7 OKR examples for Saas Development

What are Saas Development OKRs?

The Objective and Key Results (OKR) framework is a simple goal-setting methodology that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s. It became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s, and it's now used by teams of all sizes to set and track ambitious goals at scale.

How you write your OKRs can make a huge difference on the impact that your team will have at the end of the quarter. But, it's not always easy to write a quarterly plan that focuses on outcomes instead of projects.

That's why we have created a list of OKRs examples for Saas Development to help. You can use any of the templates below as a starting point to write your own goals.

If you want to learn more about the framework, you can read our OKR guide online.

Saas Development OKRs examples

You'll find below a list of Objectives and Key Results templates for Saas Development. We also included strategic projects for each template to make it easier to understand the difference between key results and projects.

Hope you'll find this helpful!

OKRs to enhance SaaS product development in our Tribe team

OKRs to develop a cloud-based SAAS loyalty product

OKRs to develop an efficient IT Audit SaaS system

OKRs to launch a viable, user-friendly SaaS product

OKRs to accelerate user growth for SaaS product

OKRs to boost SaaS product activation rates

OKRs to elevate the NPS score in B2B SaaS by 5%

How to write your own Saas Development OKRs

1. Get tailored OKRs with an AI

You'll find some examples below, but it's likely that you have very specific needs that won't be covered.

You can use Tability's AI generator to create tailored OKRs based on your specific context. Tability can turn your objective description into a fully editable OKR template -- including tips to help you refine your goals.

• 1. Go to Tability's plan editor
• 2. Click on the "Generate goals using AI" button
• 3. Use natural language to describe your goals

Tability will then use your prompt to generate a fully editable OKR template.

Watch the video below to see it in action 👇

Option 2. Optimise existing OKRs with Tability Feedback tool

If you already have existing goals, and you want to improve them. You can use Tability's AI feedback to help you.

• 1. Go to Tability's plan editor
• 2. Add your existing OKRs (you can import them from a spreadsheet)
• 3. Click on "Generate analysis"

Tability's Strategy Map makes it easy to see all your org's OKRs

Tability will scan your OKRs and offer different suggestions to improve them. This can range from a small rewrite of a statement to make it clearer to a complete rewrite of the entire OKR.

You can then decide to accept the suggestions or dismiss them if you don't agree.

Option 3. Use the free OKR generator

If you're just looking for some quick inspiration, you can also use our free OKR generator to get a template.

Unlike with Tability, you won't be able to iterate on the templates, but this is still a great way to get started.

Saas Development OKR best practices

Generally speaking, your objectives should be ambitious yet achievable, and your key results should be measurable and time-bound (using the SMART framework can be helpful). It is also recommended to list strategic initiatives under your key results, as it'll help you avoid the common mistake of listing projects in your KRs.

Here are a couple of best practices extracted from our OKR implementation guide 👇

Tip #1: Limit the number of key results

Focus can only be achieve by limiting the number of competing priorities. It is crucial that you take the time to identify where you need to move the needle, and avoid adding business-as-usual activities to your OKRs.

We recommend having 3-4 objectives, and 3-4 key results per objective. A platform like Tability can run audits on your data to help you identify the plans that have too many goals.

Tip #2: Commit to weekly OKR check-ins

Having good goals is only half the effort. You'll get significant more value from your OKRs if you commit to a weekly check-in process.

Being able to see trends for your key results will also keep yourself honest.

Tip #3: No more than 2 yellow statuses in a row

Yes, this is another tip for goal-tracking instead of goal-setting (but you'll get plenty of OKR examples above). But, once you have your goals defined, it will be your ability to keep the right sense of urgency that will make the difference.

As a rule of thumb, it's best to avoid having more than 2 yellow/at risk statuses in a row.

Make a call on the 3rd update. You should be either back on track, or off track. This sounds harsh but it's the best way to signal risks early enough to fix things.

How to track your Saas Development OKRs

OKRs without regular progress updates are just KPIs. You'll need to update progress on your OKRs every week to get the full benefits from the framework. Reviewing progress periodically has several advantages:

• It brings the goals back to the top of the mind
• It will highlight poorly set OKRs
• It will surface execution risks
• It improves transparency and accountability

We recommend using a spreadsheet for your first OKRs cycle. You'll need to get familiar with the scoring and tracking first. Then, you can scale your OKRs process by using a proper OKR-tracking tool for it.

If you're not yet set on a tool, you can check out the 5 best OKR tracking templates guide to find the best way to monitor progress during the quarter.

More Saas Development OKR templates

We have more templates to help you draft your team goals and OKRs.

• OKRs to implement a new CI/CD platform for seamless software deployment and delivery
  ci/cd-platformsoftware-deploymentdevops-engineersoftware-engineerdevelopment-teamoperations-team
• OKRs to boost social media content shares by refining our content strategy
  social-mediacontent-strategysocial-media-managercontent-strategistsocial-media-teamcontent-development-team
• OKRs to develop an efficient account strategy template for top urgent accounts
  account-strategy-templateefficiency-increaseaccount-managerstrategy-designeraccount-managementstrategy-design
• OKRs to improve QA progress tracking across all projects
  quality-assuranceprogress-trackingqa-team-memberproject-managerqa-teamproject-teams
• OKRs to boost success through strategic Partnerships & Collaborations
  strategic-partnershipssatisfaction-rateproject-managerbusiness-development-managerproject-management-teambusiness-development-team
• OKRs to improve efficiency in meeting accounting deadlines
  accounting-deadlinestime-managementaccountantaccounting-supervisoraccounting-teamquality-assurance-team