# Strategy Types for OKR Generation

Comprehensive breakdown of the five core strategy types with objectives, key results, and when to use each.

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## Table of Contents

- [Strategy Selection Guide](#strategy-selection-guide)
- [Growth Strategy](#growth-strategy)
- [Retention Strategy](#retention-strategy)
- [Revenue Strategy](#revenue-strategy)
- [Innovation Strategy](#innovation-strategy)
- [Operational Strategy](#operational-strategy)
- [Multi-Strategy Combinations](#multi-strategy-combinations)

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## Strategy Selection Guide

### Decision Matrix

| If your priority is... | Primary Strategy | Secondary Strategy |
|------------------------|------------------|-------------------|
| Scaling user base | Growth | Retention |
| Reducing churn | Retention | Revenue |
| Increasing ARPU | Revenue | Retention |
| Market differentiation | Innovation | Growth |
| Improving efficiency | Operational | Revenue |
| New market entry | Growth | Innovation |

### Strategy by Company Stage

| Stage | Typical Priority | Rationale |
|-------|------------------|-----------|
| **Pre-PMF** | Innovation | Finding product-market fit |
| **Early Growth** | Growth | Scaling acquisition |
| **Growth** | Growth + Retention | Balancing acquisition with value |
| **Scale** | Revenue + Retention | Optimizing unit economics |
| **Mature** | Operational + Revenue | Efficiency and margins |

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## Growth Strategy

**Focus:** Accelerating user acquisition and market expansion

### When to Use

- User growth is primary company objective
- Product-market fit is validated
- Acquisition channels are scaling
- Ready to invest in growth loops

### Company-Level Objectives

| Objective | Key Results Template |
|-----------|---------------------|
| Accelerate user acquisition and market expansion | - Increase MAU from X to Y<br>- Achieve Z% MoM growth rate<br>- Expand to N new markets |
| Achieve product-market fit in new segments | - Reach X users in [segment]<br>- Achieve Y% activation rate<br>- Validate Z use cases |
| Build sustainable growth engine | - Reduce CAC by X%<br>- Improve viral coefficient to Y<br>- Increase organic share to Z% |

### Product-Level Cascade

| Product Objective | Supports | Key Results |
|-------------------|----------|-------------|
| Build viral product features | User acquisition | - Launch referral program (target: X referrals/user)<br>- Increase shareability by Y% |
| Optimize onboarding experience | Activation | - Improve activation rate from X% to Y%<br>- Reduce time-to-value by Z% |
| Create product-led growth loops | Sustainable growth | - Increase product-qualified leads by X%<br>- Improve trial-to-paid by Y% |

### Team-Level Examples

| Team | Focus Area | Sample KRs |
|------|------------|------------|
| Growth Team | Acquisition & activation | - Improve signup conversion by X%<br>- Launch Y experiments/week |
| Platform Team | Scale & reliability | - Support X concurrent users<br>- Maintain Y% uptime |
| Mobile Team | Mobile acquisition | - Increase mobile signups by X%<br>- Improve mobile activation by Y% |

### Key Metrics to Track

- Monthly Active Users (MAU)
- Growth rate (MoM, YoY)
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Activation rate
- Viral coefficient
- Channel efficiency

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## Retention Strategy

**Focus:** Creating lasting customer value and reducing churn

### When to Use

- Churn is above industry benchmark
- LTV/CAC needs improvement
- Product stickiness is low
- Expansion revenue is a priority

### Company-Level Objectives

| Objective | Key Results Template |
|-----------|---------------------|
| Create lasting customer value and loyalty | - Improve retention from X% to Y%<br>- Increase NPS from X to Y<br>- Reduce churn to below Z% |
| Deliver a superior user experience | - Achieve X% product stickiness<br>- Improve satisfaction to Y/10<br>- Reduce support tickets by Z% |
| Maximize customer lifetime value | - Increase LTV by X%<br>- Improve LTV/CAC ratio to Y<br>- Grow expansion revenue by Z% |

