8 best OKR tracking templates in 2024

Oh, the classic blank page problem. We've all been there—staring at a fresh document, unsure of where to begin. Whether you’re new to setting goals for your team or looking to streamline your business outcomes, templates can be a lifesaver. That's why so many turn to an OKR template when learning how to set objectives and key results for the first time. Templates simplify difficult concepts and processes by offering a clear framework, especially when it comes to setting meaningful objectives or tracking progress. Whether you need a goal tracking template for daily tasks or an OKR tracking template for broader business strategies, the right tool can make all the difference in getting you started on the right path.

If you're tackling OKRs for the first time, you're also probably looking for a way to do OKRs in a tool you already have. Most people start with familiar options like spreadsheets, Excel, Notion or even PowerPoint to map out their objectives and key results. Others turn to Notion, Google Docs, or Miro for more collaborative or visual approaches. These tools offer flexibility and simplicity, and best of all, they don’t require investing in new software. After all, who doesn’t like free stuff?

Below are some free OKR tracking templates for free tools you may already have. Let's get into it.

First of all, what are OKRs?

OKRs, which stands for Objectives and Key Results, is a framework for setting and tracking performance goals. It involves setting specific, measurable, and time-bound objectives that align with an organization's overall strategy, and then defining key results that will indicate whether or not those objectives have been met. The OKR framework is designed to help teams and organizations stay focused, aligned, and accountable, and can be applied at all levels of the company, from individual employees to management.

Key Aspects of Tracking OKRs

Set clear objectives and measurable key results

The foundation of OKR tracking starts with defining clear objectives—what you aim to achieve. Each objective should be accompanied by measurable key results, which provide specific targets that indicate success. The more specific and quantifiable the key results, the easier it will be to track progress.

Regular check-ins and progress updates

Consistent check-ins are crucial for successful OKR tracking. Whether weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, these updates allow teams to assess their progress and make necessary adjustments. This ensures that any potential issues are identified early and that objectives remain aligned with overall business goals.

Use of metrics and data

Tracking OKRs requires relying on accurate data to measure performance. Metrics should be tied directly to your key results and tracked through relevant systems or tools. This ensures that progress is based on objective evidence rather than subjective judgment.

Flexibility and iteration

The purpose of tracking OKRs isn’t just to measure progress but also to allow teams to adapt. If key results aren’t being met or priorities shift, the flexibility to adjust objectives is critical. This iterative approach helps ensure long-term success by keeping teams aligned with the broader business context.

Benefits of using an OKR tracking template

Whether you’re new to OKRs or have done them before, it’s always helpful to start with a template. The hardest part about OKRs is usually the goal-setting phase, where you’re brainstorming and writing the goals for your next quarter. Templates can give you a sense of how to write good measurable OKRs (or SMART goals), get examples of proper OKR formatting, as well as show you other success metrics you can track that maybe you haven’t thought of yet.

The following are the best free OKR templates and example resources out there – and who doesn’t love free stuff?

OKR tracking templates built for scale

Starting out, it's nice to get comfortable with your OKRs by using tools you're already familiar with. Early on, it's really all about building the right culture around outcomes, writing good goals, and understanding the basics. However, eventually you'll need a dedicated OKR tool to help you scale.

When you're a solo founder or a small team of 3-4 people, it's easy to manage OKRs across the entire team but as your team grows, it's harder to maintain control, focus, and accountability across the entire team.

A tool that automates processes and gives high-level and detailed insights into your org's OKRs is essential as your team grows to 10, 50, 100, and to thousands of employees.

Tability: combining AI feedback and OKR tracking

⭐️ Recommended by What Matters

Where to try it: Tability

If tracking your OKRs sounds like a chore, that’s because it truly is. Without proper tooling, there’s a lot of manual work that goes into keeping the momentum up in your OKRs. Creating a progress report every week, sending reminders every week, locating and updating your numbers every week, doing maths (yuck) – it’s all a lot.

Tability, is the first AI-powered OKR tracking platform built for teams. You can get started in seconds and get automated dashboards and reports to track OKRs.

Tracking your OKRs in a sheet or ppt will work fine for many, but most of the time, you’ll reach your limitations with them. The beauty of Tability is that not only is it easy to get started, it’s also built to guide you through the process. It will come in handy to facilitate your OKR rollout as it can help your team learn best practices and improve their processes.

