How can CTOs work with OKRs?
CTOs can use OKRs like many other roles, teams, and companies, although it's slightly different for this exact role.
The specific responsibilities of a CTO can vary depending on the type, size, and nature of the company they're in, but some typical responsibilities include:
Setting the bar for the quality of technical work
Exploring and deciding on the implementation of new technologies into the stack
Leading and managing the engineering team
Act as the bridge between the technical side of the business and the non-technical stakeholders
Based on these responsibilities, the focus of the CTO could be on individual OKRs, but we advise against that.
Instead, we're fans of making sure that a CTO is closely tied to the teams inside the organization that have technical team members in them. If you're interested, click one of the company types above and see OKR examples for teams inside those types of companies.
Based on that, let's look at an OKR example that a CTO might be a part of.
CTO OKR example focused on efficiency
Objective: Improve the UX of our product up until the first aha!-moment
Key Result: Decrease app response times by 30% from avg. 200ms to 140ms.
As you can see, this example is focused on a team effort and not just the work of a single person. Decreasing response times in any technical product requires cross-functional effort.