### Product-Level Cascade

| Product Objective | Supports | Key Results |
|-------------------|----------|-------------|
| Design sticky user experiences | Customer retention | - Increase DAU/MAU ratio from X to Y<br>- Improve weekly return rate by Z% |
| Build habit-forming features | Product stickiness | - Achieve X% feature adoption<br>- Increase sessions/user by Y |
| Create expansion opportunities | Lifetime value | - Launch N upsell touchpoints<br>- Improve upgrade rate by X% |

### Team-Level Examples

| Team | Focus Area | Sample KRs |
|------|------------|------------|
| Growth Team | Retention loops | - Improve D7 retention by X%<br>- Reduce first-week churn by Y% |
| Data Team | Churn prediction | - Build churn model (accuracy >X%)<br>- Identify Y at-risk signals |
| Platform Team | Reliability | - Reduce error rates by X%<br>- Improve load times by Y% |

### Key Metrics to Track

- Retention rates (D1, D7, D30, D90)
- Churn rate
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
- Feature stickiness
- Session frequency

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## Revenue Strategy

**Focus:** Driving sustainable revenue growth and monetization

### When to Use

- Company is focused on profitability
- Monetization needs optimization
- Pricing strategy is being revised
- Expansion revenue is priority

### Company-Level Objectives

| Objective | Key Results Template |
|-----------|---------------------|
| Drive sustainable revenue growth | - Grow ARR from $X to $Y<br>- Achieve Z% revenue growth rate<br>- Maintain X% gross margin |
| Optimize monetization strategy | - Increase ARPU by X%<br>- Improve pricing efficiency by Y%<br>- Launch Z new pricing tiers |
| Expand revenue per customer | - Grow expansion revenue by X%<br>- Reduce revenue churn to Y%<br>- Increase upsell rate by Z% |

### Product-Level Cascade

| Product Objective | Supports | Key Results |
|-------------------|----------|-------------|
| Optimize product monetization | Revenue growth | - Improve conversion to paid by X%<br>- Reduce free tier abuse by Y% |
| Build premium features | ARPU growth | - Launch N premium features<br>- Achieve X% premium adoption |
| Create value-based pricing alignment | Pricing efficiency | - Implement usage-based pricing<br>- Improve price-to-value ratio by X% |

### Team-Level Examples

| Team | Focus Area | Sample KRs |
|------|------------|------------|
| Growth Team | Conversion | - Improve trial-to-paid by X%<br>- Reduce time-to-upgrade by Y days |
| Platform Team | Usage metering | - Implement accurate usage tracking<br>- Support X billing scenarios |
| Data Team | Revenue analytics | - Build revenue forecasting model<br>- Identify Y expansion signals |

### Key Metrics to Track

- Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
- Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
- Gross margin
- Revenue churn (net and gross)
- Expansion revenue
- LTV/CAC ratio

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## Innovation Strategy

**Focus:** Building competitive advantage through product innovation

### When to Use

- Market is commoditizing
- Competitors are catching up
- New technology opportunity exists
- Company needs differentiation

### Company-Level Objectives

| Objective | Key Results Template |
|-----------|---------------------|
| Lead the market through product innovation | - Launch X breakthrough features<br>- Achieve Y% revenue from new products<br>- File Z patents/IP |
| Establish market leadership in [area] | - Become #1 in category for X<br>- Win Y analyst recognitions<br>- Achieve Z% awareness |
| Build sustainable competitive moat | - Reduce feature parity gap by X%<br>- Create Y unique capabilities<br>- Build Z switching barriers |

### Product-Level Cascade

| Product Objective | Supports | Key Results |
|-------------------|----------|-------------|
| Ship innovative features faster | Breakthrough innovation | - Reduce time-to-market by X%<br>- Launch Y experiments/quarter |
| Build unique technical capabilities | Competitive moat | - Develop X proprietary algorithms<br>- Achieve Y performance advantage |
| Create platform extensibility | Ecosystem advantage | - Launch N API endpoints<br>- Enable X third-party integrations |

