SMART Goal and OKR Translator

"Get better at project management" cannot fail, which is why it cannot succeed either. This tool takes the goal you would say out loud, forces the five decisions you skipped, and then rewrites it as an objective with key results a team could actually check.

How to use this tool
  1. Type the goal the way you would say it to a friend. Do not clean it up first — the tool needs the vague version to compare against.
  2. Answer the five criteria questions. Short answers are fine; evasive ones are not.
  3. Read the sharpness score and the assembled rewrite. If the rewrite still sounds like the original, the answers were the problem, not the wording.
  4. Write one objective and up to three key results. A key result is a number that moves from a baseline to a target, not a task you tick off.
  5. Work through the flagged observations. They are computed from what you typed, so they change as you edit.

The test that matters: hand the rewrite to someone outside your team. If they cannot tell you whether you hit it, you have written an intention, not a goal.

Every control is a form field or a button. Nothing requires dragging or a mouse.

How this maps to Jira and similar trackers
HereJiraAsana / Linear / Atlas
ObjectiveEpic name, or an Initiative in Advanced RoadmapsGoal / Project brief
Key resultA numeric target tracked on a Goal, a saved filter count, or a dashboard gadgetGoal metric with a start and target value
DeadlineVersion / fixVersion and its release dateMilestone or target date
The work itselfStories and sub-tasks inside the epicTasks in the project
This week's sliceSprint goal — the one sentence at the top of the sprintCycle focus

Useful distinction to hear in a standup: an epic groups work by what it is, a version groups it by when it ships, and a sprint goal says what the next two weeks are for. An objective can span several epics and several versions; a key result usually outlives both.

Be sceptical when you get there. Plenty of teams run OKRs badly, and the usual failure is turning key results back into a task list — "ship the auth rewrite, ship the dashboard" — which restores the comfort of a checklist and loses the one thing OKRs add: a number that could come out disappointing. If every key result can be marked done by finishing work that was already on the board, you have a sprint backlog with a new heading. Teams also disagree about whether OKRs should be scored, whether 70 per cent is a healthy target, and whether individuals should have them at all. Ask which convention your team uses before you write yours.

Part 1 — Sharpen the goal

The goal as you would actually say it

Keep this. It is the control group. At the end you compare it against the rewrite to see whether anything really changed.

The five decisions the vague version skipped

What exactly will exist or change? Name the thing, not the activity.

What number tells you it happened? A count, a duration, a percentage, a rate — something a stranger could check without asking you.

What makes this possible with the time and resources you actually have — not the ones you wish you had?

What does this connect to that matters beyond the grade? Name the person or the downstream consequence.

By when? Pick a real date. "End of term" is a season, not a deadline.

Sharpness score and the rewrite

Nothing answered yet.

    The rewritten goal statement

    Vague words still in play

    Checked against the original and against the rewrite. Each of these words is a decision you have not made yet.

    Part 2 — Objective and key results

    The objective is the sentence you would say to explain why the quarter mattered — qualitative, memorable, no numbers. The key results carry the numbers. Leave a key result blank if you do not have three.

    Objective
    Key result 1

    Key result 2

    Key result 3

    Key result arithmetic

    Movement each key result is asking for, computed from the baseline and target you entered.
    Key result Baseline Target Change % change Outcome or activity

    Nothing entered yet. Start with the vague version of your goal.

    What this says

    Answer a few of the questions above and observations will appear here.

    Part 3 — From graded goals to negotiated outcomes

    A graded goal arrives pre-specified. Someone else wrote the rubric, published the weighting, and fixed the deadline; your job is to hit a target that already exists. Workplace outcomes rarely arrive that way. A manager says the release needs to feel faster, and nobody has defined faster, chosen a metric, or agreed what counts as done. The measure is usually yours to propose — and proposing it is most of the work, because whoever names the measure frames what success looks like.

    Two further differences bite. Grades are individual, while workplace outcomes are shared, so someone else's slipped task lowers your result. And rubrics are fixed, while outcomes get renegotiated mid-quarter when priorities move. Expect to write the rubric, then defend it.

    One more question

    Keep your work

    This tool remembers your work in this browser on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.

    Autosave is on.