From the poster or the board into OKR Companion

How an OKR planning session works

The workshop where the OKR sets for the next cycle are created – following the method from our book “OKR compact”*.

OKR planning takes place before the new cycle begins. Each level and team creates two to four OKR sets, each with one objective and its key results. The planning is only finished once those sets are created, negotiated, aligned, documented and published – and the team genuinely stands behind them.

The agenda

1. Present the guiding principles. Vision, purpose, mission and values – so everyone starts from the same picture.
2. Collect and prioritise the focus topics. At the top these come from strategy and the annual roadmap; further down from the OKRs of the level above, local strategies, KPI trends and the findings from review and retrospective.
3. Draft the OKR sets. Drafts emerge; baselines and targets may be placeholders at this stage.
4. Refine the OKR sets. Clarify measurability, values, ownership and dependencies. Anything that is not important and urgent goes to the OKR backlog.

Duration, timing and preparation

Plan for four hours, strictly timeboxed; up to a full day at company level. If the data is not yet reliable, split the planning into OKR drafting and OKR refinement of two hours each on two days – with time in between for expert input, research and a night's sleep.

At company level the planning sits about two weeks before the change of cycle, with the levels below following. All sets should be in place no later than two weeks after the change. Everyone prepares: review strategy, annual roadmap and MOALs, look at current performance data and check last cycle's sets. Whatever stayed open is not copied and pasted but questioned: why did it not work, and is it still important and urgent?

Complete sets from six areas – as orientation for your own drafting – are on the OKR examples page.

What you work with

During the planning, work with an OKR poster or a whiteboard, not directly in a spreadsheet or an OKR tool: planning is a creative process, and the tool slows it down. Only at the end do the sets move into your agreed system. That is exactly where OKR Companion comes in – with the two routes below.

AI tools help as an ice-breaker at the start or when the team gets stuck. The decisive point: the machine does not dictate the goals – the team creates them with its help, otherwise neither commitment nor motivation follows. How to handle the results is described under Check before you act (in German).

By the way: whether you start with the objective, the key results or the tasks is a matter of temperament. Visionaries start with the objective, numbers people with the key results, delivery-minded people with the tasks – what matters is that the outcome stands at the end, not the to-do list.

Facilitation is usually done by the OKR coach or OKR master. If you are introducing OKR or would rather hand over the facilitation, the OKR Experts run the workshop with you.
* The book link is an Amazon affiliate link – as an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Phone as camera

In a workshop the OKR sets grow on the wall: posters, sticky notes, marker pens. With your phone as the camera they move into OKR Companion in seconds, while the team follows along on the projector and joins the discussion straight away.

1. Draft the OKR sets on the wall. You work as usual with an OKR poster, sticky notes and pens. From Companion Pro you can download the OKR canvas as a printable template right in the app (Profile & settings). For a workshop it pays to print it large: as a poster in double A0 landscape (1590 × 1135 mm), colour on one side (4/0), for example at wir-machen-druck.de. Handwriting, arrows and crossed-out lines are fine – that is exactly what the text recognition is for.
2. Open Companion on your computer and share it. Use OKR Companion on your Mac or Windows machine and put your screen on the wall via projector or TV, so the team sees every step.
3. Pair your phone. In the chat, tap the phone icon . A QR code appears, then it is four steps on the phone:
   1. Scan the QR code with your phone camera
   2. Allow camera access in the browser
   3. Take photos
   4. Select them here – the photo lands in the chat
   Nothing is installed on the phone, it all runs in the phone's browser. The pairing lasts 15 minutes, and you can send as many photos as you like in that time.
4. Pick the photo and add your instruction. The image is attached in the chat. Write what should happen with it – for example: “Read the OKR set from the poster, check the key results for measurability and suggest a baseline and a target value for each.”
5. Keep working together on the big screen. The team sees the suggestion, you discuss it, ask for alternatives and sharpen the wording. The decision still rests with you.
6. Take the result with you. Copy puts the OKR set on the clipboard – ready for your Excel template, Confluence or your OKR tool.

Screenshot from your digital board

You plan in Miro, Mural or Conceptboard. Instead of the camera, the screen supplies the image: capture the area, paste it into the chat, sharpen it together – everyone in the call sees the same thing.

1. Work in your digital board. Collect your drafts on the whiteboard as usual. You can use the OKR canvas here too: download the PDF in the app from Companion Pro on (Profile & settings) and place it in Miro, Mural or Conceptboard as a template – the sticky notes then go on top of it digitally.
2. Take a screenshot. On a Mac press ⌘+⇧+4, on Windows Win+⇧+S. The section with the OKR set is enough.
3. Paste it into the chat. Click into the input field in OKR Companion and paste: ⌘+V on a Mac, Ctrl+V on Windows. The image is attached to your message right away.
4. Add your instruction and discuss. Write the prompt, share the suggestion in the call, sharpen it together.
5. Copy it back into the board or straight into your OKR tool.