OKRs are the most widely-used goal-setting tool utilized by industry-leaders around the world to set more challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results. With OKRs, you can track progress, assign objective & key results, create alignment and boost engagement with measurable results. With OKR tracking software like Profit.co, you can leverage your business goals with mapped out strategy and planned execution.
Whenever you create OKRs you can align your objectives or key results to Individuals, teams or departments. By doing this you’re executing your OKRs goals and contributing to other Individual or team/department/corporate OKRs to advance progress. When you assign a KR as KR to an individual/ department/team and when you assign a KR as an Objective to an individual/ department/team, it is called top down alignment.
In Profit.co, assignments are delegated down from managers or reporting heads. The main idea behind aligning OKRs is to manage interdependencies by solving complex goals with structured and 360 degree alignment.
As an add-on feature, the “+” sign has been recently introduced in Profit.co software in the alignment process to help users visualize the extensions of key results as objectives. Let us see the places where the + sign appears next to the KR in Profit.co.
Note: Before you begin to assign and align your OKRs, make sure that the super user has enabled the following toggles via Settings→ OKRs → Alignments & Dependencies
1A : KR is assigned as KR to an individual :
In this scenario, you will not see the plus sign as the KR is assigned to an Individual and added to one of their pre-existing Objectives.
1B : KR is assigned as KR to the department.
When you assign a KR as KR to the department, the KR will be copied over to the assigned department. Since this is being assigned as a key result, there won’t be any additional key result beneath it, and no plus sign will appear.
2A : KR is assigned as objective to an individual
Note : Make sure that the super user enables the toggles for all OKR Levels to perform alignment without interruption.
When a KR is assigned as an Objective to an Individual you can see the + sign. By expanding the + sign, you’ll be able to see the key results that have been written for the assignment, as it is now acting as an Objective for the individual.
2B : KR as objective to department
When a KR is assigned as an Objective to a department , + sign appears next to the KR.
When you navigate to the Department to which you have assigned the KR as Objective, you can see the assigned objective where you can add Key Results below it.
Like Top down alignment, there is also Bottom up alignment in Profit.co. When individuals align their OKRs to their manager’s, department’s or company’s OKRs, it is an example of bottom-up alignment.
1C : An Objective is aligned as KR to an individual
Note : Make sure that the super user has enabled all the OKR Levels toggles to perform alignment with Individual OKRs without interruption.
When aligning a key result with a key result as Objective to an Individual user in Profit.co you won’t see the + sign.
1D : When a KR is aligned as KR to an individual
Note : Make sure that the super user has enabled all the OKR Levels toggles to perform alignment with Individual OKRs without interruption.
When a KR is copied over to the aligned department as a key result, there will not be a + sign.
2C : When an Objective is aligned as KR to a department
To assign an objective as a KR to the department the Approval flow toggle under Settings → OKRs→ Controls has to be disabled. This also enables the Add as KR toggle in alignment pop up
Now click on Objective → Align from OKR list page
Once you click on the align icon a pop up menu will appear where you can select the department with which you want to align your OKR.
Once you select click on the Align button
Enable the Add as Key result toggle and click on Update.
Now navigate to All dept OKRs and select the particular department that has aligned with you and will find the + sign next to the KR. “If you expand the + sign, you will see the key result you have just aligned beneath that key result.”
2D : When a KR is aligned as KR to a department
Select a KR and from KR details page click on the Align button.
Once you click on the Align button, an alert message will be displayed at the bottom of the pop up window : “Your key result will be added as a key result for the aligned OKR and your key result progress will be automatically updated to the added key result.”
Since there will be no extended action from bottom-up alignment of this key result, the + sign will not appear here.
Hence this enhanced alignment feature in Profit.co extends the Top down and bottom up alignment in certain scenarios with a + sign. Learn more about Top down and bottom up alignment by clicking here.