Product Management: Foundations to Practice · Goal Setting: OKRs and North Star Metrics
The History and Structure of OKRs
OKRs are often described as a Google-era Silicon Valley invention, but the real history runs through fifty years of management theory. Understanding that history explains why OKRs are built the way they are.
Objectives and Key Results originated at Intel in the 1970s under CEO Andy Grove, who built on management theorist Peter Drucker's earlier Management by Objectives concept. Grove initially called his version 'iMBOs,' for Intel Management by Objectives, before the terminology evolved into the Objectives and Key Results language used today [17]. Grove documented the approach formally in his 1983 book High Output Management, framing it around two simple questions: where do I want to go (the Objective), and how will I know I am getting there (the Key Results).
- OKRs trace back through Peter Drucker's Management by Objectives to Andy Grove's refinements at Intel in the 1970s.
- Grove's specific choices, quarterly cadence, ambitious stretch targets, decoupling from compensation, were deliberate fixes for MBO's weaknesses.
- John Doerr learned OKRs directly from Grove and introduced them to Google's founders in 1999.
- OKRs function as much as a company-wide alignment and transparency tool as a personal goal-setting mechanism.