Playbooks / Measure What Matters
Measure What Matters

Rolling out OKRs to engineering <strong>for the first time</strong>

You read the book. You're sold on outcomes over outputs. Now you need to <strong>actually ship OKRs</strong> to your engineering org before the quarter ends.

For: VPs of Engineering Company size: 51–200 Time to ship: One afternoon Reading time: 8 min
TL;DR

First-time OKR rollouts fail when they become multi-month initiatives. You need to start small, enforce single ownership on every key result, and use weekly nudges to build the habit before anyone loses interest. <strong>Ship this quarter</strong> with a tool that sets up in an afternoon and guarantees 60% adoption in 30 days.

The situation

<p>You've been thinking about OKRs for a while. Maybe you read Measure What Matters, watched the Doerr videos, or saw how your last company used them. The framework makes sense: focus on outcomes, not just shipping features. Align the team around what actually matters.</p><p>But now you're the one responsible for making it real. You've got 40 engineers across 6 teams. You're trying to figure out whether to roll out to everyone at once or start with one team. You're wondering if you need to hire a consultant or buy enterprise software.</p><p>The risk isn't picking the wrong tool. It's spending so long planning that you miss the quarter entirely—or launching something so heavyweight that your tech leads ignore it after week two.</p>

Your four <strong>options</strong>

The <strong>playbook</strong>

    Real example · Mainway
    Paid 9 minutes after creating our first OKR. We'd been trying to get this running for months and kept overcomplicating it. This just worked.
    M
    Mainway Team
    Paid customer · 9 minutes after first OKR
    What this looks like in OKRs Tool

    Built for <strong>engineering leaders</strong> who ship

      60% adoption in 30 days — or your money back

      Ship OKRs this quarter

      Start free with your pilot team. Expand when you're ready.

      Frequently asked questions