team members to meet the set targets.

A unit or department sets a target and then breaks them down into individual targets for each person. Each member then tracks their goals as individuals and as a collective. Since each member has access to the team’s overall goal with goal-setting software, they can keep each other in check.

A reliable goal-setting software ensures individuals can view the departmental goals. They also help individuals see how they contribute to the overall departmental goal. When departmental goals are readily accessible by team members, it helps them stay focused.

Also Read: 6 Traits of High-Performing Teams

Provide a Platform for Feedback

Getting feedback from your manager is an important task. Unfortunately, this task only occurs once in a blue moon and often performance reviews take place at the end of the year. A study by Officevibe revealed 4 out of 10 workers feel disengaged when they get no feedback. They are also two times likely to feel detached from the organization.

It gets more interesting as the study also shows only 58% of managers believe they give adequate feedback to their employees. This information provides us with some fascinating but understandable statistics. Another interesting finding in this study was 65% of participants said they wanted more feedback. 

Among employees that receive feedback weekly, 43% of them engage well with the business objectives. On the other hand, only 18% of people stay engaged without weekly feedback. 

Feedback also presents a way to improve and see things from other people’s perspectives. Peer-to-peer feedback can also help to de-escalate tensions between members of an organization. To gain an efficient feedback framework – it’s best to use an application that can provide a brilliant platform. The best goal setting software on the market has a feedback column where team members and other added members can give constructive feedback.

Goal Setting Recognition Tools Can Help Improve Employee Morale

In any modern office, recognizing the efforts of employees of any organization is necessary. A study by Gallup shows that the number one reason employees leave their jobs is because the company does not recognize their efforts. 

 Another study by SHRM also shows employee recognition helps to reduce frustration in the workplace by 28.6%. Both studies highlight how effective recognizing employees’ achievements are – especially in recent times where workers need more than good pay to stay in a job. The pandemic has seen employees reflect on their career goals and have seen many people opt to resign. 

 Recognizing and rewarding the efforts of employees is more significant than ever. And using the goal-setting software is a brilliant way to monitor and reward meeting goals and objectives – boosting the employees’ morale.

 Recognition can be as simple as using the software to publish the goals met to fellow peers. A goal-setting software can aid you by helping build a culture of rewarding and recognizing the best talents in your company. 

Improves Communication within the Organisation

A survey of 400 companies by Inc. found companies lose up to 37 billion per year because of poor communication. We cannot overemphasize the importance of good communication, as it is crucial to achieving the goals of an organization.

Efficient communication helps the management convey the organization’s vision to the staff members. It allows for feedback from employees and helps improve productivity. The advantages of having efficient communication are many, but some key ones include:

  • Improves the workplace atmosphere.
  • Reduces the amount of misinformation and confusion.
  • Helps to increase the commitment of the employees.

Acknowledging how vital good communication is, is not enough to align employees with the organizational goals. That is why gaining and using goal-setting software is an admirable first step you can take. The importance of the goal-setting application is in the number of communicating features it possesses. The best products in the markets have features to promote communication between employees and management. 

Also Read: Be A Better Manager And Avoid These 5 Mistakes

It Promotes Collaboration

The importance of goal setting means collaboration between departments is a powerful aspect for achieving organizational goals. No department is an island because it takes the effort of all to achieve the different targets the business has set out to do. For the departments to work well together, there are tools the company will need to function effectively, and one of them is a goal-setting tool.

One thing this tool brings to the forefront is its visibility. All employees can track the set goals and their progression, allowing for ease in cross-team collaboration. Working cross-team to solve a common company problem is a task that is doable with such software.

Another use for goal setting is it aids when working remotely or at home. It’s easy to keep up with your department worksheet and other departments if both departments are on a project. The best goal-setting apps in the market have features that help monitor the progress of other team members.

Flexible Goal Formatting for Different Departments

Different departments need different metrics in order to give a fair assessment. Good target-setting software is flexible enough to accommodate different goal formats. Some examples of goals and their tracking formats include:

  • “Hit $15m in the first quarter.” – We can track the goal in dollars.
  • “Increase sales of product X by 5%.”- the goal’s format is in percentage.
  • “Visit the company’s 10 new sites for inspection.” – This goal is measured in numbers.
  • “Send out a performance survey on Friday.” – This is a simple binary type goal. It requires a “done” or “not done” kind of goal format.

The best application out there has the flexibility to format and track different goals as the need presents itself. 

In conclusion, goal-setting software will be a big plus for your business. It can help you take your business to a whole new level where direction, accountability, and clarity become the norm.

