Your Growth OKR Checklist
Will you set yourself up for failure or success?
Hi there,
OKRs are so important—they guide your entire quarter. We’re just starting Q2, and you’re probably in the process of setting or finalising your OKRs—startup life.
The start of a quarter is always hectic, so I’ll keep this brief. But the message of this newsletter is key—set the wrong goals, and you’re setting the quarter up for failure.
After reviewing countless startups’ OKRs, these are the three most common mistakes I encounter.
Your Growth OKR Checklist
1. Have you defined the exact measurement of success?
Most startups set OKRs like “20% improvement in X” without clarifying essential details:
What tool is being used to measure it?
What is the baseline?
Is the measurement based on the last month or the end of the month?
For clarity, if your goal is improving ROAS, specify whether you're relying on Meta’s reporting or an attribution tool, and which attribution model you’re using.
2. Is there a way you could improve this metric without reaching your goal?
Imagine you aim to improve the conversion rate by 10%, and you achieve that, but still don't see growth. Why?
It could be due to a decrease in Average Order Value (AOV) or significantly less traffic.
Think through possible scenarios that could derail your growth. Consider setting guardrail metrics (e.g., ensuring AOV stays at X) or adjusting the goal to account for these factors.
3. Have you defined themes?
A goal like reducing subscription churn is great, but it could mean several things:
Improving communication
Revisiting subscription packages
Encouraging usage
Enhancing the first-time experience
Before diving into the quarter, it’s important to identify clear themes for areas you want to test and improve. If you're unsure, make the first step of the OKR focused on research to pinpoint these areas.
Recommendation
In every edition of Growth Waves, I also share a related resource to check out related to the week's topic.
If you're wondering whether you've set the right OKRs to begin with after reading this, I covered this topic in a newsletter a few months ago.
In that newsletter, I walked through examples of bad OKRs, such as:
Increase sessions
Improve retention rate
Increase conversion rate
Increase the number of new customers
And, more importantly, how to refine them into meaningful, actionable goals.
Good luck with finalising and striving for those Q2 goals, I’m rooting for you.
If you feel like it, reach out and let me know what you’re focusing on for Q2!
Until next week,
Daphne