Overview

Eliminate the learning curve to great OKRs - with Co-Author, inspiration for great objectives and key results is just a click away!

Co-Author is part of the WorkBoard Intelligent Enterprise platform. Contact your CSM for upgrade pricing and information.

What are OKRs?

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) foster team connectivity, alignment, and results. They create a common language, transparent framework, and empower teams to articulate goals, focus on measurable outcomes, and learn iteratively with data over time.

Objectives serve as statements of intent, emphasizing the "what" and "why" of our goals. Key Results are a measurable outcome that gauge progress toward achieving an Objective. These specific benchmarks, often numerical, provide a tangible way to assess success and track the fulfillment of larger goals.

Why use Co-Author?

WorkBoard's Co-Author can help to:

Accelerate time to draft high integrity OKRs to collaborate and discuss as a team
Draft aligned OKRs that contribute towards upline and leadership results
Set aspirational, measurable OKRs informed by your top priorities
Improve OKR quality with Outcome Mindset Method™ best practices

Getting Started

Co-Author is available everywhere you set OKRs in WorkBoard. From the Create button, choose:

Team OKR or Individual Goal to quickly create a single OKR
Draft OKRs in Canvas to start brainstorming with the team
Create OKRs from document to create team OKRs based on an existing pdf or Word document

Draft a single Team OKR or Individual Goal with Co-Author

If you want to enter a single OKR quickly, Co-Author can help by offering suggestions for inspirational objectives and measurable key results.

Select the Use Co-Author icon on the objective or key result.
(If you are creating a new objective, Co-Author will walk you through selecting a team and time period for the OKR)
Type a draft objective as a starting point, or click I'm not sure yet, give me some ideas!
After Co-Author responds with a suggestion, you can select whether to Make it more inspiring, Make it shorter, or Add more details. When finished, select Use this.
- After selecting Use this, you'll be prompted to set Objective fields including owner, data source and more.
After creating an Objective, you can ask Co-Author to help draft Key Results by clicking the Co-Author icon.
Easily tune your key result by asking Co-Author to help you Make it more measurable, Make it shorter, Add more details, Make it a lagging result, or Make it a leading result. When finished, select Use this.
Lastly, adjust your Key Result details or measurement type by selecting More options.
When you're finished adding your Objective and Key Results, select Save to lock in your changes and Done to apply your settings.

Create Team OKRs from a Doc with Co-Author

Quickly align your team's efforts to the organization's strategic priorities by asking Co-Author to draft OKRs based on existing strategy slide decks or documents

Co-Author can use the text from any PDF or .doc file as a basis for drafting your team OKRs
Provide guidance such as "Focus on the digital transformation initiative" or "Include a cost savings objective."
if you have draft OKRs already in a document, you can upload the document and ask Co-Author to extract the OKRs.
Easily edit the drafted objectives or key results, or ask Co-Author to help your further refine your results (ex. making them leading, lagging, more inspiring etc.)

Please note a few limitations and considerations:

Supports PDF and Word doc file types; if you have a PPT or Excel file, you can save it as a pdf and then use o-Author.
Co-Author cannot "read" images or charts
Only supported for Team OKRs

Collaborate on OKRs with the team and Co-Author in WoBo Canvas

Canvas provides a collaborative space for seamless goal-setting and to jumpstart brainstorming sessions as a team! Co-Author on Canvas is there to make the discussion more efficient, so the team can spend more time discussing priorities and tradeoffs, and less time debating syntax!

Tips for setting up for a great team discussion!

Before your OKR session it can be helpful to have the team add their thoughts about priorities and key outcomes to the Canvas. For teams reflecting and resetting OKRs, complete a retro to memorialize victories and observations, and streamline the conversation about shifts to incorporate into the next OKR cycle.
During your OKR session, ask Co-Author to refine the team's brainstorm notes to be more measurable, inspirational, or shorter Key Results.

Drafting multiple OKRs with Co-Author in WoBo Canvas

Getting started on OKRs can be challenging, and WorkBoard Co-Author is here to help. If you are starting from a blank slate, Co-Author can suggest a full set of OKRs for your team.

From a Canvas with an OKR shell, select the OKR shell itself, and click Co-Author. From here, there are multiple ways to get great OKRs from Co-Author:

Create Team OKRs from a Doc with Co-Author - Learn more
Describing your quarter priorities and asking Co-Author to suggest OKRs based
- Give Co-Author a bit of detail about your team’s strategic priorities, and Co-Author will use that context, in addition to your previous and upline OKRs, to create a full set of OKRs for your team.
Co-Author to suggest OKRs based on your team's last quarter OKRs and your current upline leader's OKRs
- The easiest way to get started is to let Co-Author try its hand at creating OKRs based on your previous and upline OKRs.

Drafting a single Objective with Co-Author in WoBo Canvas

Ask Co-Author to draft an Objective to get something on the page as a starting point for the team discussion.

Select a blank Objective row in the draft OKR shell in Canvas
Click the Co-Author icon
Co-Author will ask you what your priorities are with this Objective. If you have known priorities, enter them. If you'd rather just have Co-Author create something, click I'm not sure yet, give me some ideas!
Co-Author will generate a draft Objective
Once an Objective has been generated, you can choose whether to:
- Use this Objective
- Make it more inspiring
- Make it more detailed
- Make it shorter
- Try again
- Discard
After selecting Use this Objective, you will have the option to Suggest Key Results for this Objective (only available in the Objective field).

Drafting a single Key Result with Co-Author in WoBo Canvas

Once you've gotten your Objective down, it's time to move onto the Key Results. Co-Author can help here, too! To have Co-Author draft a Key Result:

Select a blank Key Result row in the draft OKR shell on Canvas
Click the Co-Author icon
Co-Author will ask you what your priorities are with this Key Result. If you have known priorities, enter them. If you'd rather just have Co-Author use the Objective, click I'm not sure yet, give me some ideas!
Co-Author will generate a draft Key Result

It can also be a challenge to make measurable, focused Key Results. That's why Co-Author can be your OKR coach to help refine a Key Result to get it into proper OKR format.

Select a draft Key Result row in the draft OKR shell on Canvas
Click the Co-Author icon
Co-Author will ask you how you want to refine the Key Result. You can enter you own instructions in the text box, or you can select from the pre-built quick-actions.
- Make it more measurable
- Make it more detailed
- Make it shorter
- Make it leading
- Make it lagging
  - Leading indicators are headlight measures that are predictive of completing the Objective. Lagging indicators are taillight measures that show whether an Objective has been achieved -- good OKRs have a mix of leading and lagging measures!
Select Use this Key Result when you're done drafting

Publishing your OKRs from WoBo Canvas

When you've finished drafting with Co-Author, you can quickly publish your OKRs to begin making updates. To publish your OKRs:

Select Publish OKRs in the upper right-hand corner of your Objectives and Key Results tray
Verify the Team, Time Period, and View Permissions
Click the dropdown arrow to review the Key Results and to confirm the Owner, Starting Value, Target Value, Measurement Type, and Update cadence
To further modify your OKRs, select Save & go back
When finished, select Publish OKRs

Viewing your Published OKRs

After publishing your OKRs, you can quickly access the Objective details by selecting the icon to open in new tab. From the same toolbar, you can also:

Move the shell
Open in new tab
Hide Key Results
Copy to Draft
- This copies the existing shell and opens edit mode for the copied shell.
Send to back
Bring to Front
Lock Position
Remove (Please note that this is permanent and can't be recovered.)