You’ve rolled out OKRs. Maybe even ran a full cycle. But now the energy’s gone.
Check-ins feel like a chore. Teams aren’t updating their progress. And your OKRs feel more like a formality than a focus.
Sound familiar?
You’re not alone - new research shows startups often abandon OKRs for five specific reasons. But good news: every one of them is fixable.
Here’s how to boost OKR engagement (without forcing it).
1. Keep OKRs Simple and Focused
Startups often fall into the trap of trying to do too much, too fast - and their OKRs reflect that. It’s common to see teams stack up multiple objectives, each with five or more key results, in an effort to “cover everything.” The result? Confusion, overwhelm, and disengagement.
The truth is, a single, high-quality OKR per team per quarter is usually enough. That one objective should be bold yet clear, and every key result should map to a specific outcome that shows real progress. Don’t create a to-do list. Create focus.
The magic number for key results? Stick with 2 to 4. Any more than that, and you risk diluting attention and energy. A focused OKR is a used OKR - and the simpler it is to understand and update, the more likely it is to drive engagement.
2. Connect OKRs to Real Work
One of the fastest ways to kill engagement is to make OKRs feel like a parallel universe. If your team sees them as extra paperwork or disconnected from what they’re already working on, they’ll check out - fast.
The best OKRs are rooted in the real work teams are doing (or aiming to do). They act as a layer of clarity and alignment, not as an entirely separate planning system. That means your product team’s OKR might align with their sprint goals. Your sales team’s KRs might mirror their top pipeline metrics.
Make the connection obvious. Review OKRs in your weekly meetings or standups. Tie them to project tools like Jira, Asana, or Notion. And avoid duplicating effort - teams shouldn’t have to update goals in three different places. The tighter the connection, the higher the engagement.
3. Make Weekly Check-ins a Habit
OKRs lose power when they gather dust between quarters. If your team only thinks about them once every few months, they’ll never drive real change. That’s why weekly check-ins are essential.
A good check-in keeps momentum alive. It surfaces blockers, gives space for course correction, and keeps everyone aligned. But it doesn’t have to be a huge lift. You don’t need a full meeting - just a quick async update, or five minutes during an existing team call.
Use a simple structure: mark each key result as On Track, At Risk, or Off Track, and share one line of context. That’s it. The key is consistency. A lightweight, regular rhythm builds trust, ownership, and clarity - without disrupting the team’s flow.
To help keep check-ins focused and actionable, try using a simple table like this each week. It shows the status of each key result, a short update, and who's responsible - all in one place. No fancy tools required.
This kind of weekly visibility helps normalize progress tracking, encourages support where needed, and turns OKRs into a shared team habit - not a top-down status report. Over time, it builds more trust, clarity, and momentum across the board.
4. Share Ownership and Visibility
OKRs fail when they live in a spreadsheet owned by one person (usually the founder) that nobody else ever sees. To truly engage your team, you need shared ownership and radical visibility.
That starts with assigning clear owners to each key result. These don’t have to be managers - often, ICs are closer to the work. Ownership builds accountability, and it helps team members feel personally invested in progress.
Visibility is the second half of the equation. Post OKR updates in Slack. Share progress in your weekly all-hands. Show dashboards during sprint reviews. The more visible the goals are, the more likely people are to care about them.
When everyone knows what matters and who’s responsible, OKRs become part of the team’s culture - not just another “management tool.”
5. Celebrate Progress and Learning
Too many OKR cycles end with silence - no review, no feedback, no closure. That’s a missed opportunity. Even if you didn’t hit 100%, you still learned something valuable. Teams stay engaged when they know their effort is seen, appreciated, and reflected on.
At the end of each cycle, hold a short retrospective. You don’t need anything fancy - just a few guiding questions:
- What did we achieve?
- What slowed us down?
- What surprised us?
- What will we do differently next time?
Recognize wins, even if they’re partial. Celebrate learning, not just outcomes. And share that learning with the wider team - progress is more motivating when it’s made visible.
OKRs aren’t about perfection. They’re about focus, alignment, and growth. The more your team feels like part of that journey, the stronger your engagement will be next quarter.
Final Thoughts
OKRs aren’t just a framework - they’re a habit.
And like any habit, they require consistency, clarity, and care to stick.
Engagement doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built by making OKRs simple enough to use, relevant enough to matter, and visible enough to inspire action. When teams feel ownership over their goals, see how those goals connect to their daily work, and are given space to reflect and improve - that’s when the real momentum kicks in.
Not every quarter will be perfect. Some OKRs will miss the mark. But with the right rhythms and mindset in place, each cycle becomes a chance to learn, refocus, and grow stronger as a team.
The goal isn’t 100% completion. The goal is meaningful progress - together.
