Tech’s love affair with OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) is well documented. They’ve transformed how product teams ship features and how sales teams hit targets. But for policy teams? It’s complicated.
The OKR Obsession
OKRs work brilliantly for measurable outcomes – user growth, revenue targets, or sprint velocity. The framework thrives on clear metrics and quarterly horizons. That’s perfect for tech’s rapid iteration cycles, less so for the measured pace of policy change.
Why Traditional OKRs Fall Short
Policy work often defies neat quarterly packaging. Try measuring the impact of relationship building with regulators or quantifying the value of averting regulatory risks before they materialise. Sometimes, your biggest policy wins are the crises that never happened.
The standard OKR approach can actually harm policy effectiveness:
- It incentivises short-term thinking in a field that demands long-term strategy
- It pushes teams toward easily measurable but less impactful activities
- It struggles to capture the nuanced stakeholder management that defines great policy work
Smarter Metrics for Policy Teams
But that doesn’t mean policy teams should abandon metrics altogether. The trick is borrowing intelligently from other disciplines.
The Marketing Playbook
Marketing teams cracked the code on measuring influence years ago. We’ve seen policy teams successfully adopt:
- MQL (Marketing Qualified Lead) frameworks for tracking regulatory engagement
- Content effectiveness metrics for policy publications
- Share of voice measurements in policy debates
One fintech’s policy team applied MQL metrics to their thought leadership campaign, tracking how policy content moved stakeholders from awareness to advocacy. Their regulatory consultations saw a 50% uptick in supportive responses.
The Sales Pipeline Approach
Policy campaigns, like sales deals, have stages. Leading teams are adapting sales pipeline metrics to track:
- Stakeholder journey from initial contact to policy support
- Conversion rates at key decision points
- Time-to-outcome for regulatory approvals
Finding Your Metrics Mix
The right approach combines:
- Long-term relationship metrics (stakeholder sentiment, access levels)
- Campaign metrics (policy position adoption rates, consultation outcomes)
- Risk metrics (regulatory issues avoided, compliance costs saved)
- Influence metrics (share of voice, thought leadership reach)
The Bottom Line
OKRs aren’t wrong for policy teams – they’re just insufficient. The best policy functions are building hybrid measurement frameworks that respect both the art and science of policy work.
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