Notion's flexible database structure makes it an ideal workspace for setting and tracking OKRs without switching between tools. With proper setup, you can create interconnected views, automate progress calculations, and maintain alignment across your entire product organization.
Why Notion
Notion works exceptionally well for OKR management because it combines database functionality with relation features that mirror how goals interconnect. Unlike spreadsheets, Notion allows you to create multiple views of the same data, filter by team or quarter, and embed progress tracking directly into your workflows. The lack of licensing complexity and tight integration with your existing documentation means your team already has access, reducing adoption friction.
Most importantly, Notion's flexibility allows you to customize the exact structure your organization needs. Whether you're running a simple three-tier goal hierarchy or managing complex dependencies across teams, you can adjust properties, formulas, and relations without rebuilding from scratch. This adaptability matters because OKR structures vary significantly between startups, scale-ups, and enterprises.
Step-by-Step Guide
1. Create Your Main Database
Start by opening Notion and creating a new full page database. Click the "Add a page" button in your sidebar, select "Database," then choose "Table." Name this database "OKRs" at the top of the page. This becomes your central repository for all objectives and key results.
In your new table, you'll see a default "Name" column. Keep this column but rename it to "Title" for clarity. Now add the following properties by clicking the "+" button at the right edge of your table header:
- Type (Select): Create two options: "Objective" and "Key Result"
- Quarter (Select): Add "Q1 2024," "Q2 2024," "Q3 2024," "Q4 2024," and future quarters
- Owner (Person): Assign individuals responsible for each goal
- Status (Select): Create options like "Not Started," "In Progress," "At Risk," "Complete," and "On Hold"
- Progress (Number): Track completion percentage from 0-100
- Target Date (Date): Set the deadline for this OKR
- Parent Goal (Relation): Links to the parent objective for key results
2. Set Up Relation and Rollup Properties
Relations allow you to connect key results to their parent objectives, creating a hierarchical structure. After creating the "Parent Goal" relation property in Step 1, Notion automatically creates a reciprocal "Child Key Results" property on objectives.
To make parent-child relationships more useful, add a Rollup property called "Combined Progress." Click the "+" button, select "Rollup," then choose the "Child Key Results" relation you just created. Set it to calculate the "avg" (average) of the "Progress" property. This automatically shows the average completion rate of all key results tied to an objective, giving you at-a-glance status visibility.
Additionally, create another Rollup property called "Total Child Count" that counts all child key results using "count" as the calculation method. This helps you track how many KRs support each objective.
3. Create Team and Quarterly Views
Your main table view shows everything, which becomes overwhelming quickly. Create filtered views for different stakeholder needs. Click "Add a view" button next to your table name and select "Table" to create a new view.
Name your first new view "Engineering OKRs" and add a filter where Owner equals your engineering lead or team. Create similar views for "Product OKRs," "Design OKRs," and any other teams setting goals. Each team lead can focus on their view during their own planning sessions.
Create a second set of views filtered by quarter: "Q1 2024 OKRs," "Q2 2024 OKRs," etc. Add a filter where Quarter equals the specific quarter you selected. These temporal views help you focus planning on the current and upcoming quarter without historical OKRs cluttering your workspace.
4. Configure Status Tracking
Status tracking keeps stakeholders informed of goal health without constant manual updates. In your main OKRs table, add a Formula property called "Status Color" that returns a colored badge based on your Progress number. Use this formula:
if(prop("Progress") >= 80, "🟢 On Track", if(prop("Progress") >= 50, "🟡 At Risk", "🔴 Off Track"))
This provides instant visual feedback: objectives above 80% show green, between 50-80% show yellow, and below 50% show red. Product managers can quickly scan their quarterly view to identify which goals need attention.
Add another column called "Days Until Due" using a Date formula to show countdown to target dates:
dateBetween(prop("Target Date"), now(), "days")
This helps prioritize focus when multiple goals approach their deadlines.
5. Build a Dashboard for Stakeholder Reporting
Create a new page called "OKR Dashboard" that executives and stakeholders check for progress updates. Within this page, add several database views using the "/database" command to embed filtered views.
