From Strategy to Commitment: How Pernelle and I Run OKR Alignment with Our Teams

Why We Created the OKRA Framework

Our team is driven by empathy, customer centricity, efficiency, data-driven decisions, collaboration, and a remote-first mindset. We believe that when teams have true clarity—of purpose, priorities, and outcomes—performance naturally rises. The OKRA (OKR Agreement) framework is our way of making that clarity real, so everyone can focus on what matters most: delivering meaningful results for our customers, together.

Since Q3 of 2022, Pernelle and I have been on a mission to help teams move beyond confusion and misalignment. We saw that when everyone understands the ‘why’ and ‘how’ behind our goals, we not only move faster, but we also discover better solutions and build better products. OKRA is about empowering every team member to contribute, learn, and grow—so we can achieve more, together, with purpose and accountability.

The Five-Session Process Overview

The OKRA process is built around five collaborative sessions. Each one is designed to produce a specific output, progressively transforming abstract ideas into executable goals.

Let’s now break down each one.

OKRA Session #0: Planting the Seeds of Vision Before OKRs Grow

When company strategy is missing, unclear, or late, this session helps teams create shared context and vision for the quarter. Instead of waiting for direction, the team collaborates to map out what they already know—customer pains, platform strengths, business opportunities, stakeholder expectations, and constraints. The outcome is a single, co-created vision statement that guides all future OKR work and helps the team say no to distractions.

Read the full guide to Session #0 for detailed facilitation tips, templates, and real-world examples.

OKRA Session #1: Cultivating Team-Driven OKRs from Company Soil

With company OKRs in hand, the team translates them into actionable, team-owned OKRs. This session is about surfacing real constraints, customer pains, and opportunities, then drafting OKRs that are both inspiring and grounded. The process is highly collaborative, using silent idea generation, clustering, and pairing to ensure all voices are heard. The result: a set of draft OKRs the team actually believes in.

Read the full guide to Session #1 for step-by-step facilitation instructions and proven patterns.

OKRA Session #2: Harvesting Milestones—From OKR Hypotheses to Action

Now the team turns OKRs into a concrete plan. This session is not about timelines, but about identifying the essential work—milestones, epics, spikes, and experiments—that will validate the OKRs. The team works collaboratively to map out what needs to be shipped, tested, or learned, ensuring every commitment is grounded in learning and not just wishful thinking.

Read the full guide to Session #2 for facilitation techniques and milestone categorization.

OKRA Session #3: Milestones Value, Effort & Dependencies

With milestones in hand, the team reality-checks each one. This session is about surfacing assumptions, estimating effort (S/M/L), scoring business and UX value, and calling out dependencies and required skills. The goal is not perfect precision, but shared understanding—so the team can prioritize, avoid overcommitment, and sequence work based on real constraints.

Read the full guide to Session #3 for scoring frameworks and common pitfalls to avoid.

OKRA Session #4: OKR Quarter Draft Plan

The final session brings everything together in a visual, collaborative draft plan for the quarter. The team sequences milestones, annotates risks and dependencies, and makes alignment visible for all. This isn’t about locking in dates, but about mapping intention and creating a shared artifact that guides execution, enables adjustment, and keeps everyone focused on what matters most.

Read the full guide to Session #4 for visual planning techniques and facilitation tips.

Why It Works: Autonomy Meets Accountability

We don’t run OKRA because it’s trendy. We run it because:

• Engineers want to work on things that matter, not just what’s handed down.
• PMs want shared ownership instead of pushing alignment week after week.
• Leaders want fewer surprises and clearer delivery focus.

By involving everyone early, we create clarity, commitment, and context.

Key Benefits:

• OKRs are not only understood—they’re co-owned.
• Delivery is easier to track because milestones are linked to intent.
• Trade-offs are less painful because the team helped make them.

This framework also builds trust. When your vision includes engineers’ input and your metrics reflect real constraints, people step up. You stop hearing “Why are we doing this?” and start hearing “When can we start?”

What’s Next?

In the next article, I’ll walk you through how to facilitate each session—down to the prompts, visuals, and common pitfalls. You’ll get:

• Facilitator checklists
• Screenshot-ready templates
• Troubleshooting tips when momentum drops

This isn’t a process to sell. It’s a process to adopt, adapt, and improve with your team.

Until then, here’s your call to action:

• Invite your team to reflect on last quarter’s OKRs.
• Run Session #0 or #1 before the next sprint kickoff.
• Share your outcomes. We’d love to see how you make it your own.