The magic of the quarterly OKR cycle

A 90-day OKR cycle creates a powerful balance between stability and adaptability. This timeframe is long enough to accomplish meaningful work yet short enough to adapt to changing conditions. But a quarter only works well if a team focuses on one key objective. If a team has more than one, it spreads too thin. Think about this: if only 1 in 4 or 5 experiments work, and a team runs one per week, they’ll get about 3 wins in a quarter. That’s why focus matters.

Good OKR cycles follow a simple structure:

• Start with a planning session. Make sure team goals align with company goals.
• Check in halfway through the quarter. Review progress. Adjust if needed.
• End with a retrospective. Talk about what worked, what didn’t, and why.

The real magic happens when you complete a few consecutive OKR cycles. Teams develop a muscle memory for setting ambitious but achievable goals, tracking meaningful metrics, and delivering results. Each quarter builds on the learning from previous cycles, creating a continuous improvement loop that drives increasingly better outcomes over time.