50 articles, books, and resources that will make you an OKR master in 2023

Learning OKR methodology can be challenging. There are a lot of links and resources to learn from. We've gathered some of the most popular here with a short summary. Learn, enjoy, and achieve great results with OKR methodology.

Guides

• "The beginner's guide to OKR" from Felipe Castro. An excellent resource to get an intro to OKRs. I started my journey with OKRs from Felipe Castro's guide. An intuitive and compelling story of how to implement OKRs effectively.
• "Guide: Set goals with OKRs" re:Work from Google. Guide about implementing Objectives and Key Results from Google, with their examples and, scorecards and spreadsheets. Highly recommend.
• "OKR White Paper" by Ben Lamorte. Best practice, templates, and steps for implementing OKRs. Introduction to the methodology.
• "Team Playbook about OKRs" by Atlassian. Intro to OKR methodology from Atlassian, with their template for Confluence.

Books

• "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr. One of the first popular books about OKR methodology. John Doerr shares how he introduced OKR to Google and how Objectives and Key Results played an important role in the success of Google, Bono, Gates Foundation, etc.
• "Radical Focus" by Christina Wodtke. The book illustrates how to implement the OKR approach, how to inspire a diverse team to work together, commit to the bold goals, and execute on the plan despite the setbacks and disappointments. Plus Christina shares how implementing OKRs can be fun.
• "High Output Management" by Andy Grove. The former CEO of Intel shares his perspective on how to build and run a company. It is a practical handbook for navigating real-life business scenarios. Andy Grove is considered the author of the OKR approach.
• "How to Measure Anything" by Douglas W. Hubbard. It's a common challenge to set measurable Key Results, and companies often get it wrong. Douglas Hubbard helps to find the value of "intangibles" in business and provides an easy-to-read, demystifying explanation of how to measure anything and how to make less risky, more profitable business decisions.
• "How Google Works" by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg. From seasoned Silicon Valley, business executives share how they helped grow Google from a young startup to a global icon. And everything they knew about management, including OKR.
• "Work Rules!" by Laszlo Bock — visionary head of People Operations at Google, Laszlo shares how he built the talent at Google that achieved breakthrough results. Including the story of how OKRs played an important role in it, how to set up properly OKRs review and Performance Review cycles, and much more.

Articles & Blogs

• OKRs.com blog by Ben Lamorte. One of the OKR pioneers, Ben, helped dozens of companies to implement OKR methodology and achieve great results.
  
• "Good objective, bad objective" by Dan Pupius.
  
• "Are you doing OKRs right?" by Braden Kowitz.
  
• "How Ambitious Should your OKRs Be?" by Felipe Castro.
  
• "OKR vs KPIs, What is the Difference?" by Felipe Castro.
  
• "4 reasons why individual OKRs don't work" by Andriy Bas.
  
• "Why you should separate OKRs and Performance Reviews" by Andriy Bas.
  
• "OKR: Should you use them for setting goals?" by Claire Lew.
  
• "OKRs" by Niket on The Fundamentals.
  
• "OKRs: The Goal Setting System You Need To Be Using" by OfficeVibe.
  
• "List of Top Companies That Use OKR Goals" by Atiim.
  
• "How to Make OKRs Actually Work at Your Startup" article on First Round.
  
• "The Management Framework that Propelled LinkedIn to a $20 Billion Company" article on First Round.
  
• "Objectives and Key Results" topic on Quora. Collection of Q&A on OKR topics.
  
• "Step by Step Guide to OKRs" from Weekdone.
• "OKR: Objectives and Key Results FAQs" from 7Geese.

Videos

• Rick Klay video from Google Ventures explaining how Google sets OKR.
  
• Why the secret to success is setting the right goals by John Doer (TED talk).
• Interview with John Doerr on OKRs and Measuring What Matters by Donald Sull.
• Measuring what matters: Putting OKR into practice by 7Geese with Felipe Castro.
• Simon Sinek about "Why leaders eat last". He is explaining the biological reasons why OKR approach works.
• Accomplish big goals with Objectives & Key Results by Christina Wodtke.
• OKR Goal Setting Class from Workpath (paid).

Podcasts

• Giant talk – the world's first OKR podcast from There Be Giants. Good conversations with OKR experts about benefits, challenges of OKRs. A lot of tips from real-world case studies on how to implement OKRs.

OKR examples

• OKR examples — one of the most popular sites by Weekdone with examples of OKRs for different departments and roles.
  
• How-To-OKR Examples and Templates
  

Communities

• OKRs LinkedIn group
  
• Workpath OKRs community
  

OKR software vendors blogs

Most of the OKR software vendors blog sell their solutions heavily and are often biased. But still, some provide good content despite this. Here are some of my popular ones:

• Range blog
  
• Lattice blog
  
• Plai blog
  
• 15Five blog
• Weekdone blog
  

OKR software

• How to select the OKR tool and the OKR tools comparison by How-To-OKR.com
  
• Questions to consider when buying an OKR tool from Ben Lamorte.
  
• OKR Software site by Weekdone with the comparison of OKR tools (Disclaimer: it is biased towards Weekdone solution).

Here are some of my favorite OKR software vendors as of 2023:

• Plai
  
• 15Five
  
• Lattice
  
• Range
• Perdoo‍
• Workpath
• Gtmhub

Other solutions that were popular a few years ago don't seem to provide the same level of service and UX as companies above. Such vendors are Weekdone, Wrike, BetterWorks, Khorus, Reflective, Upraise, Weekplan, Workboard, Ally, Koan, Leapsome, Profit, Culture Amp.

Summary

Hope these resources would help you get started with the OKR approach and enjoy all the benefits of OKRs. Stay focused on your journey and achieve great results.

P. S. if you know a useful resource about OKRs that you think readers will benefit from, send it to us at feedback@plai.team to get listed here.