July 21, 2026
Contents
Share
key takeaways
OKRs break down at scale. Like other goal-setting systems, OKRs create hidden complexity that creeps in over time. Instead of creating organizational focus, it does the exact opposite.
WhyGos (“why-goes”) are an OKR alternative that takes the best parts of existing goal frameworks, and removes the worst.
WhyGos stand for Why, Goal, Outcome. Why this goal is a priority, what we are trying to achieve, how we measure success.
WhyGos are your top three strategic priorities for the year. They’re not a task list of every little thing the organization does throughout the year.
WhyGos are part of a broader business operating system called the Northstar OS. WhyGos are the goal-setting component of the system, which also includes operating clarity, operating rhythm and operating standards.
If you’re having problems with OKRs (objectives and key results), or business goals in general, then you’re in the right place. After using OKRs for years at the company I founded, Classy (acquired by GoFundMe in 2022), I wrote this post about the major pitfalls we found with the system. OKRs not only broke down as we scaled the business, they actually held us back in a variety of ways.
OKR alternatives do exist, but they have issues too. This post describes an alternative goal framework we created in response to the pain we experienced with OKRs and other systems. It takes the best parts from the OKR framework and leaves out the worst.
We started using OKRs when we were a tiny team of only ten people. There were problems from the start, but the system really started breaking down around 25 to 50 team members. When you get big enough to start forming proper functional teams (Product, Marketing, etc.), the risk of misalignment increases 10-fold.
So we created a different goal system called WhyGos (“why-goes”), as in:
WhyGos represent your company’s top priorities for the year. Once we rolled them out, it created immense focus across the business and the accountability needed to scale into the hundreds of millions in value. After we sold to GoFundMe in 2022, I started coaching other CEOs to help them scale with the same frameworks we used. In a few short years, the WhyGo goal setting system is now used by thousands of early stage startups and growth stage businesses around the world.
This article provides an overview of the WhyGo goal setting system and its similarities and differences to OKRs. My hope is that after reading this article you can easily implement WhyGos at your own company. So, let’s dive in…
As I boiled it down in my OKR pitfall article:
Objectives and Key Results are too prone to “goal sprawl”, which creates dangerous organizational complexity that creeps in over time. Eventually, the very system that’s supposed to help your team achieve ambitious goals, and create organizational focus, does the complete opposite. It breeds misalignment and administrative overhead that costs more than its worth.
If you’re familiar with OKRs, you might also be familiar with John Doerr’s book, Measure What Matters. Prior to the book, there was essentially zero guidance on how to best implement OKRs. But unfortunately, the book just raised more unanswered questions. Doerr’s version of OKRs is a “choose your own adventure” system, in the name of business agility, that simply confuses people when you roll it out.
If any of this sounds familiar to you, I think you’ll find WhyGos a very refreshing alternative to OKRs…
WhyGos take all the good from OKRs (and other goal frameworks like EOS Rocks and SMART Goals), cut out the bad, and add a slightly new spin. They will feel familiar, but (hopefully) better.
The main similarity between WhyGos and OKRs is the goal and outcome structure (or as OKRs call it, Objectives & Key Results). The goal is what we’re trying to achieve, and the measurable outcome(s) define what success looks like.
But the WhyGos add one important component to increase context and clarity – the why statement. This helps explain (in a few short sentences) why this goal was prioritized in the first place and how it ties into the overall strategy.
WhyGos should represent the very top business priorities, not every little thing the company does throughout the year. The system follows a strict 3×3 structure to force organizational clarity & focus. This means that the company can only have three (or less) clear goals, and three or less outcomes underneath each one. This limits “goal sprawl” like you see in so many companies that are using OKRs and EOS Rocks and creates crystal clear direction.
Here’s how you would write a WhyGo:
Goal: List the goal in ten words or less.
Why?: Explain why you chose this goal as one of the company’s three top priorities; in three sentences or less.
