Yes. While all Key Results must be measurable, using different types can help you track progress more effectively and create a more complete picture of success. Thinking about these categories helps ensure you're measuring what truly matters.
Here are the most common and useful types of Key Results:
1. Baseline vs. Target KRs
This is the most common and effective format. It measures movement from a starting point (A) to a desired endpoint (B).
- What it does: Clearly defines progress and impact.
- Example: "Increase customer retention rate from 85% to 92%."
2. Balancing KRs
Ambitious goals can sometimes have unintended negative consequences. Balancing KRs act as a guardrail to ensure you don't sacrifice one area of the business to improve another.
- What it does: Protects against "growth at all costs" by pairing an ambitious KR with a quality or health metric.
- Example: If you have a KR to "Increase new user sign-ups by 50%," you might add a balancing KR like "Maintain new user activation rate at or above 30%."
What about milestones?
Some teams write milestones such as "Launch the new V2 data infrastructure to all customers" as Key Results. Wave Nine recommends against it: a launch is an action, and Key Results measure outcomes, not activities. Put the launch in your actions and measure what it should change instead, for example "Reduce average data query time from 3 seconds to 500 ms".
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