Manager OKRs, Maker OKRs: How Early Stage Startups Should Think About Goal-Setting

Hunter Walk draws from his nine years at Google (36 quarterly OKRs and annual planning exercises, including working through YouTube OKRs with Larry and Sergey) to address how early-stage startups should adapt OKR frameworks. The core message is 'You're Not Yet Google, So Don't Blindly Mimic Their Processes'—while Google's quantitative goal-setting and stretch targets have scaled impressively since 2003, startups need different approaches. The framework distinguishes between Manager OKRs (appropriate for leadership coordination and strategic alignment) and Maker OKRs (individual contributor goals that may need different structures and timescales). Walk emphasizes understanding why Google's OKR system works for their scale and complexity before attempting to implement similar processes at smaller organizations. Early-stage startups should focus on the principles behind OKRs (measurable goals, regular check-ins, stretch targets) rather than copying the exact quarterly structure that works for large organizations. Engineering leaders will learn to adapt goal-setting frameworks to their current organizational stage rather than implementing processes designed for companies 100x their size.