Lisa Guan's Innovation World

An imbalanced OKR is one that overemphasizes a single aspect — like ambition, numbers, or outputs — while neglecting others such as quality, clarity, or outcomes.

On paper, it looks impressive. In practice, it fails — because it drives activity without alignment, motivation, or sustainable impact. I have introduced the imbalanced OKR in my article “Imbalanced OKRs: The Hidden Trap That Derails Your Goals“. Today, let’s dive into about one that’s surprisingly common (and deceptively positive):
All Outputs, No Outcomes.

When “Done” Doesn’t Mean “Effective”

Here’s a familiar example.

Objective:	Ship an AI chatbot to support IT services.
Key Results:	-Complete chatbot development by the end of Q2 -Integrate with ServiceNow -Launch to all employees -Train the support staff

At first glance, the objective sounds clear and reasonable. It’s practical, technical, and easy to measure. Most teams would feel confident writing something like this. The key results looks neat and organized — like a well-planned project timeline. But here’s the catch: these are all outputs.

They describe what we’re building, what we’re launching, and what boxes we’ll tick — but not what difference it makes once it’s out in the world.

You could deliver every one of those Key Results on time, throw a launch party, and still have zero measurable business impact. Maybe employees don’t use the chatbot, maybe it doesn’t actually solve their issues, maybe it even adds confusion instead of clarity. In that case, the project is technically done — but no value has been delivered.

This is the trap of output-driven OKRs: they create the appearance of success without ensuring that the work actually changes anything for users or the business.

The Hidden Cost: Activity Theater

This kind of OKR problem often creeps in unnoticed, especially in high-performing teams that take pride in execution.

The meetings are filled with updates. The dashboards show “on track.” There’s progress everywhere you look — but the outcomes that matter most are still flat.

This is what I call activity theater — a stage full of action, but with no real story.

Teams get busy delivering deliverables instead of delivering outcomes. They mistake motion for momentum, and effort for effectiveness. It’s easy to do, especially when organizational culture rewards visible activity more than invisible impact.

But over time, this creates fatigue. Teams lose motivation when they realize all their hard work doesn’t seem to make a difference. Stakeholders lose confidence when they see things being launched but not loved. And leaders end up with a portfolio of “completed projects” that don’t move the needle.

That’s why shifting from output-thinking to outcome-thinking isn’t just semantics — it’s a mindset change that determines whether your OKRs will actually drive transformation or just track activity.

The Fix: Separate the “Why” from the “How”

So how do we fix this?

It starts with a simple but powerful discipline: separating the “why” from the “how.”

• The Objective is about the why — the meaningful change we want to see. It should express the intent behind the work, not the task itself.
• The Key Results are about the how — how we’ll know that change has happened, and how we’ll measure progress toward it.

When we confuse the two, we end up writing OKRs that sound busy but lack direction.
When we separate them, we unlock clarity, alignment, and motivation.

Once you make this shift, your OKRs stop being a checklist of things to build — and start becoming a compass for value creation.

Let’s look at an improved version of our earlier example:

	Before	After
Objective	Ship an AI chatbot to support IT services.	Improve IT service experience and efficiency through an AI chatbot.
Key Result	-Complete chatbot development by the end of Q2 -Integrate with ServiceNow -Launch to all employees -Train the support staff	Release AI chatbot and integrated with ServiceNow by the end of Q2 40% of users adopt chatbot within 3 months. Reduce support tickets by 20% by the end of the 3rd month.

With the new OKR, we’re not just building a chatbot — we’re improving an experience. That’s the why. It gives the team a sense of purpose and direction. And the Key Results reflect that focus on impact.

The first OKR would stop at “We launched it.” The left one goes further and asks, “Did it work? Did it make things better?” That single shift completely changes how teams behave. Instead of optimizing for speed, they start optimizing for value, design with empathy, test with real users, iterate based on feedback. Because now, success isn’t about what they built, but why it matters.

Done ≠ Effective

Here’s a simple truth every team should internalize:

If your OKR ends at ‘We launched it,’ you’ve stopped one step too soon.

When “done” becomes the finish line, you lose the feedback loop that tells you whether the work had the intended effect. And once that happens, OKRs stop driving learning — they start reinforcing inertia.

From Busy to Better

“All Outputs, No Outcomes” OKRs are easy to fall into because they feel productive. The tasks are tangible. The milestones are visible. It’s comforting to measure progress by what’s been completed.

But true performance — and true transformation — come from connecting what we deliver to what we change.

When teams start thinking in outcomes, the conversation shifts. Meetings sound different. Instead of “How close are we to finishing the chatbot?” people ask, “Are employees solving their issues faster?”

That’s when you know your OKRs are doing their job — not just tracking work, but shaping meaningful progress.