“Are our key results moving, and is the work behind them funded?”
Every part of the practice — objectives and key results, committed and aspirational goals, alignment up, down and across, weekly check-ins, scoring and the quarterly reset — with every key result linked to the work expected to move it, the budget behind that work and the strategy it serves. Key results are read from the systems that hold the numbers, not typed in before the review. Run OKRs the way your company does: quarterly or annual, cascaded or aligned, on your own scale. Change the practice whenever you need to; past cycles stay as they were scored. SAFe, the portfolio and the product model link to the same key results. Dot drafts the check-ins and the readouts; owners still set the goals and grade them.
The pressure
Most OKR programs end up as a quarterly ritual. Objectives are set in one tool, key results are updated by hand the week before the review, and the work and money behind them live somewhere else. A key result goes red and nobody can name the funded work that was meant to move it — or say whether that work ever started.
What it looks like today
Full coverage
Setting, aligning, checking in and scoring all happen beside the work, the money and the strategy each objective depends on.
Built on the practice as Grove and Doerr describe it — committed and aspirational
The goal, and the proof it was met.
Up, down and across.
The rhythm that keeps OKRs alive.
An honest score, read the same way everywhere.
Where most OKR tools stop.
Goals everyone can see and question.
What changes
Key results typed in at the end of the quarter
Key results read from the system that holds the number, with a baseline and a target
Goals in one tool, the work and the money in others
Every key result linked to the funded work expected to move it, and what that work cost
Cascades copied down the org chart
Alignment up, down and across, with rollups computed from the model
Scores that close the quarter
Scores, reasons and decisions that open the next one
From key result to the dollar
Pick an objective and walk the chain: the strategy it serves, the investment that funds it, the initiatives expected to move each key result, the capabilities they change and the cost they have actually booked. The key result sits beside the chain — expected movement against actual — so a miss can be traced to work that never started, work that shipped and didn’t move the number, or a target that was wrong.
Where other tools stop
OKR platforms track the goals and the check-ins. They don’t hold the budget, the funded work or what it actually cost — so a red key result has no trail to follow.
Flexed to how you run
Most companies change how they run OKRs as they learn. Set the cadence, structure and scale that fit now, and change them when they stop fitting.
Any cadence
Quarterly key results under annual objectives, a single annual cycle, or teams on different rhythms — each OKR knows its period.
Cascade or align
Cascade from the top, align from the bottom, or both. Links are records, so the rollup follows whatever structure you choose.
Your scale, your words
Score on 0–1, as a percentage or with your own thresholds. Call them goals, outcomes or bets — the practice stays the same underneath.
Leadership first, then teams
Begin with the leadership team’s OKRs and a few live metrics, then add teams, linked work and budgets as the habit takes hold.
Change the practice, keep the history
There is no official OKR standard to upgrade to — but most companies rework how they run OKRs every year or two. Dotwork treats each change like a new version: it proposes how existing OKRs move, you approve, and past cycles keep the structure and the scores they were run under.
Cascaded top-down, now aligned up, down and across
Links redrawn as alignment — past cycles keep their cascade
Annual objectives, now with quarterly key results
Periods set on new OKRs; closed cycles untouched
Percent complete, now a 0–1 score
The new scale applied going forward; old scores kept as they were recorded
OKRs moved off a tool that is being retired
Brought in from the export with their history, then bound to live metrics
OKRs adopted for SAFe themes, epics and business cases
The same key results linked to strategic themes, epics and lean business cases
Every framework, one model
OKRs say what the company is trying to move. The portfolio, the product model, delivery metrics and the cost model say what it is doing about it. When they share records, a key result and the work behind it can’t disagree.
Scaled Agile’s operating model for AI
Strategic themes, PI objectives and epics linked to the same key results.
Explore AI-Native SAFeFunding value streams, not projects
Lean business cases name the key results they expect to move, and the portfolio is judged against them.
Explore Lean Portfolio ManagementTeams funded around products
Product teams own outcomes measured as key results, funded on the same model.
Explore Product Operating ModelDelivery flow and performance metrics
Lead time or deployment frequency can be a key result in its own right, read from the delivery data.
Explore Flow & DORAIT spend taxonomy
A unit-cost key result reads straight from TBM, so the target and the bill use one number.
Explore TBMCapability and process maps
Key results linked to the business capabilities they are meant to improve.
Explore BIZBOK & APQCAI-native OKRs
The work that turns OKRs into a chore — chasing updates, typing in numbers, assembling the quarterly readout — runs from the model. Dot proposes and drafts; the owner of each objective decides what it says and how it is scored.
Reads draft OKRs and flags key results that are tasks rather than outcomes, have no baseline, or cannot be measured from any connected source.
Binds each key result to the live metric that measures it and sets the baseline, so key results report themselves.
Spots key results moving faster or slower than their recent trend and puts them at the top of the weekly check-in.
Drafts each check-in from the readings and the linked work that changed since the last one.
Follows each objective through the funded work to booked cost, and flags key results with no work behind them — or work with no spend.
When a key result linked to a strategic bet moves, recomputes confidence in the beliefs behind the bet and shows what a change would touch.
Drafts the quarterly readout: scores, the reasons behind them, the work behind each key result and what carries over.
Answers questions about any objective, key result or the work behind it, citing the readings and work items it used.
Where it runs in Dotwork
Dotwork does not ask you to adopt a new method. The framework becomes a view over the same model these solutions already read and write.
Govern & Deliver
“Is every team working on what matters?”
ExploreSteer
“Is our strategy still true — and what do we do when it isn’t?”
ExploreSteer
“Is the transformation paying off — and can we prove it?”
ExploreGovern & Deliver
“Are we building what customers need — and is it paying off?”
ExploreHow it compares
OKR and strategy-execution platforms track goals and run check-ins. Spreadsheets and slides carry the quarterly review. OKRs on Dotwork run the full practice and connect every key result to the funded work, the budget and the strategy it serves.
| Capability | OKR & strategy-execution platforms | Spreadsheets & slides | OKRs on Dotwork |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objectives, key results and scoring | Partly | ||
| Weekly check-ins and status updates | Partly | ||
| Alignment up, down and across | Partly | ||
| Key results read from live data | Partly | ||
| Committed and aspirational OKRs read apart | Partly | Partly | |
| Key results linked to the funded work and its cost | |||
| Effort against intent, computed from the work | |||
| Change how you run OKRs without losing history | Partly | ||
| Check-ins and readouts drafted for owners to approve | Partly | ||
| SAFe, the portfolio and the product model on the same records |
Who it is for
“Are the few things we said matter actually moving?
“What carries over to next quarter, and what do we drop?
“Which key results is our money actually behind?
“Which product bets move which key results?
“How does my team’s work roll up to the company’s objectives?
“Is delivery capacity going to the key results, or around them?
Before you buy
How to get a number instead of a pitch.
1
Good answer · The linked initiatives, their status and what they have spent — one click away.
Bad answer · A comment field where the owner explains it.
2
Good answer · The system that owns the number, read on a schedule, with the baseline kept.
Bad answer · Someone types it in before the review.
3
Good answer · They keep the structure and the scores they were run under.
Bad answer · They are archived in an export, or lost in the migration.
Strategy & Delivery
The methods that turn strategy into funded, delivered work.
The model underneath
Steer, Fund & Optimize and Govern & Deliver all read and write the same Enterprise Operating Model. The first module you license builds the model. Every module after it adds context instead of another silo — and Dotwork AI reads all of it, stopping where the decision is yours.
See the Enterprise Operating Model© 2025-2026 Dotwork, Inc. All rights reserved.