40+ Key Results examples across 6 functions — built from 7,857 real KRs. See what high-performing teams write vs what most get wrong.
Steven Macdonald
5 Mins read
May 19, 2026
After analyzing 7,857 Key Results written by real teams, one finding dominates: 52% were tasks or KPIs in disguise. This guide shows what outcome-based Key Results actually look like — across sales, product, marketing, engineering, customer success, and people — with the data behind every example.
Teams that write outcome-based Key Results are 30% more likely to hit them than those tracking activity. Teams with clear single ownership per Key Result see 26% higher completion rates than those with shared or vague accountability. And teams that skip the weekly check-in habit are 3x more likely to abandon their OKRs entirely.
The most common underperforming KR verbs from the analysis: "Complete," "Launch," "Conduct," "Implement," "Test." These describe work. They don't describe what changes as a result of the work.
The examples below are built from what actually performed — not invented to illustrate a point.
The test for every example below:"Can I track this every week forever?" If yes — it's a KPI, not a Key Result. A Key Result describes time-bound change from a baseline to a target.
The template:
Key Result formula
Improve[business outcome]for[specific segment]from[baseline]to[target]by[end of quarter]
Example
ImproveDay 7 activation ratefornew sign-upsfrom34%to52%byend of Q3
The Output Trap: What Most Teams Write vs What Works
Before the examples — the data on what goes wrong.
Our verb analysis of 7,857 Key Results found that output verbs dominate underperforming programs. The five most common verbs in activity-based KRs: Complete (65% output), Launch (60% output), Implement (58% output), Build (55% output), Conduct (52% output).
The five verbs most associated with outcome-based KRs that actually move metrics: Increase, Reduce, Improve, Achieve, Grow.
The shift from output to outcome isn't about vocabulary. It's about measuring what changed, not what was done.
Sales Key Results Examples
Sales teams write the most KPI-heavy Key Results of any function. "Hit quota," "close X deals," "grow pipeline" — these are health metrics that run continuously. They're not Key Results.
Sales KR 1: Pipeline Quality
Objective: Build an enterprise pipeline that funds Q4 growth
Increase enterprise MQL-to-SQL conversion rate from 18% to 32%
Reduce average time from MQL to first sales touch from 3 days to same day
Achieve 70%+ of SQLs meeting ideal customer profile criteria
Sales KR 2: Deal Velocity
Objective: Convert our best-fit accounts faster without discounting
Reduce enterprise sales cycle from 95 days to 65
Increase demo-to-proposal rate from 45% to 70%
Shorten proposal-to-signature cycle from 14 days to 8
Sales KR 3: Enterprise Expansion
Objective: Make expansion revenue a reliable second engine alongside new business
Grow expansion MRR from 18% to 28% of total new MRR
Increase upsell rate among accounts in month 6–12 from 14% to 24%
Close tier upgrade conversations with 30 qualifying accounts
Sales KR 4: Win-Back
Objective: Recover churned accounts that left for the wrong reasons
Re-engage 60 churned accounts from the last 12 months
Achieve win-back rate of 12%+ among contacted accounts
Reduce average win-back sales cycle to under 30 days
Product Key Results Examples
Product teams write the second-highest proportion of output-based KRs. "Ship feature X," "complete roadmap item," "launch v2" — sprint deliverables dressed as outcomes.
Product KR 5: Activation
Objective: Make the path to value so clear new users don't need support
Increase Day 7 activation from 34% to 52%
Reduce time-to-first-value from 6 days to 2
Reduce onboarding-related support tickets by 40%
Product KR 6: Retention
Objective: Improve product stickiness so users keep coming back
Increase DAU/MAU ratio from 0.22 to 0.35
Reduce Day 30 churn from 42% to 28%
Increase average sessions per active user per week from 2.1 to 3.4
Product KR 7: Performance
Objective: Make the product fast enough that speed becomes a differentiator
Reduce p95 page load time from 3.2s to under 1.5s
Achieve 99.9% uptime across all core product surfaces
Reduce critical bug reports post-release by 60%
Product KR 8: Feature Adoption
Objective: Turn our most powerful feature into our most-used one
Increase feature adoption among active users from 22% to 45% within 30 days of launch
Achieve 4.5+ CSAT score among users who have used the feature 3+ times
Reduce support tickets related to feature confusion by 50%
Marketing Key Results Examples
Content teams are the worst offenders for activity-based KRs. Publishing cadence, campaign launches, and ad creative tests are initiatives — not outcomes.'
