OKR vs KPI: The Difference, Explained for Small Business
OKR vs KPI explained: definitions, key differences, examples, and how to use both at a small business without enterprise overhead.
OKR vs KPI
The honest difference, explained for small businesses
The first time I sat down to set OKRs for a previous company, I spent half a day trying to figure out whether revenue was an OKR or a KPI. By the end of the afternoon I had written 14 OKRs that were really KPIs, three KPIs that were really OKRs, and a spreadsheet nobody understood. The team adopted exactly none of it.
The confusion is not unique. Most articles about OKR vs KPI are written by enterprise consultants for enterprise teams, where the distinction matters because there are entire planning departments dedicated to it. At a small business, the question is more practical: which one do I actually need, when, and how do I avoid drowning my 12-person team in frameworks?
This guide answers the question without the corporate gloss. I will explain what each one actually is, the real differences, examples that make the distinction obvious, why people confuse them, and how a small business should use both without overcomplicating anything. I built FirstHR for owners and operators at companies of 5-50 employees, the same audience this guide is written for.
The Short Answer
If you have 30 seconds, here is the entire distinction:
You need both. You drive your business by watching the dashboard (KPIs) so you do not crash, while steering toward a destination (OKRs) so you actually arrive somewhere. The teams that get into trouble are the ones who pick one and ignore the other. Pure KPI cultures monitor everything but change nothing. Pure OKR cultures set ambitious goals while critical metrics quietly drift.
What Is an OKR (Objectives and Key Results)?
The shape of an OKR is two-part. The Objective is a sentence: "Become the easiest HR platform for small businesses to start using." It is qualitative, inspirational, and memorable. It does not have a number attached. The Key Results are the proof: 2-5 specific numbers that, if hit, mean the Objective was achieved. For the example above: reduce time-to-first-employee from 14 minutes to 4, increase 30-day activation from 38% to 60%, achieve 4.5+ star average across 100+ G2 reviews.
The defining features of OKRs: time-bound (almost always 90 days), aspirational (designed to stretch the team), focused (small in number, ruthlessly cut), and tracked weekly. Without weekly check-ins, OKRs collapse into theatrical paperwork by week six. The cadence is the thing that makes OKRs work. The full mechanics, including the FACTS framework, the 70% rule, scoring, and small-business implementation, are covered in the complete OKR guide. Google's re:Work guide is the canonical free resource on how OKRs run in practice.
What Is a KPI (Key Performance Indicator)?
The shape of a KPI is one-part: a metric, a target, an owner, and a review cadence. "Customer churn rate, target below 5%, owned by Customer Success, reviewed monthly" is a complete KPI. There is no Objective wrapper. The metric speaks for itself. KPIs exist to surface problems early and confirm the operational parts of the business stay within healthy ranges.
Common KPI categories at a small business: financial (revenue, gross margin, runway), customer (NPS, retention, churn), operational (uptime, response time, fulfillment time), people (90-day retention, time-to-fill, voluntary turnover), and pipeline (close rate, pipeline coverage, average deal size). Each category has 2-5 KPIs that genuinely matter. Anything beyond that is usually noise that the team stops looking at within a quarter.
The defining features of KPIs: continuous (no end date), quantitative (no Objective wrapper), historical (you compare current to last week, last month, last year), and operational (they monitor things that are supposed to stay healthy). For the broader context on which metrics matter at small business scale, the HR metrics guide covers people-related KPIs in depth.
The Key Differences Between OKRs and KPIs
The mechanical differences are what most articles cover. The strategic differences (what each is FOR) are usually buried. Here is both, side by side.
