OKR Certification: Leadership and Goal Setting (Coursera)

Offered by Measure What Matters,
OKR Certification: Leadership and Goal Setting (Coursera)

“Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” -John Doerr. In this one-of-a-kind OKR Certification, John Doerr builds on his New York Times best-selling book, Measure What Matters. The chairman of the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) can lead to exponential growth.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

This simple yet often misunderstood framework can help any organization thrive through meaningful, ambitious goal setting.
After taking the course, you will be able to use the OKR system to:

  • clearly define and communicate your most important priorities;
  • align everyone's goals, from entry level to the CEO;
  • guarantee a commitment to excellence throughout the organization;
  • definitively track and measure progress for transparent accountability;
  • stretch for ambitious, amazing achievements;
  • implement a robust OKR practice within an organization.

You’ll learn from real-world examples on how to turn strategies into action plans. You’ll unlock the power of the business community’s goal-setting system of choice. You’ll learn to write effective OKRs, and how to roll out the system within an organization.
Ever since they were introduced at Intel by iconic CEO Andy Grove in the 1970s, OKRs have engineered the success of some of the world’s most innovative businesses. John Doerr learned the method from Grove during his time at Intel and famously taught it to founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google, one of his standout investments.
Doerr has continued to refine the system as he passes it on to the founders of his investment portfolio companies at Kleiner Perkins, where he serves as chairman. For the first time, he has gathered his wealth of experience and knowledge into a single educational program.
This course is presented by John Doerr and Kleiner Perkins technical advisor Ryan Panchadsaram, former Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States.

What You Will Learn

  • Understand and write Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
  • Clearly communicate strategy and top priorities to your organization.
  • Effectively align goals with initiatives across an entire organization.
  • Implement an OKR program at your organization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Introduction to OKRs
In this introduction to OKRs, you will learn the basic definition and construction of OKRs.

WEEK 2
Using OKRs within an Organization
In this module, you will learn how to OKRs function within an organization. Discover how OKRs can align many teams to the most important priorities at the top and how to adjust the system to meet your organizational structure and needs.

WEEK 3
CFRs and the Work of an OKR Cycle
In this module, you'll learn how to effectively communicate about your organization's top priorities using CFRs (Conversation, Feedback, Recognition). You'll also understand the components of a full OKR cycle, including tracking, grading, and setting up for the next cycle.

WEEK 4
Improving Your "Goal Setting Muscle"
In this module, we'll cover advanced OKR topics, including strategies for the most effective approaches to OKRs and solutions to the most common OKR stumbling blocks.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Essential Skills for Your Career Development (Coursera) Coursera
University of Leeds

Essential Skills for Your Career Development (Coursera)

Explore professional career development methods to get your career on track and achieve success. This course will help you learn skills for life that would enable you to take your career to the next level. Using planning tools, you’ll identify the right career path for you, establish achievable goals and learn how to achieve them.

Nov 16th 2026
2 Weeks
Generative AI for Leaders (Coursera) Coursera
Vanderbilt University

Generative AI for Leaders (Coursera)

Leaders are constantly seeking innovative tools to amplify their impact. Dive into the realm of Generative AI, a groundbreaking technology poised to redefine the leadership landscape more profoundly than the Internet itself. This course offers a comprehensive journey into understanding, applying, and mastering Generative AI as a robust tool to amplify leadership capabilities.

Nov 16th 2026
3 Weeks
Success with Integrity: Business Ethics Foundation (Coursera) Coursera
Coursera Instructor Network

Success with Integrity: Business Ethics Foundation (Coursera)

Businesses around the world are reckoning with the impact of their ethical, or unethical, behavior on their bottom line as consumers seek to align their customs with businesses sharing their ethical outlook. This is a stimulating course designed for beginner or intermediate learners who wish to deeply consider the role of ethics in the modern business environment.

Nov 16th 2026
1 Week
Leading Positive Change through Appreciative Inquiry (Coursera) Coursera
Case Western Reserve University

Leading Positive Change through Appreciative Inquiry (Coursera)

Appreciative Inquiry is a collaborative and constructive inquiry process that searches for everything that gives life to organizations, communities, and larger human systems when they are most alive, effective, creative and healthy in their interconnected ecology of relationships. To appreciate, quite simply, means to value and to recognize that which has value—it is a way of knowing and valuing the best in life. In the language of Positive Organizational Scholarship it means a research focus—a positive bias—seeking fresh understanding of dynamics described by words like excellence, thriving, abundance, resilience, or exceptional and life-giving.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Designing the Future of Work (Coursera) Coursera
UNSW Sydney - University of New South Wales

Designing the Future of Work (Coursera)

The workplace of tomorrow is an uncertain place. We live in a rapidly changing world, and design innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and big data are rapidly changing the fundamental nature of how we live and work. As these technologies continue to evolve at an exponential rate - it is becoming critical to understand their impact on contemporary work practices, and for businesses and employees to understand how to design a secure future amidst this disruption.