Outcomes:
Now let’s run through an example. Suppose that we’re running a B2B (business-to-business) software company that mostly services small and medium sized customers. But as part of our strategy, we plan to launch into the enterprise market this year and start servicing larger customers. Here’s what a WhyGo might look like for this strategic priority:
Our goal clearly and succinctly tells us what we are trying to achieve this year – launching into the Enterprise market. The three outcomes define what success looks like so you can determine, with 100% certainty, whether or not you achieved the goal at the end of the year. There should be no ambiguity. If all three outcomes are achieved, then the company goal should be achieved.
WhyGos are set annually across your fiscal year (typically Jan – Dec). The outcomes for these goals are then broken into quarterly and monthly targets to help you keep pace (usually tracked on a company dashboard).
We establish WhyGos at the company level first, then at the team and individual levels. This is somewhat similar to OKRs, where the WhyGos cascade throughout the organization. Here’s how it works:
But not every company needs all three levels on Day 1. Here’s a quick guide by team size:
Notice that the WhyGo system ensures companies only implement what they actually need at their current stage of growth. This helps the organization avoid too much structure, too soon.
If you’re a founder or CEO of a startup, I started Highland Community just for individuals like you who are scaling. You also get access to the same operating system I used when I built Classy.
As we talked about in the last section, WhyGos have a similar structure to OKRs (with the addition of the ‘why’ statement). But that’s really where the similarities end.
The biggest difference between the two is how the systems actually work in practice. OKRs give you vague guidance and complex ideas that are hard to implement. WhyGos give you clear, simple instructions your whole team can actually follow. That clarity makes a huge difference when you’re trying to run a fast-moving company.
Here are the key components of the WhyGo goal system, and the major differences versus OKRs:
With the WhyGo system, every team, at every level, gets no more than 3 goals per year. Each goal can have up to 3 measurable outcomes. That’s it. This forces brutal prioritization, which is exactly what a good goal system should do. WhyGos are NOT* meant to capture every little thing you work on during the year*. That’s a task list, not an effective goal system.
On the other hand, most OKR rollouts fail because people add too many objectives and too many key results. Teams usually end up with 5-10 objectives and 20-50 key results. This is insanely difficult to manage. And, certainly not a list of true priorities.
WhyGos force you to choose and set objectives more selectively. What matters most this year? What can actually move the needle? And just as important, what are you willing to say no to?
Most goal-setting systems – like OKRs, EOS Rocks or SMART goals – restart from scratch every quarter. This sounds agile, but in reality it’s an administrative nightmare. Quarterly OKRs means four goal-creation cycles per year at every level of the organization.
With the WhyGo system, you define goals annually, then break the outcomes into quarterly and monthly targets to keep track of progress throughout the year. If you’re on track with your monthly and quarterly targets, you’re on track with your annual WhyGos. It’s that simple.
WhyGos are not a task list. They are outcome-based. They focus on what you are trying to achieve, not exactly how the teams and individuals should go about achieving each goal. This empowers your team to adjust tactics throughout the year if things aren’t working, while preserving the pre-agreed upon outcome.
The OKR system tells you to set goals that are literally unachievable. Somewhere around 70% is considered a success. This is meant to stretch people, but OKRs often push ambitious goals too far into unrealistic territory and all it does is confuse them.
With WhyGos, on the other hand, we set challenging but realistic goals. Each WhyGo is designed to achieve ambitious goals in a 12-month period without making them unattainable. We always aim for 100% achievement of every goal and outcome.
Then how do you avoid sandbagging (i.e. making goals too easy)? WhyGos require sign off at each level. For example:
Everyone is accountable to someone. This eliminates sand bagging and aligns the WhyGo owner with the manager from day one. I call this review & approval process the “handshake”.
—
Unlike managing dozens of new OKRs every quarter, every WhyGo starts with a simple but powerful question: Why is this goal a top 3 priority?
Before anyone signs off on the goal, they have to write a short ‘why’ statement, two or three sentences that explain the strategic thinking behind the goal. Clear rationale that connects the goal to the level above. For company-level WhyGos, the why statement must align with the company’s strategy and longer term vision.
This single step does a lot of heavy lifting. It forces the goal-setter to pause and think: Is this really the most important thing right now? It also provides context to the broader team, so they don’t sit around wondering (or arguing) why this was a priority in the first place!
