Adding more flexibility to Jira OKRs with Custom Fields

[Margo Sakova - OKR Board for Jira by Oboard]

Hi everyone!

OKRs have never been "one size fits all" — each company puts its own spin on them. This is even more true for OKRs in Jira, where setups may vary wildly. In the newest update for OKR Board for Jira, we give you options to reflect this diversity.

Introducing Custom Fields — the best way to tailor your OKRs setup to your needs!

Quick note about Oboard:

Oboard is a Gold Atlassian Marketplace Partner and the developer of the OKR Board for Jira add-on. The plugin has 3,100+ installs and a 3.9 out of 4 rating – the highest on the marketplace among OKR apps. It’s also free for up to 10 Jira users.

Custom OKR Fields in Oboard OKR App

Each unique Jira project successfully utilizes the power of Jira Custom Fields. A similar way goes with the OKRs, since no two organizations have the same approach to the Objectives and Key Results. OKRs are all about data and your decisions based on that data, so quite often, more than the default data set is needed.

That’s why we’ve added custom fields that everyone can adjust the way they want. To do this, go to “Settings” inside the Oboard app, press “Custom fields” and create the custom fields you need.



Here are some examples of the field types and use cases for them:

• Single-line text. Use it for a short comment or a note. 
• Long text. Add an important insight you want to share.

• Link. Attach reference materials like a Confluence page or a strategy document.

• Assignee. Aside from the OKR owner, add specific assignees from the teams involved. Perfect for cross-department OKRs with multiple responsible team members.

• Date. Add an extra date. For example, a deadline for the project that is blocking the current OKR.

• Single-select. Categorize your OKRs — for example, separate them into Educational, Aspirational, and Committed to establish progress expectations. Or use T-shirt sizes to evaluate the OKRs the same way as Jira Issues, estimating how much effort OKR requires. Or add an option to replicate Jira’s dependencies approach and, for instance, mark KRs that block your progress as Blockers.

• Multi-select. Attach multiple tags to the same OKR. Sometimes one is not enough.

• Number. Predict the progress or assign the priority of each Key Result.

• Money. Establish the budget, assign value to the product, forecast profits — possibilities are endless here.
  
  

Here is what it may look like inside Oboard:

Custom Fields are also a useful tool you can use for filtering your OKRs.

Let’s say, we want to see blockers-only. Just go “+ More” and select the dependency type “blocker”. You can also export the result as a .xlsx file if you want to share it externally.

Hope you’ve found this post useful.

If you want to learn more about how to get started with OKR Board for Jira, check out some of our guides:

• Help Center OKR Board for Jira
• Quick Start Guide for Users on Youtube
• Quick Start Guide for Admins on YouTube

I’m also curious, what other custom fields are necessary for OKRs, in your opinion?

Would love to discuss it in the comments!

[Bijay Duwal]

it is good one.

[Margo Sakova - OKR Board for Jira by Oboard]

Thank you, @Bijay Duwal

We aimed to give users the freedom to do all the customizations they need, and in the end - help them achieve greater success with their OKRs!