Nov 10th 2026
4 Weeks
Leadership Through Design Innovation (Coursera) Coursera
Northwestern University

Leadership Through Design Innovation (Coursera)

Today’s workplace calls for a new style of leadership to embolden and accelerate innovation. Design offers a novel way of discovering opportunities and bringing new approaches to life in ways that benefit all stakeholders. Learn how to engage with end users, effectively frame problems, identify potential solutions, and build prototypes to test assumptions and learn what works (and doesn’t). Then dive into a range of ways large and small to bring design innovation into your organization.

Nov 9th 2026
4 Weeks
Scaling operations: Linking strategy and execution (Coursera) Coursera
Northwestern University

Scaling operations: Linking strategy and execution (Coursera)

Over the past several decades, operations strategy has played an increasingly important role in business’ success. In this course, we will equip you with concepts and tools to build operations in a way that not only supports your competitive strategy, but also allows you to create new opportunities in the market place.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Giving 2.0: The MOOC (Coursera) Coursera
Stanford University

Giving 2.0: The MOOC (Coursera)

A philanthropist is anyone who gives anything — time, money, experience, skills, and networks — in any amount, to create a better world. This course will empower you to become a more effective philanthropist and make your giving more meaningful to both you and those you strive to help. Giving 2.0: The MOOC, is a Stanford University-sponsored online course intended to teach givers of all ages, backgrounds, incomes and experiences to give more effectively. Taught by social entrepreneur, philanthropist and bestselling author Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, Giving 2.0: The MOOC will teach you how to assess nonprofits, create a high-impact philanthropic strategy, volunteer more effectively, use existing, free technology for good and more.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Inclusive Leadership: The Power of Workplace Diversity (Coursera) Coursera
University of Colorado System

Inclusive Leadership: The Power of Workplace Diversity (Coursera)

This course will equip and empower you to be a highly inclusive leader. You will learn principles, perspectives and practices that help to reap the power of workplace diversity. Workplace diversity has expanded beyond traditional demographics such as gender, race, and ethnicity. Those categories always will matter. In today’s workplace, diversity also encompasses nationality, religious background, sexual orientation, age, ability, experience, and diversity of thought, among other characteristics. Leaders will need to consider all of these aspects of diversity – among all stakeholders. That includes current and prospective employees, customers, clients , students, peers, and anyone else with whom a leader interacts.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Managing the Company of the Future (Coursera) Coursera
University of London,London Business School

Managing the Company of the Future (Coursera)

The aim of the course is to provide you with a comprehensive framework for understanding both the traditional principles of management inside companies today as well as the alternative principles that are becoming increasingly important. It provides both theoretical and practical perspectives on the nature of management in today’s organisations.

Nov 9th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Planning for Teaching and Learning (Coursera) Coursera
Commonwealth Education Trust

Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Planning for Teaching and Learning (Coursera)

The Foundations of Teaching for Learning programme is for anyone who is teaching, or who would like to teach, in any subject and any context - be it at school, at home or in the workplace. With dynamic lessons taught by established and respected professionals from across the Commonwealth, this eight course programme will see you develop and strengthen your skills in teaching, professionalism, assessment, and more. As you carry on through the programme, you will find yourself strengthening not only your skills, but your connection with colleagues across the globe. A professional development opportunity not to be missed.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Leadership in 21st Century Organizations (Coursera) Coursera
Copenhagen Business School

Leadership in 21st Century Organizations (Coursera)

Meet Jim Barton, the new CEO of Santa Monica Aerospace. Jim's job won't be easy: the company's hemorrhaging cash, struggling to regain investors' trust after an accounting scandal, and striving to transform its culture to become a more global competitor. In this course, you’ll travel with Jim as he takes on leadership challenges ranging from strategy execution, to inspiring people, to maintaining an ethical approach. Experts agree that twentieth-century leadership practices are inadequate for the stormy twenty-first-century present.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks