When people talk about OKRs, Google always comes up.
And for good reason: they didn’t invent the system - but they made it famous.
Back in 1999, John Doerr introduced OKRs to Google when the company had fewer than 50 employees. Fast forward to today: OKRs have helped power everything from product launches to cultural shifts inside one of the world’s most influential companies.
So yes, Google’s OKR playbook is impressive. But the real question is: What can your startup learn from it - and what should you leave behind?
Let’s break it down.
Where Google Got OKRs Right
Google’s success with OKRs didn’t come from perfection. It came from discipline, iteration, and a culture that embraced both stretch goals and shared visibility. Here’s how:
1. They separated goals from compensation
At Google, your OKR performance wasn’t tied to your performance review or paycheck. That made space for ambition. You could set bold goals - knowing you wouldn’t get penalized for not hitting 100%.
This had a powerful side effect: employees felt safe experimenting, even if the outcome wasn’t guaranteed. OKRs became a learning tool, not a measurement trap.
What you can borrow: Make OKRs about progress, not pressure. If you tie OKRs to bonuses or promotions, teams will game the system or sandbag their goals. Keep them separate to keep them honest.
2. They made OKRs transparent across the company
At Google, everyone could see everyone’s OKRs. This wasn’t just a nice-to-have - it was a strategic move. Teams could self-align, spot dependencies early, and understand how their work connected to broader goals.
Transparency also raised the quality bar. When your OKRs are visible to 10,000 peers, you naturally think a little harder about what you commit to.
What you can borrow: Share your OKRs across your org - even if it’s just in a shared doc. You don’t need an enterprise dashboard to build trust and alignment.
3. They graded results - without obsessing over the score
Google used a 0.0 to 1.0 scale to grade KRs at the end of each cycle. But the goal wasn’t to get a perfect 1.0 - it was to reflect. A 0.6 might be great if the KR was truly ambitious.
More importantly, scoring helped teams evaluate effort vs. impact. What moved the metric? What didn’t? What would we do differently next time?
What you can borrow: Use light scoring or traffic light status to guide reflection - not to assign blame.
What John Doerr Actually Taught Google
When John Doerr first pitched OKRs to Google’s cofounders, he wrote one sentence on the whiteboard:
"I will... as measured by..."
That became the blueprint.
Objectives answer the first half: What are we trying to accomplish?
Key Results answer the second: How will we know if we’ve achieved it?
This structure works because it forces clarity. There’s no place to hide behind vague goals or activity-based plans. Every OKR starts with intent and ends with evidence.
Today, thousands of companies still use that framing. And it's as relevant to a 5-person startup as it was to Google.
Here’s the reconstructed OKR pitch that John Doerr gave Google’s founders in 1999 - the one that sparked it all. Tap below to see the full presentation.
Where Google’s OKRs Don’t Translate for Startups
Google’s approach works well when you have 100K+ employees, layers of leadership, and deep infrastructure. But you’re a startup.
Here’s where you should adapt the model to fit your speed, stage, and team reality.
1. You don’t need quarterly company-wide OKRs for everything
At scale, it makes sense for Google to publish OKRs top-down every quarter. But when you’re a 8-person startup? That can feel like overhead.
What to do instead: Set one company OKR per quarter. Let teams shape supporting goals from the bottom up. The alignment still happens - without the bloat.
2. You can’t afford to grade for weeks
At Google, OKR scoring involves review docs, team presentations, and big retros. Startups don’t have time for that.
What to do instead: Run a 30-minute retro. Use a traffic light or % complete. Ask, "What moved? What stalled? What did we learn?"
3. Culture eats process
Google’s OKRs work because they sit inside a culture of psychological safety, long-term thinking, and strong communication norms.
What to do instead: Don’t just copy the system. Build the culture. Encourage ambition. Make learning safe. Give teams room to reflect without fear.
The Cultural Piece: Why OKRs Work at Google
Tools only work when the culture supports them. At Google, OKRs live inside a system that values:
- Transparency: Everyone sees what matters
- Ambition: It’s okay to fall short of a bold target
- Reflection: Success isn’t assumed - it’s evaluated
- Autonomy: Teams own their goals, not just receive them
This culture didn’t happen overnight - but it’s why OKRs stuck.
If your team doesn’t share that same trust and rhythm yet, OKRs won’t fix the gap. They’ll reveal it. And that’s useful, too.
What Google’s OKRs Actually Look Like
Here’s a reconstructed example based on how Gmail’s product team, led by PM Itamar Gilad, used OKRs to solve a specific growth challenge:
Objective: Help casual users find their most important email - fast.
Key Results:
- Achieve >X% read rate of “Primary” tab messages
- Keep false positive rate (important messages marked unimportant) <Y%
- Keep false negative rate (unimportant messages marked as important) <Z%
Without OKRs, the default might’ve been:
- “Improve user engagement”
- “Fix inbox relevance”
- “Tweak the tab system”
But those aren’t measurable - and they don’t clarify impact.
This OKR worked because it focused not just on more engagement, but on the right kind of engagement. The team realized that optimizing the inbox for signal over noise was what actually mattered for retention.
Tips for Adapting Google’s OKR System to Your Startup
Borrow the rhythm. Simplify the rest. Here’s how to bring the OKR mindset into your company without recreating Google's process.
- Keep it lean. One company OKR is enough. Start there.
- Review weekly. Use async check-ins and a single source of truth.
- Track outcomes, not output. Focus on what’s changing - not just what’s shipping.
- Make them visible. Share your OKRs. It builds alignment faster than another meeting.
- Make reflection part of the cycle. Celebrate progress. Learn from what didn’t land. Adjust without shame.
OKRs aren’t about control. They’re about clarity.
Quick Comparison: Google OKRs vs. Startup OKRs
OKRs work at Google-scale - but your startup isn’t Google (yet). That’s actually an advantage.
Here’s a side-by-side look at how OKRs show up inside a 100,000-person company… versus how they should work in a 5, 10, or 50-person startup.
At Google, OKRs are massive, layered, and complex by necessity.
For startups, clarity and focus matter more than polish. One objective. A few high-quality KRs. Weekly rhythm. That’s all you need to unlock momentum.
Google Is the Case Study, Not the Template
Google made OKRs famous - but they didn’t make them untouchable.
The key lesson? You don’t need scale to benefit from structure. You just need rhythm, clarity, and commitment.
Startups that succeed with OKRs don’t copy Google’s process line-for-line. They adopt the mindset: Set bold goals. Make them visible. Measure what matters. Reflect and improve.
Don’t wait until you have a 50-person team. OKRs work best when they grow with you.
Want a simpler way to run OKRs like google (but built for startups)?
OKRs Tool gives your team one flexible format for setting, tracking, and reflecting on goals - without the spreadsheet overhead. Try it for free and build your own version of “Google clarity” - without the complexity.
