OKRs in Mobile App Projects: How to Set Goals So Your App Could Truly Support the Business?

What are OKRs?

OKR (Objectives and Key Results) measurably describe the objective that a company, institution, or organization wants to achieve. Each objective in OKR is defined by at least one key result.

OKR informs what should happen, within what timeframe, and how the results can be verified. It lets you know in which direction you want to develop your business or product. OKR also indicates how to monitor whether the actions taken are actually bringing you closer to your goal.

Initiatives

For each Objective and Key Result, you should add Initiatives. They are solutions that should enable the achievement of the goal.

For example, the objective is to position the brand as the best contractor in the sector. One of the key results is to publish a survey and receive a minimum of 70% responses rating the company as reliable. An initiative would be to prepare and send a survey examining the company’s image.

How to formulate OKRs?

The OKR structure consists of several elements and looks like this:

The objective you want to achieve 

• Key result #1
• Key result #2
• Key result #3

Tips for setting Objectives

• Objectives can relate to various areas of the company (e.g., marketing or sales).
• They can refer to values and priorities within the entire company, a single team, or even a specific employee.
• Objectives should be qualitative (answering the question “what”).
• Objectives have a general, high-level character.
• Brevity counts, so the description of an objective should not exceed one sentence.
• They should be challenges and inspire action, but at the same time, they must be realistic to achieve.

Tips for formulating Key Results

• Results should be measurable and time-bound.
• They should be monitored regularly to know if you’re closer to achieving the desired effect.
• They must relate to the objectives.
• It’s worth assigning 2 to 5 key results to one objective.
• Results must be detailed and clear so their interpretation does not raise doubts.

Benefits of using the OKR method in app development

Formulating OKRs offers many benefits. Now, we will focus on their use when you intend to build a mobile app.

Communication and team efficiency

OKRs clearly describe the goals that the company wants to achieve. Thanks to this, all employees know what results they should strive for and what their priorities are. It is then easier for them to create action strategies that effectively contribute to the company’s growth.

This way, you can also increase employee engagement because everyone knows what is expected of their team. As a result, the company uses resources more efficiently and does not waste time on irrelevant issues, which translates into savings.

Feature selection and UX/UI design

Knowing the goals makes it easier to determine which areas to focus on because they are crucial for the app. It is especially important at the initial stage of the project when we develop the product vision (Product Discovery phase) and after the app is released, when we refine it, improve it, and add new features (Continuous Discovery phase).

What does it look like in practice? If you know that, for example, your eCommerce wants to build an app to gain more customers, it means that it should propose solutions that will attract users who buy.

During brainstorming sessions (preferably during structured Product Discovery workshops), the team can focus on those elements that will allow them to achieve the set goal and impact the key indicators defined in the OKRs.

• Find out how to choose features to implement in mCommerce apps.

Example #1

Objective: Encouraging users to return to the app more often

Key Results:

1. Increased number of users enrolled in the loyalty program by 15% within one month of its launch.
2. Increased number of inquiries about special offers for returning customers by 20% in the next quarter.

Initiatives:

• Designing the benefits and operational guidelines of the in-app loyalty program that will encourage users to join it and check the offer regularly.
• Include information about the program’s benefits in relevant sections of the app.
• Design an easy-to-use sign-up and contact form.
• The content within the app must clearly communicate why the offer for returning users is worth considering.

Example #2

Objective: Increased efficiency of warehouse employees

Key Result: Reduce order fulfillment time by 15% within the quarter thanks to a new mobile app for employees.

Initiatives:

• Designing an app that automates selected tasks for warehouse employees.
• The app must have features that allow for quick scanning of products in the warehouse.
• Using the app must be maximally simplified to ensure faster task completion.

Example #3

Objective: Acquiring new customers

Key Results:

1. 1000 new user accounts in the mobile app created within the first month of its launch.
2. Increase product views by 20% compared to the previous quarter.

Initiatives:

• The UI design should encourage the exploration of new elements of the offer within the app.
• Facilitate product searching via image and voice.
• Easy account registration via email address and social media.
• Clear messages informing about the benefits of creating an account.

Technology selection

Many factors influence the technology and tools we use to build an app. OKRs also play a role in the decision-making process, especially when they relate to issues such as performance or availability on specified devices (with iOS or Android).

Example

Objective: Increased user engagement

Key Results:

1. Mobile app development and its launch within 6 months.
2. The mobile app must have at least 4 solutions with potential to engage users.
3. The average time spent in the mobile app should be higher by 25% within one month after its launch compared to a web app.

Initiatives:

• Preparing a UX/UI design project that will make using the app on mobile devices more engaging.
• Choosing a technology that will allow for the quick development of the basic version of the app.

Effective budget planning

When you know the goal of your actions, you understand which elements of the app require the most attention. This, in turn, affects budget allocation. OKRs help define the vision, priorities, and action planning, which is crucial for the budget. Why?

Because the team doesn’t focus on tasks deemed less important from a business or user perspective. OKRs clarify which solutions can take more time to develop or whether more expensive tools can be used for their implementation.

Analytics and measuring effectiveness

How will you know if the objectives have been achieved? Monitor the OKRs. Key Results indicate which metrics you should track once the app is in users’ hands.

OKRs are important not only after the app is published but even earlier, during analytics implementation. Monitoring a specific result is possible when you correctly configure performance measurement tools, such as Google Analytics or Mixpanel.