| Dimension | OKR | KPI |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Drive deliberate change in a specific direction | Monitor ongoing health of a process or function |
| Time horizon | Quarterly (sometimes annual) | Continuous (no end date) |
| Structure | Objective + 2-5 Key Results | Single metric with target, owner, cadence |
| Tone | Aspirational, qualitative Objective + quantitative proof | Operational, purely quantitative |
| Target type | Stretch target (70% completion = success for aspirational) | Healthy threshold (consistently met = good) |
| Review cadence | Weekly check-ins, quarterly scoring | Weekly, monthly, or quarterly depending on metric |
| What success looks like | Hitting most Key Results within 90 days | Staying within healthy range continuously |
| What failure looks like | Missing the stretch target by a wide margin | Drifting outside the healthy range |
| Number per company (SMB) | 2-3 company OKRs per quarter | 5-8 company KPIs continuously |
| Origin | Intel/Google, 1970s-1990s | Originated in operations management, decades older |
| Best for | Change initiatives, growth bets, transformation | Operational stability, performance monitoring |
The single most useful mental model: KPIs are nouns (revenue, churn, time-to-fill). OKRs are verbs (reduce, increase, transform). KPIs describe states. OKRs describe transitions. When someone asks "is this an OKR or a KPI?", ask them: are you describing a state you want to monitor, or a change you want to make? If the answer is "monitor," it is a KPI. If the answer is "change," it is an OKR.
OKR vs KPI Examples Side by Side
Definitions help, but examples make the distinction obvious. The examples below are the same metrics or business areas, expressed first as KPIs (always-on monitoring) and second as OKRs (90-day change initiatives).
Notice that some metrics show up in both columns under different framings. "Customer NPS" is a KPI (you watch NPS continuously, it has a target like 60+, it is reviewed monthly). But NPS can also appear inside an OKR as a Key Result: "increase NPS from 41 to 60 by Q3 end." Same number. Different role. The KPI version monitors a steady state. The Key Result version proves a deliberate change. The performance metrics guide covers measurement frameworks across both roles.
Five examples that show the dual nature
| Metric | As a KPI (continuous) | As a Key Result inside an OKR (90-day) |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | MRR, target $400K+, reviewed weekly by founder | Increase Q3 MRR from $480K to $720K |
| Customer churn | Monthly churn rate, target below 5%, owned by CS | Reduce churn from 8% to 5% by Q3 end |
| Time-to-fill | Average time-to-fill, target 28 days, owned by hiring manager | Reduce average time-to-fill from 45 to 28 days |
| NPS | NPS, target 60+, reviewed monthly | Increase NPS from 41 to 60 across top 50 accounts |
| 90-day retention | New hire 90-day retention, target 90%, monitored quarterly | Lift 90-day retention from 70% to 90% via better onboarding |
Same metrics. Different uses. The pattern is: when a metric is part of normal business operations and stays in the dashboard regardless of strategy, it is a KPI. When you make a deliberate, time-bound bet to move that metric in a specific direction, it becomes a Key Result inside an OKR. Once the OKR completes, the metric resumes its KPI life. The performance management guide covers how to embed this rhythm into broader management practice, and SHRM's performance management toolkit covers the formal review side.
How OKRs and KPIs Work Together
The relationship between OKRs and KPIs is not parallel. They are layered. KPIs run continuously underneath the business. OKRs sit on top as time-bound bets. The cycle has three steps.
The healthy pattern: most KPIs stay in their healthy range, requiring no special attention. Occasionally a KPI drifts (or you notice an opportunity to push it dramatically beyond healthy). That triggers an OKR for the next quarter. The OKR drives focused effort to move that metric. The KPI then confirms whether the OKR worked. The KPI continues; the OKR retires.
This is why OKRs and KPIs are complements, not substitutes. KPIs without OKRs leave you watching metrics drift without ever doing anything ambitious about them. OKRs without KPIs leave you setting goals on top of an opaque foundation, where you cannot tell if the parts of the business you are not focused on are quietly collapsing. The people management guide covers the broader rhythm of running a small team that makes both frameworks possible.
Why People Confuse OKRs and KPIs
The confusion is structural, not accidental. Both OKRs and KPIs use numbers. Both have targets. Both get reviewed. Both appear in dashboards and spreadsheets. To a busy founder skimming a strategy book on a Tuesday night, they look like two names for the same thing.
