What are goal types?

Goal types give organization admins the flexibility to define and structure your goals to match your organization’s preferred framework and terminology. With the type system, goals are flexible enough to work with Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs), Big Rocks, or any other framework you choose.

Understanding goal types and related concepts

Goal types are tightly coupled with a few other concepts related to goals that work together to help you track your progress.

Success measures

Success measures, commonly named Key results (used with the Objective goal type) or Success metrics, offer a more robust way to track specific outcomes that contribute to a goal. A single goal can have up to 20 success measures, but 3-5 are often sufficient.

Success measures have their own page, owner, and updates (similar to goals) and link directly with metrics. Success measures can only be created and viewed from the goal’s Overview page.

Metrics

Metrics are specific measurements of data that your organization tracks, such as monthly active users (MAU), total quarterly revenue, etc.

Prior to goal types, goals could only be linked with 1 metric at a time and would link directly with the metric itself. But with goal types and success measure, you can now link goals to multiple metrics through its success measures. As a result, a goal’s overall progress is now determined by the metrics attached to each of its success measures instead of its sub-goals.

FAQs

What is the difference between a success measure and a key result?

Success measures and key results represent the same thing. Both describe clear, measurable outcomes that help you reach a higher-level objective. The only difference is the terminology - you can choose the terms that best fit your team’s framework and language.

Are there any best practices for using goal types and success measures?

Yes. Following the OKR methodology, we recommend setting high-level Objectives for the outcomes you want to achieve, and using Success measures to track clear, measurable results toward those outcomes.

How many success measures should I add to a goal?

You can add up to 20 success measures per goal. This higher limit gives your team flexibility, though most teams find 3–5 works best for clarity and focus. Some recommendations according to the OKR framework:

• Objectives are high-level, qualitative goals set for a time period (often quarterly). They’re designed to be ambitious and inspiring, with a typical target score around 0.7 out of 1 when achieved well.

• Key Results are specific, measurable outcomes that show progress toward your Objective. We recommend adding 3–5 clear, quantifiable key results per objective.

Does my organization have to use OKRs?

No. We’re updating our own terminology to better match how Atlassian uses OKRs.

If you’re already using Goals, you’ll continue seeing goals and success measures by default.

New organizations that adopt Goals will see objectives and key results by default, reflecting the most common approach in the market.

For any changes, contact your organization admin to update goal types for your organization.