Looking for the best OKR software?
Imagine this:
You write down your OKRs in a company doc and then ask your team to work towards them.
However, a few months later, you find yourself in a pickle.
It turns out that:
You were unable to track their progress well.
Your team has barely moved an inch towards the business goal.
And some of your team members didn’t even know there was an OKR in place!
So how do we fix this?
The answer is powerful OKR software.
OKR software streamlines the OKR process for you.
With it, you can set, track, and measure goals and results with ease.
But with so many options in the global OKR software market, how do you know which tool is your cup of tea? 🍵
Donut worry 🍩
In this article, we’ll take a look at what OKRs are and the top 5 OKR software that’ll bring you success!.
Let’s go!
What Are OKRs?
OKR is a goal setting framework that helps you create measurable goals that drive your company towards success.
OKR stands for objective and key results. Your objectives are what you want to achieve, and the key results are the metrics that track your performance and progress towards meeting your objective.
Basically, once you complete your key results, you achieve your objective.
When writing an OKR, follow this simple formula:
I will: (objective)
As measured by: (set of key results)
Here’s an OKR example:
OKR Objective: Improve our blog strategy.
Key Result 1: Publish 60 new blog posts in the fourth quarter.
Key Result 2: Do three interviews with industry leaders.
Key Result 3: Get 5000 subscribers on our blog.
Want more key result ideas? Check out these other OKR examples.
Remember, the OKR methodology is based on the kind of key results you set.
So, If you set poor key results, the outcome will also be poor, kinda like this saying:
Craving more info about the OKR framework? See how you can create and apply your OKRs.
The 5 Best OKR Software In 2020
OKR software helps project managers assign goals and track your progress and performance in achieving those goals.
With OKR software, you can align any individual OKR with your company goals. This way, every team member knows exactly how they can contribute to your overall organizational goals.
To help you choose the right OKR software, here’s a list of the 5 best OKR software:
1. ClickUp
ClickUp is the world’s leading project management tool.
It’s widely used by 200,000+ highly productive teams, including business giants like Google, Nike, and Airbnb.
From advanced performance review features to remote team management, ClickUp is the perfect OKR solution.
Here’s how ClickUp can make your OKR process a success:
As an OKR management software, ClickUp helps you set strategic objectives that align with the overall goal of every business operation within your company.
With ClickUp, your company will have greater transparency and effective performance management.
Not sure what all this means?
Don’t worry, we’ll spill the beans!
Here’s a detailed look at ClickUp’s OKR features:
A. Goals
The Goals features lets you set and edit Goals and Targets.
But, before we continue, let’s clear up any potential confusion:
Here’s what Goals in ClickUp mean in OKR-speak:
ClickUp Goals = OKR objectives
ClickUp Targets = Key results
Back to ClickUp; you can create personal OKRs or work towards your company’s OKRs. No matter what you choose, ClickUp lets you edit your Goals so you can create one that suits your needs.
You can set:
- The name of your Goal
- The due date
- Who’s responsible for it
- Who can access the Goal folder
- A breakdown of your Goal
Not sure how to set goals for your team? Here’s a goal setting post that will give you plenty of food for thought.
Once you have set your Goal, you can use ClickUp’s Targets to break down that Goal into measurable Targets (key results).
You can set more than one Target (key result) for your Goal, and you can even edit them:
You can set:
- The name of your Target
- The owner of the Target
- What each Target tracks (currency, tasks, number, true/false)
B. Track Progress
Once your Targets and Goals are both ready, you can track your Goal progress in ClickUp.
You can track:
1. Your progress for each Target (key result)
See how close you are to achieving each of your Targets.
For example, if your personal OKR is to eat seven salads every week to reach your goal weight, you can see how many you’ve eaten so far.
Here’s Patrick demonstrating what you shouldn’t be doing:
2. How your Targets contributed to your Goal (objective)
For example, if you’ve completed 20% of all your Targets so far, your Goal progress will be 20%. This tells you exactly how close you’re to finishing your objective.
That’s more like it, Patrick 🥗
C. Goals Folders
Once you have created all your amazing Goals, you can store them and add new ones to your Goals Folder. You can also use your Folders to group all your weekly, monthly, and yearly Goals.
