OKRs became gospel through Google and Intel. At a 10-person startup they usually harm more than they help.
OKRs are a communication and alignment tool designed for organizations of a certain size. Bolting them onto a 10-person team creates process overhead without the underlying coordination problem they solve.
Objectives (qualitative direction) with Key Results (quantitative measures of progress). Set quarterly or annually. Made famous at Intel, then Google. Designed for cross-functional coordination at hundreds-of-people scale.
Once you have 30+ people and multiple functions that need to coordinate. When leadership needs a shared prioritization framework. When you're trying to prevent the strongest voice from setting the agenda by default.
Under 30 people, OKRs usually add ceremony without adding coordination. Quarterly cycles are too slow for early-stage products. Founders performing OKR reviews instead of shipping is a real failure mode.
One-page company priorities updated monthly. Weekly all-hands with metrics review. Individual owner names against every priority. This is faster, cheaper, and produces the same alignment without the OKR overhead.
Start with 3-5 company-level objectives per quarter. Cascade to team objectives only after the company level is working. Resist the temptation to write OKRs for every individual — it turns into performance theater.
Too many objectives (should be 3-5, ends up being 15). Key results that measure activity, not outcome. OKR reviews that become status meetings. Compensation tied to OKR completion — turns everyone into a sandbagger.
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