OKRs and Individual Performance Management (IPM) serve different purposes. When they’re blended incorrectly, OKRs lose their power. When they’re used together correctly, they reinforce each other.
This article explains how they differ—and how to use them together without breaking either system.
The core difference
OKRs are a business performance system
Individual Performance Management is a people evaluation system
They should inform each other—but not be the same thing.
How OKRs drive business performance
OKRs are designed to optimize organizational outcomes, not individual compensation.
They emphasize:
Focus: 3–5 OKRs per person or team, centered on top priorities
Alignment: Clear linkage to team, department, and company objectives
Transparency: Goals, progress, and check-ins are visible to everyone
Frequent tracking:
Quarterly goal setting
Weekly updates
Monthly checkpoints
Stretch: Ambitious goals meant to push performance, not guarantee perfection
OKRs work best when they encourage learning, adaptation, and honest reporting.
How individual performance management works
Individual performance systems are designed to:
Document all work completed
Support manager-to-employee feedback
Evaluate performance for compensation, promotions, and development
They typically involve:
Semi-annual or annual goals
Monthly 1:1s and updates
Private feedback between manager and employee
Goals designed to be fully achievable (often tied to incentives)
Why you shouldn’t tie OKRs directly to compensation
When OKRs are directly tied to pay or bonuses:
Teams sandbag goals
Stretch disappears
Transparency drops
Honest check-ins turn into status theater
This breaks the very behaviors OKRs are meant to create.
The recommended approach
Most high-performing companies (including Google, Slack, Microsoft, and others) follow a clear pattern:
Maintain your existing individual performance management process
Decouple performance reviews from the business OKR cadence
Use OKRs as one input into performance discussions—not the be-all and end-all.
OKRs provide valuable signal:
What outcomes someone owned
How they navigated tradeoffs
How they handled risk, blockers, and learning
But they should never be the sole determinant of individual performance ratings.
How Brev supports this model
Brev is designed to:
Keep OKRs focused on business outcomes
Encourage stretch, transparency, and frequent updates
Preserve clean separation from formal performance reviews
Provide rich context that managers can reference during evaluations
Success check: OKRs drive focus, alignment, and execution—while performance reviews remain fair, thoughtful, and human.
More questions?
As always, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] with any questions or directly chat with us in the Brev app.