This way, if you’ve set multiple goals for different teams or initiatives, individuals and teams can see how their Goals relate to the overall business objective.
And, if you choose to make the Folders public, everyone knows about the company OKR, and they can refer back to the Folders when they need to.
D. Weekly Scorecards
Weekly Scorecards are the perfect productivity tool.
Why?
Weekly Scorecards help teams stop loafing around 🍞 by breaking down Goals into smaller tasks that can be done during the week.
With Weekly Scorecards, you can see how and if team members are contributing to company OKRs.
This helps keep teams motivated and focused on the Goal.
E. Dashboards
Use Dashboards to plan, track, and assess your Goal progress through completed tasks and time tracked on projects.
Use Custom Widgets to get detailed insight into tasks, sprints, people, and projects.
Here’s a list of the delicious Widgets you can choose from:
- Sprints
- Statuses
- Priorities
- Time Tracking and many more!
F. Reports
Use Reports to track employee performance. You can see who’s working on their OKRs, who’s close to reaching their goals, and who doesn’t cut the mustard.
You get the following reports:
- Task Completed Report: displays how many tasks each team member has completed
- Worked On Report: see the number of tasks each member worked on a specific day, week, or month
- Workspace Points Report: motivate your team members by gamifying your OKR process
- Who’s Behind Report: identify which team members have “work in progress” or unfinished tasks
- Time Tracked Report: see how much time each team member takes to complete a task or project
You can also use these reports to track your company’s key performance indicators.
Here’s how you decode KPI reports.
ClickUp pros
- Powerful free version with unlimited users
- Online and Offline Mode
- Set Task Priorities, so teams know which tasks to tackle first
- Easy-to-use user interface
- Multiple Views to adapt to Scrum, Kanban, or any project style of your choice
- Advanced Agile features like Sprint Lists, Agile Scrum Dashboards, Assigned Comments, and so much more
- Customized Task Statuses to easily keep track of your progress
- 50+ Task Automations to streamline project workflows
- Intuitive Gantt Chart feature to visualize tasks and progress
- Task Dependencies to help teams complete tasks in the right order
- Access your team’s activity reports with Pulse
- Use the built-in Notepad to jot down ideas and convert them to tasks when you’re ready
- Integrates with several third-party software like Evernote, Time Doctor, Salesforce, and many more
With ClickUp, you can truly have your cake and eat it too! 🎂
ClickUp cons
- Can’t export Dashboards
You can take a look at ClickUp’s roadmap here to see how we’re fixing these minor drawbacks. Also, check out the full menu of amazing features that this free OKR software has in store for you!
ClickUp pricing
ClickUp has a powerful, feature-rich free plan, and its paid plans start at $5/user per month.
ClickUp customer ratings
- G2: (4.7/5) 1900+ reviews
- Capterra: (4.7/5) 2000+ reviews
2. Wrike
Wrike is an OKR software that gives teams and project managers visibility over individual goals and company OKR.
Wrike also has OKR templates that will help teams develop goals that align with and build towards the company’s vision.
Wrike key features
- Customizable dashboards
- @mentions and comments to help teams work together on goals
- Multiple views for full team transparency
- Use an OKR template to help align your team’s work with overall business objectives
Pros
- Access detailed analytics to see top performers
- Use the resource management feature to allocate resources efficiently
- This OKR software tool has a built-in time tracking feature
- Teams with different focus areas can collaborate with a centralized vision
Cons
- This OKR platform doesn’t have a note-taking tool, which limits its ideation capabilities
- The free plan only has basic features such as a simple, shared task list for small teams
- No proper chat integration, making it more challenging to communicate goals to the entire company
- Difficult to determine the progress percentage for partially completed projects
Wrike pricing
This OKR software has a free plan, and the paid plan starts at $9.80/per user per month.
Wrike customer ratings
- G2: (4.2/5) 1300+ reviews
- Capterra: (4.2/5) 1600+ reviews
3. Aha!
Aha! is a goal setting software that helps cross-functional teams with capturing ideas, setting schedules, and progress tracking.
The app is also a great OKR software solution for any product team or marketing team that wants to build products that customers love.