Marketing KR 9: Organic Acquisition
Objective: Make organic search a predictable, scalable acquisition channel
Grow organic MQLs from 90 to 180 per month
Increase top-3 keyword rankings from 14 to 35
Achieve 40%+ of total website traffic from organic by Q4
Marketing KR 10: Conversion
Objective: Turn content into a conversion asset, not just a traffic source
Increase blog-to-trial conversion rate from 0.8% to 2.1%
Grow email subscribers from organic content from 320 to 800
Achieve average time-on-page of 3:30+ across top 20 articles
Marketing KR 11: Paid Efficiency
Objective: Make paid acquisition profitable enough to scale with confidence
Achieve blended paid ROAS of 4.2x (up from 2.8x)
Reduce cost-per-trial from $68 to $40 across Google and LinkedIn
Increase paid trial-to-paid conversion from 11% to 18%
Marketing KR 12: Brand
Objective: Increase brand visibility among high-intent buyers in our category
Grow branded search impressions from 40K to 80K per month
Increase direct traffic from 12K to 20K sessions per month
Earn 10 new media placements in relevant B2B publications
Engineering Key Results Examples
Engineering teams default to shipping metrics. The right Key Results measure the impact of what ships, not the shipping itself.
Engineering KR 13: Reliability
Objective: Build a platform customers can depend on without thinking about it
Achieve 99.95% uptime across all production services
Reduce mean time to recovery (MTTR) from 45 minutes to under 10
Reduce P1 incidents from 8 per month to 2
Engineering KR 14: Developer Velocity
Objective: Remove the bottlenecks that slow down shipping
Reduce average cycle time from commit to production from 4 days to 1
Increase deployment frequency from 3 per week to daily
Reduce failed deployments from 18% to under 5%
Engineering KR 15: Quality
Objective: Reduce the cost of defects by catching them earlier
Increase test coverage from 42% to 75% across core services
Reduce critical post-release bugs by 60%
Achieve zero P0 regressions in production for 8 consecutive weeks
Engineering KR 16: Technical Debt
Objective: Reduce technical debt without stalling product delivery
Reduce average page load time from 3.2s to under 1.5s across core surfaces
Migrate 100% of legacy authentication flows to new system
Reduce infrastructure cost per active user by 30%
Customer Success Key Results Examples
Customer success teams often set KRs that measure activity (QBRs completed, onboarding sessions run) rather than outcomes (retention improved, expansion driven).
Customer Success KR 17: Retention
Objective: Make the first 90 days so strong churn becomes an exception
Increase 90-day retention from 68% to 80% across all segments
Achieve NPS of 45+ among customers active for 60–90 days
Reduce churn among accounts with health score below 60 from 35% to 18%
Customer Success KR 18: Expansion
Objective: Turn successful customers into a growth engine
Increase net revenue retention from 104% to 118%
Identify and close tier upgrade conversations with 25 qualifying accounts
Generate 40+ referral leads from existing accounts this quarter
Customer Success KR 19: Product Adoption
Objective: Turn at-risk accounts into deeply engaged ones
Increase product adoption (3+ features used) among at-risk accounts from 20% to 40%
Achieve 85%+ QBR completion rate across enterprise accounts
Reduce time-to-value for new enterprise accounts from 30 days to 14
Customer Success KR 20: Support Quality
Objective: Make support so good customers stop needing it
Reduce average first response time from 8 hours to under 2
Achieve CSAT of 92%+ across all support interactions
Reduce repeat tickets from the same account by 45%
People & HR Key Results Examples
HR and People teams frequently set KRs around process completion (training delivered, reviews completed) rather than the outcomes those processes are meant to produce.
