Subjective Self-Assessment Rescues Raw Scores

"Say the team’s objective is to recruit new customers, and your individual key result is fifty phone calls. You wind up calling thirty-five prospects, for a raw goal score of 70 percent. Did you succeed or fail? By itself, the data doesn’t afford us much insight. But if a dozen of your calls lasted several hours apiece and resulted in eight new customers, you might give yourself a perfect 1.0. Conversely: If you procrastinated, rushed through all fifty calls, and signed only one new customer, you might assess your performance at 0.25—because you could have pushed harder. (And on reflection: Should the key result have prioritized new customers, rather than calls?)"

"Self-assessment In evaluating OKR performance, objective data is enhanced by the goal setter’s thoughtful, subjective judgment. For any given goal in a given quarter, there may be extenuating circumstances. A weak showing by the numbers might hide a strong effort; a strong one could be artificially inflated."

"Invariably, some people will grade themselves too harshly; others may need to be challenged. In either case, an alert facilitator or team leader will jump in and help recalibrate. In the end, the numbers are probably less important than contextual feedback and a broader discussion within the team."