Uptech Raised Its Average OKR Score 40% After Leaving Spreadsheets

Uptech is a product development studio in Ukraine. The company runs on its mission, so every team needs to know how its work connects to the company strategy.

As headcount grew, that connection weakened. Goals were missed, ownership between teams was unclear, and nobody had a reliable view of progress.

OKRs fit a mission-driven company like Uptech, and the team started tracking them in spreadsheets in 2019. It didn't hold up. Teams forgot about their OKRs between planning sessions, and updating and formatting the sheets by hand ate time every cycle.

What Uptech needed

• An OKR process the team would follow every cycle
• A way to teach the team OKRs and build a habit of regular feedback and recognition
• A way to decide on the right goals
• A tool to support all of it

Choosing a tool

Once spreadsheets stopped working, Uptech looked at dedicated OKR tools. Most were built for large enterprises, packed with features a 100-person studio didn't need, and priced per user on annual contracts.

Uptech chose Peoplelogic because it was built for small and mid-sized teams, covered goals, 1:1s, and feedback in one place, and had pricing that fit a company their size.

Designing a process

Uptech adapted the standard OKR framework into a rhythm that fit how they work:

• One annual strategic cycle and six two-month tactical cycles
• A strategy session once a year to set high-level goals
• A planning check-in every two months to set tactical goals
• Progress check-ins every two weeks to review OKRs and raise blockers
• A retrospective at the end of each cycle before starting the next one

Educating the team

Early on, the team wasn't engaged with the OKR process. Uptech decided team leads had to understand OKRs and see the value before anyone else would.

So they ran an internal "OKR Talk" with illustrations covering how OKRs are scored, common mistakes, what to discuss at check-ins, and how each person's work feeds the result. There were memes too.

Choosing the right goals

Department leads own their OKRs. When leads propose the goals, they take ownership of them.

Leads set goals together. In strategy sessions, each lead brings data on problems and opportunities in their area, and the group agrees on goals that work across departments.

Employees have a say. Uptech added questions to its eNPS survey to find areas to improve in the next cycle. All goals are visible, and leads announce upcoming OKR sessions so anyone can weigh in.

Uptech now runs every department on the same OKR rhythm, with goals visible to the whole company, and 75% of employees have an individual development plan. If you want to set up a similar process, talk to an HR expert.