Typical OKR Cycles

A typical OKR cycle is quarterly or half-yearly with more and more large companies moving towards a half-yearly cycle with mid cycle reviews.

Company A plans to have 3 levels of OKRs (Company, Team and Individual level) and its accounting year is January to December. Typical half-yearly performance summary cycle for Company A would like as:

1. 1-Nov to 15-Dec - 4 to 6 weeks of annual and 1st half (Jan-Jun) planning before the year begins by senior leaders to set company's direction for the next year.
2. 16-Dec to 31-Dec - 2 weeks of communication of Company level OKRs.
3. 1-Jan to 7-Jan - 1 week for teams or business units to set their OKRs and align them with the Company level OKRs.
4. 8-Jan to 15-Jan - 1 week for individual employees to set their OKRs and align them with the Team and or Company level OKRs.
5. 16-Jan to 31-Mar - 10 weeks window for weekly 1:1 meetings and monthly check-ins
6. 1-Apr to 7-Apr - 1 week for managers to do mid-cycle review and track progress
7. 8-Apr to 15-Jun - 9 weeks window for weekly 1:1 meetings and monthly check-ins
8. 16-Jun to 23-Jun - 1 week for end of cycle self-reviews and feedback to managers
9. 24-Jun-30-Jun - 1 week for scoring OKRs, assign performance ranking by managers
10. 1-Jul to 7-Jul - 1 week for calibration meetings between managers and skip-levels to finalize rankings.
11. 8-Jul to 15-Jul - 1 week for managers to have performance conversations with individual team members.