How to Migrate Off Viva Goals (Retired End of 2025)

Time required ~1 week Audit through rollout

Frequency One-time Time-sensitive — data exports degrade

Who's involved OKR champion + IT + department leads

Output Migrated OKRs + trained teams on new platform

Before you start

Microsoft retired Viva Goals at the end of 2025. Your destination platform should already be chosen (use OKR Software Selection if it isn't). Pull your historical export now if you haven't already — the longer this sits, the more institutional context fades around what each OKR meant.

The 7 steps

7 steps · sequential

~2 hours·Day 1

Audit your Viva Goals setup

Understand what you're working with before moving out. If you haven't pulled the export yet, treat this as urgent — historical context erodes the longer it sits.

Export all company, team, and individual OKRs from the past 2–3 cycles
Document formatting standards (naming conventions, scoring, R/Y/G status)
Note dashboards, reports, or integrations previously in use
Highlight data you want to preserve long-term

~30 min·Day 1

Define migration goals

Set clear outcomes for the transition. "Move everything over" is not a goal — it's a copy-paste exercise that misses the point.

Preserve historical OKR data for reference and reporting
Standardize formatting for clarity in the new tool
Ensure minimal disruption to the current OKR cycle
Improve visibility and usability compared to Viva Goals

DecisionDecide upfront whether you're preserving Viva Goals' exact structure OR upgrading the format during migration. Trying to do both at the same time creates confusion in both directions.

~1 day·Day 2

Prepare data for export & import

Clean and structure your data for migration. This is the chance to fix what was broken in Viva Goals — task-list KRs, vague Objectives, duplicate goals across teams.

Remove duplicate or irrelevant OKRs
Align naming conventions across departments
Reformat Key Results into measurable, outcome-based statements
Map Viva Goals statuses (on track, at risk, off track) into your new system's structure

~half a day·Day 3

Test migration in a pilot environment

Validate before going live. Importing everything at once and discovering the formatting broke is recoverable — but only barely.

Import a sample of historical OKRs into your new tool
Test formatting, scoring, and dashboards
Verify data integrity against the Viva Goals export
Get feedback from a small pilot team

Done whenThe pilot import matches the source export on every field that matters — owner, target, status, dates. If anything doesn't match, fix the mapping before going broader.

~1 day·Day 4

Execute the migration

Move OKRs from Viva Goals exports to your new platform. Top-down import — company OKRs first — so the alignment structure stays intact as you cascade.

Import company-level OKRs first, then cascade team OKRs
Preserve at least 2–3 past cycles for continuity
Validate dashboards and reporting with leadership
Document the migration process for future reference

~half a day·Day 5

Train and onboard teams

Ensure adoption of the new system. Frame the move as an upgrade, not a sideways copy — adoption depends on perception almost as much as on usability.

Host training sessions for leaders and OKR champions
Share guides on creating, updating, and reviewing OKRs in the new tool
Emphasize benefits over Viva Goals (simplicity, visibility, integrations)
Assign champions in each department for rollout support

~30 min/week·First cycle after migration

Monitor and improve

Refine after migration. The first cycle in the new tool will surface gaps the pilot didn't — fix them fast or they harden into permanent friction.

Collect feedback during the first cycle in the new tool
Fix formatting or workflow gaps quickly
Adjust dashboards as priorities evolve
Build best practices for future tool transitions

What you'll have when you're done

Outputs of this workflow

A full export of historical OKRs from Viva Goals — preserved before they're gone for good
A migration goals doc — preservation vs. format upgrade decision made explicit
Cleaned, standardized OKR data with measurable outcome-based KRs
A validated pilot import matching source data field-by-field
Full migration completed with 2–3 past cycles preserved
Trained teams with department champions in place
A first-cycle refinement log capturing gaps and fixes

Migrate from Viva Goals to OKRs Tool.

Built specifically as a Viva Goals replacement — purpose-built for SMBs, with onboarding support, history import, and SCIM/SSO ready on day one. Free for up to 5 users.

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