The four reasons confusion persists:
| Source of confusion | What it looks like | How to resolve it |
|---|---|---|
| Same metric appears in both | Revenue is a KPI and a Key Result. Are they the same thing? | Yes, the same number can play both roles. The difference is the time-bound, change-driven framing of the OKR vs the steady-state monitoring of the KPI. |
| Both are quantitative | Both have numbers and targets. So what is the actual difference? | Numbers are the language of both. The difference is the surrounding structure: KPIs are standalone metrics; OKRs wrap metrics in an Objective and a 90-day deadline. |
| Templates blur the line | Some KPI dashboards include 'goals' columns that look like OKRs | Template confusion is real. Some dashboards labeled as KPI tracking are actually OKR tracking. Look at the time horizon: continuous (KPI) or quarterly (OKR). |
| OKR books mention KPIs | Most OKR books reference KPIs but explain neither cleanly | Read both definitions cleanly first. Then read examples. Then read the books. Books assume you already understand the difference. |
The deepest source of confusion is that the same person, in the same conversation, can use the same number with two different meanings. "Our revenue KPI is $400K, and our Q3 OKR Key Result is to increase revenue to $480K." That sentence is internally consistent, but it sounds confusing to anyone who has not internalized the layering. Once you see KPIs as the always-on layer and OKRs as the quarterly layer on top, the confusion dissolves.
Can a KPI Be a Key Result?
Yes. This is one of the most common questions, and the answer is: not just yes, but in practice, most well-written Key Results pull directly from existing KPI metrics. The mechanics are straightforward.
A KPI is the metric in its monitoring form. "NPS, target 60+, monthly review." A Key Result is the metric in its change form. "Increase NPS from 41 to 60 by Q3 end." The metric (NPS) is identical. What changes is the framing: the KPI describes a steady state to maintain; the Key Result describes a 90-day movement to achieve.
Three rules for using KPIs as Key Results well:
- Add a baseline and a deadline. A KPI says "NPS target 60." A Key Result must say "Increase NPS from 41 to 60 by September 30." The starting point and the timeline turn a metric into a Key Result.
- Pick metrics that can move in 90 days. Some KPIs (5-year customer lifetime value, brand awareness in new markets) take years to shift meaningfully. They are bad Key Results because the timeframe does not match. Choose KPIs whose value can plausibly change inside one quarter.
- Do not double-count. If "NPS" is both your KPI and your Key Result, you are still tracking one thing. The same review can serve both purposes. Avoid the trap of having parallel tracking systems for what is functionally the same metric.
OKR vs KPI for Small Business: The Honest Take
Almost every article on OKR vs KPI is written for enterprise teams: companies with strategy departments, dedicated analytics functions, and OKR coordinators. None of that applies at 20 employees. The honest small business version is dramatically simpler.
At small business scale (5-50 employees), the practical reality:
| What enterprise content says | What actually works at 5-50 employees |
|---|---|
| Cascade OKRs through 4-5 organizational layers | 2 layers max (company → team). Personal OKRs only for senior ICs. |
| Build a comprehensive KPI tree spanning every function | 5-8 company KPIs + 1-3 KPIs per function lead. Anything more is noise. |
| Use dedicated OKR software with KPI integration | Notion or a shared spreadsheet. No software needed under 30-50 employees. |
| Run quarterly OKR planning offsites with stakeholder workshops | One 90-minute leadership conversation per quarter. Done. |
| Implement KPI governance with monthly metrics reviews | Weekly 15-minute Monday KPI scan. Done. |
| Align OKRs with KPIs through formal weighting models | If a KPI matters this quarter, write an OKR Key Result that targets it. If not, leave the KPI alone. |
| Hire OKR coaches and KPI analysts | The founder runs both. Maybe a function lead helps. That is the entire team. |
The version that works at small scale strips away every piece of structure that exists to coordinate across hundreds or thousands of people. At 20 employees, coordination happens naturally because everyone knows each other and can talk directly. What remains is the irreducible core: a few KPIs you watch every week, 2-3 OKRs per quarter, weekly reviews, quarterly retrospectives. Everything else is enterprise overhead that crushes small teams.
For the broader practice of running lean management systems at small scale, the small business HR guide covers the underlying philosophy.
The SMB Starter Stack: What to Implement at Each Stage
The right level of OKR and KPI sophistication depends entirely on company size. The starter stack below is calibrated for three growth stages, with the assumption that you have no dedicated HR, strategy, or operations function.
Three patterns from the table worth internalizing. First, KPIs always come first. Even at 5 employees, you need a small KPI dashboard. OKRs without KPIs are blind. Second, software comes last. The discipline of weekly KPI reviews and quarterly OKR cycles is what produces the value. The tool is secondary. Most small businesses that buy OKR software in their first year of OKRs end up using it as expensive document storage. Third, the cadence matters more than the framework. Weekly KPI scans plus quarterly OKR cycles, executed consistently for 8+ quarters, produce better results than perfect templates run for one quarter. The HR strategy guide covers how this fits into broader people operations strategy.
