How to Add Key Results to cards
Key Results
Key Results (KRs) are measurable outcomes that track progress toward achieving your organization's strategic goals. They transform objectives into quantifiable results, allowing teams and leaders to monitor performance, evaluate success, and make informed decisions based on real-time data.
Every Key Result includes measurable values, such as a starting point, target, and current progress, providing a clear view of how work contributes to broader organizational objectives.
Purpose
The purpose of Key Results is to provide a standardized way to measure progress and evaluate performance across the organization.
By defining measurable outcomes, teams can monitor execution, identify trends, and understand how individual efforts contribute to larger business goals.
Key Results help organizations:
- Measure progress using objective data.
- Align work with strategic priorities.
- Monitor performance over time.
- Improve accountability through measurable outcomes.
- Support data-driven decision making.
Business Case
Organizations need more than objectives - they need measurable outcomes that demonstrate whether those objectives are being achieved.
Key Results provide a consistent framework for tracking performance, helping leaders identify successes, address risks, and ensure strategic initiatives remain on target.
With Key Results, you can:
- Measure progress using defined metrics.
- Align Key Results with parent Business Outcomes, Initiatives, or Deliverables.
- Assign weights to reflect organizational priorities.
- Monitor performance through visual progress indicators.
- Track historical performance over time.
- Differentiate between Leading and Lagging Indicators.
- Improve visibility across teams and leadership.
This enables everyone - from individual contributors to executives - to understand how day-to-day work supports organizational success.
Watch the video below to learn how to configure Key Results and customize your Business Outcomes dashboard.
Overview
Each Key Result serves as a measurable performance indicator connected to a strategic objective.
A Key Result can include:
- A measurable metric (Percentage, Currency, Number, etc.)
- Start, Target, Stretch, and Current values
- Weighting for overall progress calculations
- Progress tracking
- Historical updates
- Sub Targets
- Graph View
- Comments and supporting information
As values are updated, progress is automatically reflected throughout the platform, including dashboards, scorecards, and reports.
Before You Begin
Before creating or updating a Key Result, ensure you have:
- Permission to edit the associated card.
- Identified the appropriate metric type.
- Defined the Start and Target values.
- Determined whether the Key Result is a Leading or Lagging Indicator.
- Established how the Key Result contributes to the overall objective.
Tip: If multiple Key Results exist on a card, the combined weight should equal 100% to ensure accurate progress calculations.
Key Result Details
Selecting View Details opens the complete Key Result configuration.
Weights
Weights determine the relative importance of each Key Result when calculating overall progress.
Assigning weights allows organizations to prioritize the outcomes that have the greatest strategic impact.
Best Practice: Ensure the combined weight of all Key Results on a card equals 100%.
Sub Targets
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Description | Explains the purpose of the Key Result. |
| Formula | Displays how the metric is calculated. |
| Source | Identifies where the data originates. |
| Owner | Person responsible for maintaining the Key Result. |
| Frequency | How often the metric is updated (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, etc.). |
| Direction | Indicates whether progress improves by increasing or decreasing values. |
| Comments | Provides additional context, updates, or notes. |
Sub Targets divide a long-term objective into smaller, measurable milestones with individual target dates.
Benefits of Sub Targets include:
- Breaking large goals into manageable milestones.
- Measuring progress incrementally.
- Improving forecasting.
- Identifying delays earlier.
- Maintaining momentum throughout the reporting period.
Note: The total value of all Sub Targets must equal the final Target Value.
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Graph View
The Graph View provides a visual representation of performance over time.
The graph displays:
| Line | Description |
| Blue | Actual performance achieved. |
| Green | Planned target progression. |
Graph View allows users to:
- Compare planned versus actual performance.
- Identify performance trends.
- Detect risks early.
- Monitor historical progress.
- Evaluate whether objectives remain on track.
Linking Key Results
Key Results can be linked across different levels of the organizational hierarchy to improve strategic alignment.
Two linking options are available:
| Link Type | Description |
| Contributing | Progress from the child Key Result contributes to the parent Key Result. |
| Aligning | The child Key Result aligns with and inherits progress from the parent Key Result. |
Linked Key Results automatically synchronize progress, ensuring consistent reporting across the platform.
Impact vs Leading Indicators
Key Results can be categorized as either Impact Indicators or Leading Indicators.
| Indicator | Purpose | Example |
| Leading Indicator | Measures activities that predict future success. | Customer meetings completed, training sessions delivered, sales calls made. |
Impact Indicator | Measures final business outcomes after work has been completed. | Revenue achieved, customer satisfaction score, market share. |
Using both indicator types provides a balanced view of organizational performance by measuring both future drivers and completed results.
Summary
Key Results are the heartbeat of performance tracking. They turn ambition into measurable progress, helping teams see exactly how their work drives success.
From defining metrics to visualizing impact, Key Results keep everyone aligned, informed, and motivated. Update often, celebrate milestones, and watch your progress bars light up as your goals come to life!
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