Key benefits

• Many automations to save time during goal-setting and goal-tracking.
• Can show you how OKRs cascade and align at a glance.
• Goal-setting AI to help you draft OKRs rapidly.
• Support strategic initiatives to map outcomes to outputs.
• Automatically sends weekly check-ins reminders.
• Standardised OKR dashboards across your org.
• Generate progress charts for every KR, and keeps historical data.
• Filter goals by confidence status, owner, teams, tags, etc.
• A built in presentation mode, that turns your OKRs into a powerpoint-like presentations
• More than 500+ OKR templates to use in-app

Try it today

Free OKR tracking templates for spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are a great place to start putting your ideas into goals and objectives. It's light-weight, free, adaptable to your needs. It may take some initial setup and some complicated formulas to get started but that's why we've found some templates for you to get a head start with.

A free Google Sheets OKR tracking template by Michael Williams

For some, it’s best to start off with a no-frills, basic OKR tracking template. This OKR template for Google Sheets from Michael Williams gives you just that, with this OKRs tracking template that will get you familiar with the OKR methodology. If this is your first time using OKRs, this is a great place to start.

This OKR template will give you a place to track company-level and team-level objectives and a way to track progress with by inputting percentages and status colors in your excel or Google sheets.

Key benefits

• Templates can be used right away, just create a copy in Google Sheets
• Most people are familiar with Google Sheets
• Track projects as well as your OKRs
• Good for fundamentals and learning the OKR framework

Cons

• Can quickly become complex to maintain at scale
• No templates or examples to help you set good OKRs
• No progress charts to visualise OKR trends
• Filtering options are limited
• No reminders: you will need to remember to update this regularly
• Allows team-level OKRs but no way to attach owners as part of the template
• No historical data so it’s hard to see where you were in previous check-ins
• You have to do calculate percentage of progress yourself
• Overall, a lot of work to maintain an update progress on OKRs at scale
• No integrations

Try it today

How to easily track OKRs in Google Sheets Martijn Burgman

One of the most common ways OKRs are tracked is in a spreadsheet, especially at the beginner level. Though there’s a bit of heavy lifting to get started, it’s likely that this is a tool you already use with your business, and can be a very effective way to get your goals down on paper. Luckily, there are a lot of templates out there including this one by Martijn Burgman, that help you with formatting, help with calculations and even brings in some visual elements.

In this post, he also does quite an extensive starter guide to tracking OKRs, which is great if you’re trying OKRs out for the first time.

Key benefits

• Most people
• No need to get a new tool so it’s easy to share or give access to your whole team
• Extremely flexible and customizable to your workflow
• Formatting done for you, just enter your goals

Cons

• No OKR examples are given, so you’ll need to go elsewhere for inspiration or metrics suggestions
• Can quickly become expensive to manage at scale
• No progress charts to visualise OKR trends
• Can't filters goals by status, owners, or progress
• No way to visualise dependencies or how goals cascade.
• No reminders: you will need to remember to update this regularly
• No way to attach owners as part of the template
• No reporting and limited reporting capabilities
• No integrations

Try this template

Free OKR Templates for Excel and Google Sheets by How-to-OKR.com

This detailed OKR template is great for those who want to use Excel to track their OKRs. Much like the others above, this template will help you track your Objectives and Key Results with progress percentages, and color statuses. What this OKR Excel sheet also allows you to track is confidence levels and trends on your Key Results. This means that, even though you can’t check previous scores or progress, you can show whether it’s trending up from before or down. If you’re a team that updates your OKRs weekly, this is essential.

This template also gives you a few columns to write in actionable notes or blockers, to keep your teammates informed on what's happening beyond the progress value. Comments and analysis of this sort, can be really important to communicate the whole story of your work to the team. More than 75% of teams worldwide are either remote or remote-hybrid these days, and having that context on paper, allows for teams to be on the same page asynchronously.

Key benefits

• Really in-depth template that has a lot of very actionable features
• Availabe in Excel format
• Use it right away, just download from their site
• Made by reputable OKR coaches at How-to-OKR

Cons

• With the extensive detail this template allows, there’s also a lot of manual input. No automations could make this a tall task for individual contributors
• No automations or integrations available

Try this template

Free Powerpoint OKR templates

More of a visual person? While we don't recommend it, some people choose to track OKRs in a powerpoint. You're going to have a hard time keeping up on it, but presentations are always a click away.

OKR Template for Powerpoint (PPT) by Powerslides

Now Excel and Google Sheets are usually the go-to for tracking OKRs, however some people like to work more visually, and prefer Powerpoint instead. Like the OKR methodology, the best way to do it is the way that makes sense to you.

If you’re a CEO or on the leadership team, tracking your OKRs in Powerpoint could possibly save some time. You’re likely presenting OKRs often to an all-staff or leadership meeting, and having it already in it’s final, presentable state, can be a massive time save. Why track it somewhere else when it’s going to end up in your Powerpoint anyway?