Do You Actually Need Both?
The honest answer for small businesses: you need KPIs immediately. You need OKRs only when you have something specific to change.
Every business, even a 5-person company, benefits from a small KPI dashboard. Watching revenue, runway, customer count, and one or two operational metrics every week is the minimum viable management discipline. Without it, you are running blind.
OKRs are different. They are a deliberate change tool. If your business is growing steadily, your KPIs are healthy, and you do not have a specific 90-day priority, you do not need OKRs. You need to keep watching the KPIs. The mistake some founders make is implementing OKRs as a default management practice when there is nothing they specifically need to change. The result is OKRs that are really just KPIs with extra paperwork.
| Scenario | Need KPIs? | Need OKRs? |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-product startup, 1-3 founders, finding fit | ||
| Growing business, 5-15 employees, steady operations | ||
| Growing business, 5-15 employees, planning a major initiative | ||
| 15-30 employees, healthy growth, no major changes | ||
| 15-30 employees, growth slowing or churn rising | ||
| 30-50 employees, multiple functions, coordinated change needed | ||
| Any size, KPI dashboard is empty or broken |
The pattern: KPIs are always yes. OKRs are yes only when you have a clear answer to "what specifically are we trying to change in the next 90 days?". If the answer is "nothing in particular," do not run OKRs. Watch the KPIs. Reassess next quarter.
When OKRs Fail (And KPIs Save You)
Most articles on OKR vs KPI present them as equally important and equally well-functioning. The honest reality is that OKRs fail more often than KPIs, especially at small business scale. Understanding the failure modes is part of using both tools well.
The four most common OKR failure modes at small businesses, and how a healthy KPI dashboard saves you:
| OKR failure mode | How a KPI dashboard mitigates it |
|---|---|
| Quarterly cadence is abandoned by month two | KPIs continue to run weekly. The business stays visible even when OKR discipline lapses. |
| OKRs target wrong things while real metrics drift | KPIs surface drift in metrics that were not on the OKR list. You catch problems before they compound. |
| Team disengages from OKRs after 1-2 quarters | KPI reviews continue regardless of OKR engagement. The operating discipline survives. |
| Founder gets distracted, OKRs become wallpaper | The KPI dashboard is harder to ignore. Numbers crossing thresholds force attention. |
This is one of the most under-discussed reasons KPIs matter. They are the safety net underneath ambitious goal-setting. When OKRs fail (and they often do, at least the first two quarters of running them), KPIs ensure the business does not fail with them. Founders who skip KPIs and bet entirely on OKRs are taking a riskier bet than they realize. Gallup research consistently finds that the manager-employee relationship is the strongest predictor of engagement, which means goal-setting frameworks work best where management is already strong. KPIs amplify management quality by making it visible. OKRs do not. The leadership development guide covers the manager skills that determine whether OKRs and KPIs actually work in practice.
Common Mistakes That Confuse OKRs and KPIs
The mistakes below appear consistently across small businesses implementing OKRs and KPIs together for the first time. All of them are avoidable once you internalize the layered relationship between the two.
The meta-pattern across all six: most OKR/KPI confusion comes from treating them as competing frameworks rather than as complementary layers. Once you see KPIs as the always-on monitoring layer and OKRs as the quarterly change layer, every decision about which framework to use becomes obvious. The metric you watch every week is a KPI. The change you are driving in 90 days is an OKR. The same number can serve both roles.
OKR vs KPI vs SMART vs MBO: The Full Picture
Two related frameworks come up alongside OKRs and KPIs: SMART goals and MBO (Management by Objectives). Understanding where each fits prevents the meta-confusion of treating four different tools as competing alternatives.
| Framework | What it is | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| KPI | A continuously-monitored metric with a target | Always. Every business needs a KPI dashboard. |
| OKR | A 90-day Objective with measurable Key Results | When you have specific change priorities for the next quarter. |
| SMART | A checklist (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) | When evaluating any individual goal. SMART is a writing standard, not a competing framework. |
| MBO | Annual cascaded objectives, top-down | Older framework, predominantly enterprise. OKRs evolved from MBO. |
The relationship: KPIs are metrics. OKR, SMART, and MBO are goal-setting frameworks. SMART is a writing standard usually applied to OKR Key Results (a well-written Key Result almost always meets the SMART criteria). MBO is the historical ancestor of OKRs, used primarily at large traditional organizations. For small businesses, the practical answer is: use KPIs for monitoring, OKRs for change initiatives, and apply SMART as a sanity check when writing any specific goal. Forget MBO unless you work at a Fortune 500. The development goals guide covers SMART in more depth for individual goal-setting.