Objectives and key results help determine which events will be significant for the business, thus indicating what needs to be included in the analytics plan.

Usability testing

Nobody likes to waste their budget on unnecessary or poorly designed solutions.

The problem is that the team doesn’t always recognize which UX/UI elements require changes or are redundant. In such cases, consider usability testing. We conduct it with target group representatives, preferably on a prototype.

This way, it’s possible to determine, among other things, which elements of the app design are not intuitive or evoke negative emotions in users and need to be improved before programmers start writing code.

Example

Objective: Popularization of the mobile app among seniors

Key Results:

1. Increased number of seniors using the app by 20% by the end of Q2.
2. 15% new members in the SilversNow program within 30 days of the program’s launch.

Initiatives:

• The usability testing scenario should allow for checking the extent to which users can independently use the most important features.
• Usability testing should include checking how well the target group understands the loyalty program’s operation and whether they can use it effectively.
• Individuals aged 60-80 should be recruited for usability testing.

Examples of OKR for various industries

Objective: Increased interest in premium products in the app

Key Results:

1. Increase premium product sales by 15% within 3 months.
2. Increase the number of searches for premium line products by 10% one month after the release of the new collection.

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Objective: Improved communication with users

Key Results:

1. Reduce the number of inquiries regarding service fulfillment by 15% within the quarter by implementing a chat feature in the app.
2. Increase the average app rating to 4 stars in the Google Play Store.
3. Increase the number of users checking the FAQ section in the app by 25%.

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Objective: Obtaining more returning customers

Key Results:

1. Increased customer retention by 20% by the end of Q2.
2. Increased number of loyalty program members by 30% by Black Friday.
3. A growing monthly number of brand recommendations on Instagram and TikTok.

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Objective: Positioning the brand as an innovation leader in the industry

Key Results:

1. Release a mobile app and receive a nomination for an industry award in the INNOVATION category.
2. Publish a survey and receive at least 70% of responses rating the company as innovative.
3. Implement a minimum of one new feature every 6 months.

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Objective: Improved customer satisfaction

Key Results:

1. Increase the average app store rating by 2 stars within 3 months.
2. Reduce the response time to user inquiries to 12 hours.
3. Increase the number of positive reviews by 200 in the in-app feedback system within one month of its implementation.

Pitfalls in implementing the OKR method

What mistakes should you watch out for when formulating OKRs and implementing them in your company?

1. Key results are not measurable. In this case, it’s difficult to clearly determine whether the initiatives undertaken to achieve the established results are yielding sufficiently good outcomes.
2. Ambitious objectives are too difficult to achieve. They should be challenging but not impossible to accomplish. Otherwise, the team may become discouraged and feel that their initiatives are leading nowhere.
3. There are too many objectives. In such cases, it’s harder to choose priorities, which complicates planning. As a result, it’s easy to overlook truly important issues.
4. The implementation of the OKR method and the formulation of objectives doesn’t involve the team will execute them. Team members may not understand why such goals have been set for them, which hinders communication and prevents effective actions. They may also have their own ideas for objectives, key results, and initiatives that are worth considering.
5. No one monitors progress in achieving the objectives. To prevent this, it’s worth immediately establishing how often key results will be checked (e.g., monthly, quarterly), who will be responsible for this, and how often meetings regarding OKR analysis should take place. At such meetings, it’s worth determining what actions should be taken based on the analyzed data.
6. Failure to consider user feedback and situation on the market. It’s not enough to implement OKRs once. After a while, they may become outdated and require changes.

Changes in OKRs in response to evolving needs

When implementing OKRs, it’s important to keep in mind that they should be flexible. Why? Let’s say you have a mobile app and want to increase the number of users. You review the quarterly OKRs and conclude that the initiatives that yielded the desired results in the previous quarter are no longer working. What should you do?

It’s worth considering whether your app still meets user needs and whether new factors have emerged in the market that should impact key results and initiatives.

What areas deserve special attention? Opportunities related to artificial intelligence (AI) development are gaining increasing popularity and are more often becoming a component of mobile apps.

It is worth considering how AI-powered features can translate into ambitious goals and key results and what initiatives can be taken in this regard (e.g., increasing the personalization of the offer by 20% thanks to AI by the end of Q4).

Changes in legal regulations also matter. Setting OKR goals can be related to security issues or compliance with legal requirements. For example, including changes related to the EAA (the European Accessibility Act) in your OKRs will not only make your app compliant with regulations but also facilitate understanding the app’s content to a new group of users, which in itself can be an objective.

What else could be important? New solutions, such as those related to AI, influence the appearance of interfaces.

Visual or voice search, AR, etc.: they all introduce new standards in UX/UI design. The app needs to keep up to be user-friendly and intuitive. Such changes will affect objectives, results, and initiatives.

These are, of course, just some examples of changing trends and factors that can influence the shape of the app and, consequently, the objectives you want to accomplish. It’s best to constantly monitor the market situation to define OKR more precisely and create better apps.

OKRs in the app development process – a wrap-up

The OKR strategy allows you to create apps that measurably support the business and respond to evolving user needs.

Remember that even if you don’t achieve all your objectives within the specified time, it doesn’t necessarily mean failure. It’s difficult to predict when all initiatives will be completed and what will be their outcome.

The most important thing is that you are moving closer to the desired results. A lack of expected outcomes also allows you to draw conclusions that help plan further actions.

Do you need help formulating OKRs? Tell us about your project. We’d be happy to help you develop Objectives and Key Results for your business.