OKRs only work well in companies that already operate with empowered product teams, team-level (not individual) objectives, and very active leadership connecting strategy to execution.
Why many OKRs fail
- Most companies still work with feature teams focused on roadmaps and outputs, which conflicts with the idea of giving teams problems to solve with autonomy.
- In these cultures, OKRs become just another ritual, with no real behavioral change and little impact on outcomes.
Role of product teams
- OKRs were created in environments with empowered product teams, where the team is given clear business/customer problems and space to discover the best solution.
- When leaders keep prescribing “features and projects with dates,” the supposed empowerment becomes theater, even if the OKRs look good on paper.
Issues with individual/functional objectives
- Engineering, design, and product leaders often create objectives per department and then cascade them to individuals instead of defining a single shared team objective.
- This pushes people to optimize their own function or individual OKR rather than collaborate around a shared team problem.
Critical role of leadership
- In many companies, leadership “outsources” objectives to teams and only checks results at the end of the quarter, confusing empowerment with less management.
- The right model is better management: leaders translate strategy into clear problems, ambition levels, and high-integrity commitments, and provide ongoing coaching instead of command-and-control.
Three prerequisites for OKRs to work
- Shift from feature teams to empowered product teams with clear accountability for problems and outcomes.
- Drop manager/individual objectives as the main axis and focus on team objectives.
- Ensure active leadership connecting product strategy to team objectives, managing risks, ambition, cross-team dependencies, and accountability.