Goal settings and OKRs

Product Management OKRs : Examples

For holistically product-based companies, product managers and their product management team is the backbone of the organization. From Google to Microsoft to Amazon, every successful organization has talented product managers to provide the perfect solutions to their customer’s problems. They work with cross-functional teams and help everyone to be on the same page with what customers want. They are a part of a myriad of activities which include:

  • Understanding customer requirements and translating them for the development team 
  • Build and design product roadmaps 
  • Enhance existing feature of the product
  • Research on competitors

While it is not as easy as marketing or the sales team to set OKRs for those in product management, having OKRs help them stay focused and measure their success. In this article, we will share some sample OKRs for your product management team that will help you get started. But before we take a look at the OKRs let us take a look at its history and what are okrs.

Also Read: The Essential Guide To OKRs: Your Ultimate Tool To Setting Winning Goals

OKRs :  A Brief History

“OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth, many times over.” – Larry Page, Co-founder of Google.

The concept of OKRs was first introduced by the former Intel CEO, Andy Grove, in the 1970s. But it was relatively unknown until it was introduced in Google in 1999 by John Doerr. Doerr was introduced to OKRs while working at Intel. To Google, it is a part of their culture, and they consider it a management methodology that helps them focus on the same issues throughout the organization. Organizations such as Amazon, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Netflix, Microsoft, Disney, Zynga, etc., credit OKRs for their success.

What Are OKRs?

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) comprise of: 

  • An Objective: It is a clearly defined goal to be achieved
  • 3-5 Key Results: Measurable steps to track the progress of the objectives

Each set of Objectives and their Key Results should answer two primary questions: ‘What is that we are planning to achieve?’ and ‘How to achieve it?’. 

Almost every organization globally uses the OKR methodology to set their goals because of its multitudinal benefits. Here are some of them: 

  • Short term and agile
  • Easy to align
  • Improves Transparency and Accountability
  • Time-Saving
  • Tracks progress and help prioritize tasks
  • Improves Team Collaboration

goal setting guide

How To Write Good Objectives?

  • Plain Language – Use a language that everyone understands, avoid using specific jargon and acronyms. The intention here is not to make things sound fancy. The right intention here is to convey the goals with clarity
  • Start With A Verb – Begin with a verb to describe the action and the desired direction. It helps in understanding a clear target to achieve and gives direction to the employee
  • Challenge the Status Quo – Objectives should be  set in such a way that it challenges your current way of working otherwise it would be ineffective to move your business forward
  • What’s Holding You Back? – Understand what problems are holding you back from moving forward and executing your strategy
  • Clarifying Questions – Use the Questioning method to move from abstracts to specifics of your OKRs. This will reduce confusion and help everyone understand the true objectives
  • Use Simple Rules – Use simple rules while drafting your OKRs. Have your own set of key criteria for objectives which are straightforward and simple to follow
  • Limited and Time Bound – Set no more than three objectives per quarter so that they remain impactful. Having too many objectives takes away focus from the priorities.
Also Read: Employee Engagement: Why Is It Important For Organizations?

How To Write Good Key Results?

  • Keep Them Simple And Clear – Make them simple and easy, so that they can be easily communicated understood by others
  • Assign Owner – Assign an owner who takes the responsibility of creating and achieving the key results and is responsible for updates on the progress
  • Use Positive Language – Use positive language while creating your key results as it will enhance motivation and increase commitment
  • Limit the Key Results – Set a minimum of three and maximum of five key results for every objective. Setting few will not be challenging, and setting too many will be difficult to achieve
Also Read: 360 Degree Feedback : 7 Tips To Get Started

With an insight into what is OKRs and how to write them, now let us take a look at some of the sample OKRs.

Objective 1: Research and Understand what users want

Key Results:

– Interview five Tier 1, ten Tier 2, and fifteen Tier 3 clients

– Sales Team or the Product Team interviews recent churned out customers

– Analyze Client Exit Surveys of past quarters

Objective 2: Deliver Version 2 of the project by the end of ______ (Time Frame)

Key Results: 

– Wireframe review and sign off on UI prototype

– Review and sign off on Mobile Responsive screens

– Ready for hand-off within the timeframe

Objective  3: Enhance features and improve usability

Key Results: 

– Identify and handover bugs to the development team

– Research on competitor’s products

– Connect with high level executive (clients and non-client)

Objective 4: Employee engagement and development of team members

Key Results:

– Each team members attends one training session each month

– Team members set their OKRs for each quarter

– Peer feedback is conducted half-yearly

– Two best performers from each quarter is rewarded

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