How We Made a Switch From OKRs to Areas of Focus To Accomplish More as a Company

As our company started to grow, we quickly realized we needed a good goal management system — something top-level that could help us achieve more and align the team on all their efforts. We kicked things off with a simple SMART goals framework and agreed to formulate our objectives using it.

But soon enough, we hit a wall. The SMART framework felt too basic and lacked any real team interaction. It was great for personal goal-setting and ensuring each goal was sound, but it didn’t quite cut it for a collaborative environment.

That’s when we decided to switch gears and move to OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) . This framework dates back to the 60s and was popularized by Google – since then it has become a go-to for many startups looking to scale.

However, we once again found ourselves grappling with its limitations, too. OKRs are fantastic for setting long-term, overarching company goals. But for a small, agile organization that thrives on quick iterations, they didn’t always fit our needs. It felt like we required something that could help us manage goals on all levels of the company, and tackle projects in a more flexible way.

So here we were, on the lookout for a framework that strikes the right balance between structure and adaptability. And since we couldn’t find the system that was a good match for us, we had to work it out ourselves.

This is how our internal system for smart goal setting was born. We dubbed it “areas of focus”. It’s an agile framework for setting and reaching ambitious goals as a fast-moving company.?

A quick disclaimer: what I’m about to share is a system that works for us, but we’re still testing and refining it. We’re now in the Q4 of this journey, and while it’s effective for us right now, we know things may change in the future.?

I believe that areas of focus can work for other companies at certain stages too, if they adopt it with sufficient personalization. It can also serve as an inspiration for founders and managers for building original goal setting frameworks. That’s why I’m sharing it here on LinkedIn – I genuinely want to hear your feedback and thoughts on it.

Here are the advantages of the areas of focus system that we’ve experienced first-hand:

• It simplifies the process of achieving bold goals.
• It removes unnecessary bureaucracy.
• It gives teams more freedom and flexibility, while ensuring that the company stays on course.
• It keeps all advantages of the OKR system (which basically become an integral part of areas of focus).
• It allows you to work not only on goals, but also focus on metrics, specific projects, or large tasks (which is good for small teams).
• All levels of company can actively work with areas of focus, so it’s not only for management, but for all team members.

How We Work With Areas of Focus

Every year and quarter, we work out our overall strategy and areas of focus. These act as priorities for the company, teams, and each individual team member.

Here are the types of areas of focus:

1. Goals – we prefer to form these according to the OKR framework.
2. Projects – these come with a concrete end result.
3. Big tasks.
4. Metrics that measure our progress.

I think it’s important to clarify something here: we’re not positioning areas of focus?as an alternative to OKRs. Instead, we’re expanding on how we approach our quarterly goals. It’s not just about OKRs; it can be any framework, project, process, or metric that fits our needs.

What really matters is that whatever we choose is rooted in a solid result that’s clear to individual team members and managers. We’re all about flexibility here — we don’t want to box ourselves into a specific framework.

It’s about giving our teams the freedom to choose whatever fits best in their focus zone. It’s about what each individual member and teams think is important. And it’s not so much about the wording; it’s all about achieving great results.

Managers and their teams write down their areas of focus in a document, which is shared company-wide. At the end of each quarter, we review the results and performance of each team member and teams in general.

Our Process for Outlining Areas of Focus

Our areas of focus are set up on three different levels:

• Company
• Department, or team (i.e. marketing)
• Individual (personal area of focus to improve skills and competencies)

When defining areas of focus for each of these, we rely on the 4 main “superpowers” of the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) goal-setting framework from the book “Measure What Matters” by John Doerr :

1. Focus and Commit to Priorities

By defining what are the most important things, we gain a better understanding of what is not important. When we have decided on what is essential for us, it’s easier for us to prioritize our daily tasks and concentrate on focus areas.

Defining a focus area does not mean taking on some additional workload. On the contrary, the focus area helps to say “no” to low-priority tasks.

2. Align and Connect for Teamwork

We strive to ensure that the focus areas of team members and their team are aligned with the strategy of the company. This way, we can achieve our common goals together.

All areas of focus of the company are open and transparent. Everyone understands the connection and impact of their priorities to the company's plan.

