Executive · OKRs
OKRs that stay visible after the offsite
OKRs do not fail at the writing. They fail in week three, when nobody has looked at them since the offsite.
What the worker does
OKR tracking in Polaris means each objective is a workstream and each key result is a task with an owner and a date. An AI worker posts a fortnightly roll-up as a comment: which key results moved, which have had no activity, and which are dated to complete in a window that no longer looks realistic. Leadership decides what to cut, and the cut is recorded.
- Connections
- Linear · Slack
- Structure
- One workstream per objective
- Cadence
- Fortnightly roll-up comment
The quarter-three problem
Objectives are written with real care in week zero, live in a document for two weeks, and then compete with the actual work. By week six the document is a historical artifact and the team is busy with something else, which may well be the right something else. The failure is not the change of direction. The failure is that nobody decided to change direction.
Putting key results on the same board as the work makes the competition visible. If a key result has had no task activity in three weeks, the company has already deprioritised it, and somebody should say so out loud.
How OKRs map onto the board
| OKR concept | In Polaris | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | A workstream | It is a container of work, which is what a workstream is |
| Key result | A task with an owner and a date | An unowned key result is a wish |
| Initiative | Tasks in the same workstream | The work and the measure sit together |
| Check-in | A recurring task assigned to a worker | The check-in happens whether or not anyone remembers |
| This quarter's focus | The Focus lane | Pinned first in every view, does not scroll away |
What the roll-up names
Moved
Key results with task activity since the last roll-up, with what changed.
Static
Key results with no activity past your threshold, named with the owner and the number of days. This is the whole point of the report.
Unowned
Key results with no assignee, which happens more often than any leadership team expects.
Arithmetically doomed
Key results whose remaining work will not fit the remaining days, based on the dates already on the tasks.
Questions people ask
+Do we need a separate OKR tool?
Not for this shape. Objectives are workstreams, key results are tasks, and the roll-up is a delivery comment. The advantage is that the measure and the work sit in the same product, so the roll-up reads real activity rather than a self-reported percentage.
+How does the worker know if a key result moved?
It reads task activity in the objective's workstream, plus any connected sources such as Linear. Movement means work happened, not that somebody updated a confidence score.
+Can it score progress as a percentage?
It can report what the tasks say, but a percentage from a machine invites false precision. The static list and the dates are the parts leadership actually acts on.
+How often should the roll-up run?
Fortnightly is frequent enough to catch a stalled key result while there is still quarter left, and rare enough that people read it. Weekly roll-ups on a quarterly cycle become wallpaper.
Related
Running the company with an AI teammate on the reporting
The information you need to run the company exists. Assembling it every week is what nobody has time for.
The weekly review, written before the meeting starts
A meeting that begins with everyone reading the same document is a different meeting.
Every commitment from the meeting, owned and dated
The decisions were good. The problem is the eleven commitments that existed only in a document nobody reopened.
Hire an AI project coordinator
The unglamorous half of running projects, done every week without anyone having to be the person who nags.
Connect Linear to Polaris
A Linear API key carries one person's visibility, so the account you make it on decides what every worker can see.
Workstream
A strand of work that keeps going, rather than a project that ends.
Focus lane
A commitment for a horizon, not a filter over everything you have.