First, embed your "Q4 2024 OKRs" view showing only objectives (filter where Type equals "Objective"). Below that, add a second embedded view showing key results filtered by Status equals "At Risk" to highlight areas needing immediate attention. Add a final section showing "Completed OKRs" filtered by Status equals "Complete" to celebrate wins.
Use database properties to show counts. Add a button-style property that shows key metrics: total active OKRs, average progress percentage across all active goals, and count of at-risk items. This gives executives a one-page health check without digging through detailed data.
6. Create Check-in and Update Templates
Consistent progress tracking requires structured update processes. Create a new database called "Weekly OKR Check-ins" to capture progress snapshots. Add these properties:
- OKR (Relation): Links back to your main OKRs database
- Check-in Date (Date): When this update was recorded
- Progress Update (Number): Current progress percentage
- Notes (Text): Blockers, wins, or context changes
- Confidence (Select): Options like "Very Confident," "Somewhat Confident," "At Risk," "Off Track"
Link each check-in to the related OKR. This creates an audit trail showing how progress evolved week to week, helping you identify if goals were unrealistic or if execution faltered.
7. Set Up Quarterly Planning Template
Create a database called "Quarterly Planning Template" that helps structure the goal-setting process itself. This separates planning work from the final OKRs database.
Add properties for:
- Draft Objective (Text): The goal being considered
- Key Results (Text): Proposed metrics
- Confidence (Select): How confident the team feels about this goal
- Team (Select): Which team owns this goal
- Strategic Pillar (Select): Link to your company strategy pillars
- Dependencies (Text): Other teams or goals this relies on
Once planning is complete and approved, transfer finalized OKRs into your main OKRs database. This keeps planning messy work separate from clean execution tracking.
8. Enable Database Syncing Across Workspaces
If your organization uses multiple Notion workspaces, you may need goal alignment across them. Create a "Company OKRs" database in a shared workspace that syncs with team-specific databases. Use Notion's "Synced Database" feature by opening your shared workspace and selecting "Synced" when creating the database view.
Individual teams maintain their detailed work in their own databases, while a roll-up view in the company workspace shows how all teams' goals interconnect. This prevents duplicate data entry while maintaining visibility of dependencies across the organization.
Pro Tips
- Use database templates for recurring entries. When creating check-in entries in your Weekly OKR Check-ins database, set up a default template that auto-populates the current week's date and links to your active OKRs. Right-click any database entry and select "Use as template" to streamline weekly updates.
- Create a "Goal Dependencies" view mapping which OKRs depend on others. Add a multi-select property called "Blocks" that identifies which other OKRs depend on this one. Filter views by this property to understand bottlenecks. This prevents teams from setting conflicting or interdependent goals without knowing it.
- Archive completed OKRs rather than deleting them. Create an "Archive" property with a checkbox. Filter your active views to exclude archived items. This preserves your goal history for retrospectives, allowing you to track which types of goals consistently deliver value and which consistently miss.
- Connect OKRs to your project management database if you use Notion for tasks. Use Relations to connect OKRs to Projects or Epics in your work database. This creates transparency into whether active execution work actually supports your stated strategic goals.
- Set up a monthly Executive Review page with embedded snapshots. Create a simple page template duplicated monthly that embeds your current quarter's OKRs view, at-risk items, and check-in notes. This becomes your standing meeting agenda without recreating reports each month.
When to Upgrade to a Dedicated Tool
As your organization scales, Notion's limitations become apparent. If you're managing OKRs across 50+ people, have complex cascading goals from company to team to individual level, or need real-time collaboration with sophisticated permission controls, consider a dedicated tool.
Purpose-built OKR software like 15Five, Ally, or Gtmhub provide features Notion cannot: automatic goal cascade templates that create team OKRs from company objectives, sophisticated permission hierarchies preventing lower-level goal visibility to executives, and integration with performance management systems. These tools also handle goal history and comparative analysis across years more elegantly than Notion's database design allows.
Notion remains effective if you have fewer than 30 people setting OKRs, keep goal hierarchies to two levels, or use OKRs informally for product team alignment rather than company-wide strategy. If you outgrow Notion, exporting your data is straightforward, making it a low-risk starting point.