3. Track for Accountability

We work with focus areas daily. We discuss them 1:1 and during weekly team meetings, monitor progress, change and refine them. Progress on the company's areas of focus is in the open-access and can be seen by everyone on the team.

4. Stretch for Amazing

This is not obligatory, but team members can define an ambitious goal and area of focus for themselves. Continuous development is one of our core values as a company.

3 Key Principles of Our Approach to Areas of Focus

1. Real Business Outcomes Are What Truly Matter

For us, it’s all about doing great things, delivering real value, and achieving tangible results. We’ve found that focusing too much on labeling something as an OKR or milestone can distract us from what really counts. It’s easy to get caught up in the numbers on an Excel spreadsheet rather than the actual business outcomes.

That’s one of the main reasons we shifted to areas of focus. This broader concept gives us the freedom to define and pursue our goals in a way that feels right for us. Plus, some of our best achievements have come from unexpected places or as by-products of other projects. Not everything can be planned out at the start of the quarter, and that’s okay!

2. No Direct Connection To Bonus and Salary

One of the key principles of OKRs is not tying them to bonuses and salaries. We haven’t applied that during our initial implementation of the OKR framework. Looking back, we realize this was a mistake.

It’s a mistake we’ve since corrected, but it really held us back from developing. When we linked OKRs to salary and bonuses, it added even more pressure on how we formulated those goals and how our specialists interacted with them.

At the end of 2023, we unlinked the bonus from goals. Now, we’re focused on the right outcomes without that added stress. As John Doerr quotes Google CEO Larry Page on OKRs: “If you set a crazy, ambitious goal and miss it, you'll still achieve something remarkable.” Doerr notes that if a team member can be punished for not achieving an ambitious goal, why they should take it on? Thus, there are no consequences for not meeting the area of focus goal. But all achievements are taken into account during the annual performance review and are rewarded.

3. Freedom to Pick Area of Focus Within Job Role

For a team member, an area of focus can be anything related to their job role — like concentrating on the volume of work, improving a specific KPI, or completing an important project. But it doesn’t stop there! It can also include new projects or tasks they’re eager to explore. This flexibility allows everyone to align their efforts with what excites them and drives value for the team.?

How We Plan & Monitor Our Areas Of Focus

We plan our areas of focus in several steps:

1. Collecting ideas from all team members within the company
2. Analyzing ideas
3. Creating a strategy
4. Outlining a plan of action for the quarter

Before we dive into planning for the year, we take the time to reflect on and analyze the results from the previous year. During our strategizing phase, we’re intentional about saying “no” to initiatives that don’t align with our core focus: a solid strategy demands laser-sharp attention on a few key areas.

When we plan for Q1, we keep in mind that to see results by Q3, we often need to kick things off in January. As the CEO, I draft the initial version of our annual strategy and present it to the management team for their feedback. This collaborative approach helps us fine-tune our direction.

The outcome of this four-step planning process is a shared document along with a company-wide call or a Loom video that dives deep into our strategy and clarifies everything. We also create an action plan for the first quarter, ensuring a smooth transition from strategy to focused action.

About four weeks before each quarter begins, we look back, engage with our teams, and outline our areas of focus for the upcoming three months. By keeping these areas top of mind, ideas naturally emerge throughout the year, and we reflect on them when planning each quarter.

As I mentioned earlier, the document detailing our areas of focus is shared across the company. To track our progress on specific initiatives, we have a “Status” column where we regularly update our advancements.

I interact with this document daily during my 1:1s and team meetings. Plus, we kick off all regular company calls by discussing our progress on these areas of focus. This practice keeps us aligned and concentrated on our shared goals.

We move quickly as a company, and priorities can shift. That’s why our areas of focus can be adjusted as needed — we truly value agility and flexibility in our approach.

As I’ve mentioned before, I genuinely want to hear your thoughts on the areas of focus and insights on goal setting frameworks in general.?

• Share your thoughts in the comments: what goal-setting frameworks have you tried in the past, and how do they stack up against the areas of focus approach I’m sharing?
• Let’s learn from one another: if you have any tips for goal setting systems, drop your insights below — I’d love to see what’s worked for you!
• Connect with me to stay in touch: I’m always open to network.