People KR 21: Hiring
Objective: Build the team that makes next year's growth possible
Hire 8 senior ICs with under 45 days average time-to-fill
Achieve offer acceptance rate of 85%+
Increase qualified applicants per role from 12 to 30 through employer brand work
People KR 22: Engagement
Objective: Build a culture people choose to stay in
Improve employee eNPS from 28 to 45 by next survey cycle
Reduce voluntary attrition from 18% to under 10% annualized
Achieve 90%+ participation in quarterly engagement survey
People KR 23: Performance
Objective: Make performance conversations specific, fair, and useful
Achieve 100% of employees with a named OKR owner before cycle start
Increase average OKR completion rate across the org from 51% to 70%
Complete performance reviews for 100% of team within 2-week window
People KR 24: Development
Objective: Invest in the team's growth before they go looking elsewhere
Achieve internal promotion rate of 25%+ for open roles
Complete individual development plans for 100% of the team by Q2
Reduce skills gap score (from quarterly assessment) by 30%
The Key Result Quality Checklist
Before finalising any Key Result, run it through these six checks:
Check
Question
If It Fails
Outcome test
Does it describe a changed business state — not a completed task?
Rewrite: "Improve [outcome] for [segment] from [X] to [Y]"
Forever test
Could you track this metric every week forever without it being "done"?
It's a KPI — move it to the KPI layer, not the OKR
Baseline test
Does it have a specific current baseline and a specific target?
Go get the number — no baseline = no way to know if it moved
Ownership test
Is there one named person — not a team — responsible for it?
Assign one owner before the cycle starts
Initiative test
Are campaigns, sprints, and features listed as initiatives under the KR — not as the KR itself?
Move tactical work to the initiatives layer
Ambition test
Would hitting this at 70–80% represent genuine progress?
If 100% is trivially achievable, raise the target
A Key Result that passes all six is a genuine business commitment. One that fails more than two is a task list in disguise.
What High-Performing Teams Do Differently
The benchmark data from 330 organizations is consistent on what separates teams with strong Key Results from those still writing activity metrics:
They write the outcome first, then backfill the work. The initiative — the campaign, the sprint, the experiment — is how you move the Key Result. It's not the Key Result itself. High-performing teams write the outcome they want to achieve, then ask: what's the highest-leverage work that could move this number?
They start from a baseline. 52% of poorly written Key Results have no baseline. "Improve NPS" with no starting point is untrackable. "Increase NPS from 32 to 50" is a commitment. Go get the number before the cycle starts.
They name one owner. 50% of all Key Results across growing organizations have no named owner. Teams with clear single ownership see 26% higher completion rates. The owner doesn't do all the work — they make sure the work gets done.
They check in weekly. Key Results only drive behavior if they're reviewed regularly. Teams with a weekly check-in habit complete 43% more OKRs than those reviewing monthly or ad hoc. A Key Result nobody looks at between planning and the quarterly review isn't driving anything.
Final Thoughts
The difference between a Key Result that drives performance and one that doesn't is usually one sentence.
"Launch new onboarding flow" describes work. "Increase Day 7 activation from 34% to 52%" describes impact. The rewrite takes 30 seconds and changes everything: what gets prioritized, what gets measured, what gets learned, and what improves next cycle.
Across 7,857 Key Results, 52% were written wrong. Most teams aren't bad at OKRs — they're bad at the Key Result layer specifically. Fix that layer, and the rest of the OKR framework works the way it was designed to.
Write better Key Results from day one
OKRs Tool's AI flags output-based Key Results before they go live — and suggests outcome-based rewrites based on your role and company context.
AI-assisted KR writing that catches tasks in disguise
Required single ownership before any KR goes live
Weekly nudges that keep Key Results visible all quarter
Steven is the founder of OKRs Tool, OKR software built for senior operators inside growing companies. Trusted by 300+ teams to run OKRs that survive beyond the first cycle — with weekly check-ins, required KR ownership and a visual alignment map that shows how every goal connects.