### Team-Level Examples

| Team | Focus Area | Sample KRs |
|------|------------|------------|
| Platform Team | Core technology | - Build X new infrastructure capabilities<br>- Improve performance by Y% |
| Data Team | ML/AI innovation | - Deploy X ML models<br>- Improve prediction accuracy by Y% |
| Mobile Team | Mobile innovation | - Launch X mobile-first features<br>- Achieve Y% mobile parity |

### Key Metrics to Track

- Time-to-market
- Revenue from new products
- Feature uniqueness score
- Patent/IP filings
- Technology differentiation
- Innovation velocity

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## Operational Strategy

**Focus:** Improving efficiency and organizational excellence

### When to Use

- Scaling challenges are emerging
- Operational costs are high
- Team productivity needs improvement
- Quality issues are increasing

### Company-Level Objectives

| Objective | Key Results Template |
|-----------|---------------------|
| Improve organizational efficiency | - Improve velocity by X%<br>- Reduce cycle time to Y days<br>- Achieve Z% automation |
| Scale operations sustainably | - Support X users per engineer<br>- Reduce cost per transaction by Y%<br>- Improve operational leverage by Z% |
| Achieve operational excellence | - Reduce incidents by X%<br>- Improve team NPS to Y<br>- Achieve Z% on-time delivery |

### Product-Level Cascade

| Product Objective | Supports | Key Results |
|-------------------|----------|-------------|
| Improve product delivery efficiency | Velocity | - Reduce PR cycle time by X%<br>- Increase deployment frequency by Y% |
| Reduce operational toil | Automation | - Automate X% of manual processes<br>- Reduce on-call burden by Y% |
| Improve product quality | Excellence | - Reduce bugs by X%<br>- Improve test coverage to Y% |

### Team-Level Examples

| Team | Focus Area | Sample KRs |
|------|------------|------------|
| Platform Team | Infrastructure efficiency | - Reduce infrastructure costs by X%<br>- Improve deployment reliability to Y% |
| Data Team | Data operations | - Improve data pipeline reliability to X%<br>- Reduce data latency by Y% |
| All Teams | Process improvement | - Reduce meeting overhead by X%<br>- Improve sprint predictability to Y% |

### Key Metrics to Track

- Velocity (story points, throughput)
- Cycle time
- Deployment frequency
- Change failure rate
- Incident count and MTTR
- Team satisfaction (eNPS)

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## Multi-Strategy Combinations

### Common Pairings

| Primary | Secondary | Balanced Objectives |
|---------|-----------|---------------------|
| Growth + Retention | 60/40 | Grow while keeping users |
| Revenue + Retention | 50/50 | Monetize without churning |
| Innovation + Growth | 40/60 | Differentiate to acquire |
| Operational + Revenue | 50/50 | Efficiency for margins |

### Balanced OKR Set Example

**Mixed Growth + Retention Strategy:**

```
Company Objective 1: Accelerate user growth (Growth)
├── KR1: Increase MAU from 100K to 200K
├── KR2: Achieve 15% MoM growth rate
└── KR3: Reduce CAC by 20%

Company Objective 2: Improve user retention (Retention)
├── KR1: Improve D30 retention from 20% to 35%
├── KR2: Increase NPS from 40 to 55
└── KR3: Reduce churn to below 5%

Company Objective 3: Improve delivery efficiency (Operational)
├── KR1: Reduce cycle time by 30%
├── KR2: Achieve 95% on-time delivery
└── KR3: Improve team eNPS to 50
```

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## Strategy Selection Checklist

Before choosing a strategy:

- [ ] What is the company's #1 priority this quarter?
- [ ] What metrics is leadership being evaluated on?
- [ ] Where are the biggest gaps vs. competitors?
- [ ] What does customer feedback emphasize?
- [ ] What can we realistically move in 90 days?

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*See also: `okr_framework.md` for OKR writing best practices*
