11 customisable OKR examples for Engineering Manager

What are Engineering Manager OKRs?

The OKR acronym stands for Objectives and Key Results. It's a goal-setting framework that was introduced at Intel by Andy Grove in the 70s, and it became popular after John Doerr introduced it to Google in the 90s. OKRs helps teams has a shared language to set ambitious goals and track progress towards them.

OKRs are quickly gaining popularity as a goal-setting framework. But, it's not always easy to know how to write your goals, especially if it's your first time using OKRs.

To aid you in setting your goals, we have compiled a collection of OKR examples customized for Engineering Manager. Take a look at the templates below for inspiration and guidance.

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

Building your own Engineering Manager OKRs with AI

While we have some examples available, it's likely that you'll have specific scenarios that aren't covered here. You can use our free AI generator below or our more complete goal-setting system to generate your own OKRs.

Our customisable Engineering Manager OKRs examples

We've added many examples of Engineering Manager Objectives and Key Results, but we did not stop there. Understanding the difference between OKRs and projects is important, so we also added examples of strategic initiatives that relate to the OKRs.

Hope you'll find this helpful!

1. OKRs to enhance engineering team's productivity

2. OKRs to allocate resources to refactor high-priority tech debt

3. OKRs to reduce critical tech debt by 50% in six months

4. OKRs to enhance workflow efficiency and productivity

5. OKRs to achieve optimal efficiency in engineering operations

6. OKRs to eliminate high-risk tech debt over the next year

7. OKRs to become proficient in Cisco switches configuration and the Headsup app project

8. OKRs to build a robust data pipeline utilizing existing tools

9. OKRs to improve system availability to achieve 999% uptime

10. OKRs to improve satisfaction and find improvements for engineering stakeholders

11. OKRs to improve software engineering skills through effective time management

Engineering Manager OKR best practices to boost success

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

Having too many OKRs is the #1 mistake that teams make when adopting the framework. The problem with tracking too many competing goals is that it will be hard for your team to know what really matters.

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.

Tability's audit dashboard will highlight opportunities to improve OKRs

Tip #2: Commit to weekly OKR check-ins

Setting good goals can be challenging, but without regular check-ins, your team will struggle to make progress. We recommend that you track your OKRs weekly to get the full benefits from the framework.

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

Tability's check-ins will save you hours and increase transparency

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 turn your Engineering Manager OKRs in a strategy map

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

Spreadsheets are enough to get started. Then, once you need to scale you can use a proper OKR platform to make things easier.

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

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 Engineering Manager OKR templates

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

• OKRs to become better at running
  personal-growthrunning
• OKRs to improve academic performance through effective learning strategies
  academic-performanceeffective-learning-strategiesstudenttutoracademic-advisors-teamstudent-counseling-service-team
• OKRs to streamline stakeholder communication and strengthen project oversight capabilities
  project-oversightstakeholder-managementproject-managerstakeholder-managerproject-management-teamstakeholder-engagement-team
• OKRs to land and expand through product stickiness
  customer-successproductgrowthnps
• OKRs to boost IDV completion success for business clientele
  idv-completion-successuser-experienceux-designercustomer-service-managercustomer-service-teamwebsite-design-team
• OKRs to successfully organize 75 engaging tour groups
  tour-organizationlocal-business-partnershipstour-guidebusiness-partnership-managertours-and-travel-planning-teambusiness-partnership-and-alliances-team

OKRs resources

Here are a list of resources to help you adopt the Objectives and Key Results framework.

• To learn: What is the meaning of OKRs
• Blog posts: ODT Blog
• Success metrics: KPIs examples