Sounds small, but this one addition ends up being a really big deal. From our earlier example, here’s the ‘why’ statement:
Why: We’ve attracted a lot of interest from Enterprise companies and we’re finally in a position to offer a great product & experience to this segment. We also expect it to be the most profitable segment for the company over the next several years..
—
This is going to sound crazy. But in the OKR system (at least according to Doerr), goals are supposed to flow top-down, bottom-up, sideways, and diagonally. You are encouraged to both “cascade” down and “ladder” up and across. That flexibility might sound attractive, but in practice, it’s anything but.
WhyGos take a more focused approach. Every goal – whether it’s at the team or individual level – must tie directly to one or more outcomes at the level above it. No exceptions. Since there are no WhyGos above the company level, the CEO must ensure that the company-level WhyGos align to the strategy & vision in their Northstar.
Here’s an example for “RallyCo” a (fictional) digital platform empowering organizers to mobilize political action:
When the manager is signing off on the WhyGos below them, they should be reviewing for alignment before they assess difficulty level. If the WhyGo isn’t aligned to the outcomes above it, it doesn’t matter how difficult it is.
—
OKRs come with different types of short term goals. Some are meant to be unachievable stretch goals, where hitting ~70% is considered a win. Then on the other hand, some OKRs require 100% goal achievement. This inconsistency leads to confusion on how to actually achieve goals across the organization.
On top of this, the ORKS scoring system is complex including raw scores, personal scores and weighted averages. It’s like taking a calculus class for no good reason.
With WhyGos, we throw away all the complexity and keep it stupid simple, unlike many OKR tools and OKR software that sound great, but only complicate things. At the end of every week, month and quarter we track progress, with regular check ins, using this simple grading scale:
Then, at the end of year, you give a final grade to each WhyGo to evaluate performance (and help with individual performance reviews).
That’s it. Simple, honest and easy to apply across the team.
—
OKR purists will say that goals shouldn’t be tied to compensation (so that people stretch themselves). But that never made sense to me. If goals are supposed to represent someone’s most important work, why wouldn’t you reward them on it? Compensating them on a different set of criteria seems like a total morale killer to me.
With WhyGos you can, and should, tie achievement directly to compensation. My preference is tying the WhyGos into a company-wide bonus plan. But you can also use the WhyGos as a proxy for merit increases, promotions, even stock grants. At bare minimum though, you should incorporate how seriously a person takes the WhyGo process into these compensation decisions. Everyone needs to buy-in and participate.
There’s no exact compensation formula that’s best for every organization. But unlike OKRs, WhyGos should be connected to compensation in some way shape or form.
At this point you should have a sense of how WhyGos present an alternative to OKRs. But how do you actually roll them out each year? Here’s a rough timeline that lays it out for you (note: this chart assumes you are on a calendar year).
So, to summarize, the WhyGo creation cycle typically starts in September (CEO draft) and ends at the end of January (finalizing individual goals). Then of course, you track your progress throughout the year to stay on course!
I typically recommend three publicly displayed dashboards (company, team, and individual). These dashboards are updated weekly and help track progress against WhyGos at the various levels of your organization. If your team is on the smaller side, you can combine all three into a single dashboard to track progress. Larger teams like to have separate dashboards for each team (which includes the individuals on that team). Then these roll up to the company dashboard that’s accessible to everyone.
WhyGos are part of a broader, complete system I developed called the Northstar Operating System (OS). Many have compared it to the entrepreneurial operating system (EOS), but better for higher growth and more ambitious organizations.
The Northstar OS is designed to help you scale by creating three things:
And the Northstar OS is tailored by team size. Smaller teams require less structure, and larger teams require a bit more. Either way, the Northstar OS helps you set the foundation for scale without compromising speed or quality. This adaptable design is a fundamental difference between the Northstar OS and other business operating systems like OKRs and EOS.
I now coach hundreds of founders and CEOs on the Northstar OS through Highland. If you are interested in learning it too, just reach out and we’ll connect.
In the meantime, I hope you found this article valuable and have a better understanding of how the WhyGo framework can help your team stay focused and kick some ass each and every year!
Every week I tackle management, operations & startup topics that are helping 300,000+ people become better leaders.
Written Weekly by Scot Chisholm
No thanks