Of course, there will be features you aren’t going to get with Powerpoint vs Excel or Google Sheets. Calculations can be tedious done manually and updating and formatting a design file like Powerpoint can sometimes be tricky. Not every template is going to fit the text or images that you may want displayed.

That said, we probably don’t really recommend using Powerpoint as a way to track, but certainly a great way to present. For someone who prefers to work more visually, a combo of a Excel template to track, and a Powerpoint template to present, may be a prefect combo. They are all free after all 😉

Key benefits

• Great visual way of displaying and presenting your Objectives and Key Results
• Makes it easy to go from tracking to showing off in your meeting
• Can also export to PDF easily for quick sharing

Cons

• Tracking can be tedious with a free flowing format like Powerpoint
• No way to do calculations or formulas
• No reminders, meaning that you'll have to send check-ins nudges to the team yourself
• No way to filter data and isolate OKRs at risk
• Lack of integrations and automations
• Collaborative options are limited

Try this template

OKR tracking templates for Notion

Notion is an all-in-one workspace known for its flexibility and ease of use. Many teams already use it for documentation, project management, and even goal tracking. If you're already using Notion as your go-to tool for organising work, incorporating an OKR tracking system within might help streamline your process.

OKR templates within Notion provide a structured yet highly customisable approach, balancing form and function. When doing OKRs for the first time, these templates will be a great way to visualise your objectives and track key results without switching platforms. Notion isn't a complete OKR tool, but a great place to start getting into the rhythm of OKRs.

Let's look at some of the best OKR templates available on Notion.

Goals (Golden) template for Notion

The "Goals (Golden)" template offers a simple and minimalistic way to keep track of both personal and professional objectives. The layout is intuitive, helping users focus on their most important goals without feeling overwhelmed by excessive details.

Key Benefits

• Minimalistic design, ideal for those who prefer a clutter-free workspace
• Easy to adapt for personal or team OKRs
• It helps maintain focus on a few key goals

Cons

• Lacks advanced tracking features like automated progress updates
• Limited in terms of collaborative features compared to more robust OKR tools

Try the Goals (Golden) template for Notion

Objectives & Key Results Template for Notion

This OKR-specific template is designed to help individuals and teams align their objectives with measurable key results. It includes sections for setting objectives, tracking progress, and reviewing results, making it a go-to template for those who want a clear framework to manage their OKRs.

Key Benefits

• Structured layout specifically for OKRs, making it easy to input objectives and key results
• Easy progress tracking with visual indicators
• Built-in areas for reviewing OKRs and adjusting based on progress

Cons

• No automation or advanced tracking features
• May require manual updates to track progress regularly

Try the Objectives and Key Results template for Notion

Marketing Goals and OKRs Template for Notion

For marketing teams, this template is a great way to manage goals and OKRs that align with campaign performance. It allows users to track marketing-specific objectives, providing clear visibility into what needs to be achieved and how success will be measured.

Key Benefits

• Tailored to marketing teams with specific goal-setting needs
• Great for tracking progress on campaign objectives and other marketing-related goals
• Can easily integrate with other Notion pages or databases for a holistic view of marketing efforts

Cons

• It may be too specific for general OKR tracking, as it is geared towards marketing
• Lacks built-in reporting or automation features for large teams

Try the Notion Marketing goals template

OKR tracking templates for Miro

Miro is a highly visual, collaborative online whiteboard that many teams use for brainstorming, mapping out strategies, and more. It's a great tool for teams that prefer working in a highly interactive, visual format. Miro’s OKR template allows you to lay out objectives and key results in a way that’s easy for the whole team to see, adjust, and collaborate on in real-time. This template is perfect for teams who thrive on visual aids and need a more flexible, interactive approach to managing their OKRs.

Miro OKR Template

The Miro OKR template is designed to help teams map out their objectives and key results in an engaging and dynamic way. The template offers a drag-and-drop interface, which makes it easy to customise and adjust OKRs on the fly. Its visual nature allows teams to collaborate and align their goals, all while seeing progress at a glance.

Key Benefits

• Highly visual and interactive, making it easy to engage team members during OKR discussions
• Great for remote teams that need real-time collaboration tools
• Easily customisable with Miro’s drag-and-drop functionality
• Encourages brainstorming and alignment sessions with its flexible whiteboard format

Cons

• Less structured than traditional spreadsheets, which may require more manual organisation
• Lacks automation features, such as progress updates or reminders
• Not ideal for detailed tracking or reporting outside of the Miro board itself

Try the template

More OKR templates

That’s our list! Those are some free OKR tracking templates for Excel, Google Sheets and Powerpoint. Once you’ve got your free template set up, browse through this free OKR template library with hundreds of OKR templates. You can use these goals to get started in any of the tools listed above, or simply copy and paste into Tability.