Tools to Track OKRs and KPIs at Small Business Scale
The tooling question for OKRs and KPIs is heavily oversold by software vendors and underthought by most small businesses. The honest answer: under 30 employees, you do not need dedicated software for either. A shared Notion page or Google Sheet handles both.
| Stage | KPI tooling | OKR tooling |
|---|---|---|
| Under 15 employees | Single Google Sheet, founder-maintained | Single shared doc, 2-3 OKRs total |
| 15-30 employees | Notion database with charts, function leads update weekly | Notion page with company OKRs + team OKRs |
| 30-50 employees | Lightweight BI tool OR robust Notion setup with automated metric pulls | Notion or lightweight OKR software |
| 50+ employees | Dedicated BI tool (Looker, Metabase, Mode) | Dedicated OKR software OR continued Notion at this scale |
The mistake to avoid: buying expensive software in the hope that the software will create the discipline. It will not. Tools amplify habits; they do not create them. Build the habit of weekly KPI reviews and quarterly OKR cycles with the simplest possible tool, then upgrade only when manual tracking becomes the bottleneck. Most small businesses that buy enterprise OKR/KPI software in their first year end up using it as a glorified document storage and abandon it within 18 months.
The Gallup research on engagement consistently finds that consistent rituals beat one-time interventions for sustained team performance. Both KPI reviews and OKR cycles are such rituals. The companies that compound them over years build operating cultures that competitors cannot easily replicate. The companies that buy software and skip the rituals get nothing.
The Long-Term View on OKRs and KPIs
The honest case for using both at any scale is not that they are magic. They are not. They are two complementary disciplines that, when run consistently, make the business legible to its leaders. KPIs make the steady state visible. OKRs make the change agenda visible. Together, they answer the two most important management questions: how is the business doing right now, and what are we trying to change about it?
At small business scale, the temptation is always to overcomplicate. The right move is the opposite. Start with 5-8 KPIs and review them every Monday. When you have a specific change priority, set 1-2 OKRs for the quarter. Run weekly check-ins on the OKRs. Score them at quarter end. Adjust. Repeat. After 8-12 quarters of this rhythm, OKRs and KPIs become invisible: people just naturally ask "what is our number this week?" and "what are we trying to change this quarter?". The frameworks have dissolved into the operating culture. That is the destination.
How FirstHR Fits
The honest disclosure: FirstHR is not an OKR or KPI tracking platform. We do not currently have a performance management module that tracks Objectives, Key Results, or operational dashboards. The platform handles onboarding, employee profiles, document management, org charts, and the operational HR foundations that most small businesses need. OKR and KPI tracking, when you adopt them, will live in your shared doc, your Notion page, or eventually in dedicated software.
That said, OKRs and KPIs work better when the underlying people operations are working. A team running OKRs on top of broken onboarding will struggle no matter how well-written the OKRs are. A team running KPIs on a workforce that turns over every six months will spend all its time chasing time-to-fill. Work Institute research on retention shows that turnover is rarely random; it tracks back to specific causes that show up in onboarding and management quality. FirstHR exists to handle the people operations foundation at flat-fee pricing ($98/month for up to 10 employees, $198/month for up to 50), so that owners and operators can focus their attention on the higher-impact work of setting good OKRs and watching the right KPIs.
For the practice that sits underneath good goal-setting, the onboarding best practices guide covers the foundation that lets new hires actually contribute to OKRs and move KPIs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between OKR and KPI?
A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a metric you watch continuously to monitor the health of an existing process. Revenue, churn rate, and customer retention are KPIs. An OKR (Objective and Key Results) is a time-bound goal with measurable Key Results, typically set for one quarter, designed to drive change. KPIs answer 'how is the business doing right now?'. OKRs answer 'what are we trying to change in the next 90 days?'. Most companies use both, and they are complements, not substitutes.