But will Aha! make you say nah-ah?
Let’s take a look:
Aha! key features
- Customers and non-Aha! users can submit product ideas and innovations via a branded ideas portal
- Strategic roadmaps to establish a clear OKR goal with measurable results
- Custom workflows so you can do your work your way
Pros
- You can estimate the effort and budget required to deliver a project
- Uses task dependencies to deliver on-time and avoid bottlenecks
- Visualize progress on roadmaps and reports in real-time
- Real-time doc editing for teams who want to build on ideas/goals together
Cons
- Complicated onboarding process for inexperienced product management software users
- No documentation tool or knowledge base management system to store meeting notes
- No built-in chat feature for collaboration transparency
Aha! pricing
This OKR software has a startup plan, and its paid plan starts at a whopping $59/user per month.
Aha! customer ratings
- G2: (4.3/5) 150+ reviews
- Capterra: (4.7/5) 300+ reviews
4. Weekdone
Weekdone is an OKR software that focuses on setting structured goals with a measurable outcome.
It’s also a great tool for boosting employee morale as team members can upvote each other on the Leaderboard. This way, every individual contributor gets noticed, and team members feel encouraged to improve their performance.
But can Weekdone actually get the week over and done with quickly?
Let’s check it out:
Weekdone key features
- Can easily track and share goals
- One-on-one meetings feature to help employees improve their performance
- Feedback and recognition support to encourage progress and boost morale
- Weekly check-ins to track weekly activities to create more visible and interconnected teams
Pros
- Goal hierarchy feature lets teams visualize and contribute to large company goals
- Use real-time dashboards to see if everyone is on track with their goals
- Reporting and analytics to view trend reports and changes in team performance on a weekly basis
- Use private notes to jot down personal reminders
Cons
- Only supports up to 3 people in the free plan
- User setup and team creation can be complicated
- While you can set goals easily, creating specific OKRs can be a little more complicated
Weekdone pricing
This OKR tracking software has a free plan, and its paid plan starts at $90 for 4–10 users when billed annually.
Weekdone customer ratings
- G2: (3.9/5) 10+ reviews
- Capterra: (4.6/5) 30+ reviews
5. 15Five
15Five is a performance management software that’s well-known for its High Five feature and 1-on-1s.
But does this OKR tool really deserve a high five?
Let’s see:
15Five key features
- Set OKRs and keep your team focused, engaged, and aligned
- Heat-mapping dashboards lets project managers see how individuals and teams are feeling
- Quickly identify areas that need to be worked on areas that are doing well through detailed reporting insights
- Weekly check-ins for performance management and feedback
Pros
- Create, track and manage OKRs without disrupting your employees’ workflows
- Meeting agenda software to help project managers coach employees and provide coaching notes to improve performance
- 30 evidence-based surveys that you can allocate to employees to show a detailed view of employee engagement
- The check-ins and feedback questions replace long reports, email threads, and google sheets
Cons
- The free plan doesn’t offer the actual OKRs feature (this would drive us bananas 🍌)
- Limited control over your dashboard experience
- No calendar integration for Outlook when scheduling one-on-ones
- No native time-tracking feature
15Five pricing
This OKR management software has a free plan, and its paid version starts at $7.00/user per month when billed annually.
15Five customer ratings
- G2: (4.6/5) 1400+ reviews
- Capterra: (4.7/5) 800+ reviews
In A Nutshell 🥜
(Yes, we know we’re obsessed with food)
OKRs help teams set ambitious goals, track progress, and measure outcomes.
To achieve the best results, you should ensure that your employees’ OKRs align with your company objectives. Unfortunately, simply writing down your objectives and key results on paper doesn’t get the job done.
But, what does get the job done is OKR software.
And while we did mention some decent OKRs software in this article, ClickUp is still the cream of the crop in the OKR software market.
With features ranging from customizable goal setting to advanced goal tracking, ClickUp offers teams everything they need for powerful performance management and goal management.
Get ClickUp for free today to make your wildest OKRs and dreams come true!
Erica is ClickUp’s Senior Content Manager and professional beach bum. She spends her days creating emails, blogs, landing pages, and more to help people increase their productivity so they can save one day every week to do more of what they love.