Weighting Key Results and Aligned OKRs

An Objective’s progress can be based on its Key Results, aligned OKRs, or both.

Traditionally, these are weighted equally, so each has the same impact on the Objective’s progress. But when it comes to evaluating performance, not all Key Results or aligned OKRs always carry the same importance. That’s where weighting comes into play.

What Is weighting in OKRs?

Weighting refers to assigning different values of importance to each Key Result or aligned OKR, so that progress reflects their true relative impact on the Objective.

By default, if you have three Key Results, each contributes 33.3% to the Objective’s progress. But what if one of those Key Results represents a significant revenue achievement, and the other two are smaller achievements?

In that case, equal weighting is misleading. Progress will be skewed by achieving the lower-impact results, while the most important efforts lag behind. Weighting allows you to intentionally assign a percentage or score to each Key Result (or Aligned OKR), ensuring your Objective’s progress reflects what actually matters most.

When to use weighting?

Weighting is a strategic tool. You don't always need it — but when you do, it brings clarity and precision to your OKRs. 

Highlight the most important drivers of success

When setting an Objective, it's common to identify several Key Results that represent different ways to measure success. However, these metrics don't always carry equal weight in terms of strategic importance or business impact. Sometimes one Key Result may clearly stand out as the main driver of the Objective so weighting helps capture this relative impact.

For example:

Objective: Strengthen our business fundamentals

KR1: Increase gross margin (weight: 50%)

KR2: Improve NPS (weight: 30%)

KR3: Reduce employee churn (weight: 20%)

This makes it clear that gross margin is the primary driver of success for this Objective since it has the most direct influence on the company's financial performance. While improving customer and employee churn are also valuable (and related), they are less important in strengthening the business fundamentals in this context.

When teams OKRs contribute unequally

In most organizations, achieving a Company Objective is a team sport, but not all players contribute equally on every play.

Different teams often own different levers of success, and their impact toward a shared goal can vary significantly. This is especially true for high-level, strategic Objectives that are relevant to multiple departments. In these cases, weighting aligned OKRs ensures that overall progress reflects reality, not just participation. 

For example:

Company Objective: Become #1 in market share

Aligned Sales OKR: Expand our presence in the enterprise segment (weight: 40%)

Aligned Product OKR: Deliver features that differentiate us from competitors (weight: 35%)

Aligned Marketing OKR: Build brand awareness in target markets (weight: 25%)

This weighting reflects each team's relative influence on achieving the goal. Sales plays the most direct role in capturing market share, while Product and Marketing play critical but more supportive roles.

How Perdoo supports weighting 

By default, Perdoo weights Key Results and aligned OKRs equally when calculating Objective progress. You can easily change this by clicking on the progress driver for the Objective and designating the appropriate weight. Perdoo automatically calculates the percentage based on the factor you choose and ensures the weights add up to 100%.

Conclusion

Weighting Key Results and aligned OKRs adds nuance and precision to your OKR process. While it adds a layer of complexity, the benefit in clarity and focus is often worth it. It’s always best to start simple, experiment, and evolve your approach based on what makes the most sense for the nature of the goal.