Can a KPI be a Key Result?
Yes. The same number can serve both roles in different contexts. Customer churn is a KPI when you watch it monthly to monitor retention health. The same churn number becomes a Key Result when you say 'reduce Q3 churn from 8% to 5%' as part of a quarterly OKR. The metric is the same. The role differs: KPIs monitor the steady state, Key Results prove a deliberate change happened. Most well-written Key Results pull from existing KPI data; the difference is the change verb (reduce, increase, improve) and the time bound.
Should I use OKRs or KPIs at my small business?
Both, but in different ways. KPIs come first: every business needs a small set of operational metrics it watches every week (revenue, retention, time-to-fill, NPS, runway). OKRs come second: when you have specific change priorities for the next 90 days, set OKRs to drive them. A small business with no KPI dashboard and no OKRs should build the KPI dashboard first. OKRs without KPIs are blind. KPIs without OKRs are passive.
Why are OKRs better than KPIs?
OKRs are not better than KPIs. They serve different purposes. Saying OKRs are better than KPIs is like saying a destination is better than a speedometer. You need both. OKRs drive ambitious change in 90-day cycles. KPIs ensure the parts of the business that should not change remain healthy. The mistake is treating them as alternatives. The reality is that they are layers: KPIs run continuously underneath, OKRs sit on top as time-bound priorities.
How do OKRs and KPIs work together?
KPIs surface problems and opportunities. OKRs respond to them. Example: your KPI dashboard shows churn climbing from 5% to 8% over two quarters. You set a quarterly OKR to reverse it: reduce churn back to 5%, complete root-cause interviews with 20 churned customers, ship the top 3 retention fixes. Once the OKR completes, the churn KPI continues to be monitored as part of normal operations. KPIs ask 'what is happening?'. OKRs ask 'what should we do about it?'. The cycle is: KPI flags, OKR responds, KPI confirms.
Do small businesses need both OKRs and KPIs?
Most small businesses need KPIs immediately and OKRs only when they have something specific to change. A 5-person company watching revenue, customer count, and runway weekly has all the operating discipline it needs at that scale. OKRs become valuable when you have 15+ employees and clear quarterly priorities that need cross-team coordination. Implementing OKRs at a 5-person company before you have a KPI dashboard is putting structure on top of nothing. Build KPIs first.
What is an example of OKR vs KPI?
KPI: 'Customer Net Promoter Score, target 60, reviewed monthly, owned by Customer Success.' This is a steady-state metric, watched continuously. OKR: 'Objective: Make our customers love working with us. Key Results: increase NPS from 41 to 60, generate 12 case studies, achieve 95% logo retention on top 50 accounts.' This is a 90-day priority with measurable outcomes. Notice the NPS appears in both: as a KPI (continuous monitoring) and as a Key Result inside the OKR (a specific 90-day target). Same number, different role.
Is revenue an OKR or KPI?
Revenue is a KPI by default. It is something you watch continuously, every week, every month, regardless of any specific quarterly goal. Revenue can also appear as a Key Result inside an OKR when you have a specific 90-day target: 'increase Q3 revenue from $480K to $720K' is a Key Result. The metric is the same. The role differs. Most companies have revenue as a permanent KPI that shows up in OKRs whenever revenue growth is a current priority.
How many OKRs and KPIs should a small business have?
A small business should have 3-8 company-level KPIs (the metrics you check every week to know the business is healthy) and 2-3 company-level OKRs per quarter (the priorities you are actively driving change on). For teams: 1-3 KPIs per function and 1-2 OKRs per team per quarter. The discipline is cutting. If you have 20 KPIs, you do not have a dashboard, you have noise. If you have 10 OKRs, you do not have priorities, you have a wish list.
What is the difference between OKR, KPI, SMART, and MBO?
OKR is a goal-setting framework that pairs a qualitative Objective with measurable Key Results, set quarterly. KPI is a continuously-monitored metric used to track operational health. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) is a checklist for evaluating any individual goal. MBO (Management by Objectives) is the older framework from which OKRs evolved, typically annual and cascaded top-down. KPIs are metrics. OKR, SMART, and MBO are goal frameworks. SMART is a writing standard often applied to Key Results. MBO is the ancestor of OKRs.