Aligning OKR across the company

This page applies to both OKR for Jira Cloud and Data Center.

Aligning OKR means unifying your company at every level and tying daily activities with the company’s vision. Everyone can then work together on the same business objectives, consistently.

There are three key ways to align OKRs:

Top-down alignment
Bottom-up alignment
Bi-directional alignment

On this page: 1 1. Top-down alignment 2 2. Bottom-up alignment 3 3. Bi-directional alignment 3.1 Example 4 Make alignment visible and actionable in Jira

On this page: 1 1. Top-down alignment 2 2. Bottom-up alignment 3 3. Bi-directional alignment 3.1 Example 4 Make alignment visible and actionable in Jira

1. Top-down alignment

In this traditional approach, high-level OKRs are set by leadership and cascade down through departments, teams, and individuals. This model works well in specific contexts, such as:

Newly established companies
Large, complex organizations
Teams that lack clarity on company direction
Times of crisis requiring unified focus

Advantages	Disadvantages

Advantages	Disadvantages
Goals are properly aligned with the company’s vision and mission Most employees are familiar with this style	Can be authoritative Employees feel disconnected

2. Bottom-up alignment

In this approach, goals are proposed by employees and teams, then rolled upward to inform company objectives. This is ideal for:

Smaller, more agile organizations
Teams that already understand the company’s growth strategy

Advantages	Disadvantages

Advantages	Disadvantages
Encourage employees’ commitment Goals set are realistic	Goals set may not be challenging and ambitious Goals set may not be aligned with company vision and mission

3. Bi-directional alignment

The most effective OKR alignment happens when top-down strategy meets bottom-up execution. In this hybrid approach:

Company leadership defines high-level strategic OKRs
Teams then set tactical OKRs that directly contribute to those objectives
Everyone sees how their work supports the bigger picture

This method empowers teams to create actionable goals while staying aligned with the company mission.

Example

Refer to the table below for an example of a bi-directional OKR alignment for a SaaS vendor:

CEO	Our strategic OKR is to build a software that customers love. How can each department help?
Dev Department Manager	Great! Our tactical OKR is to increase the NPS score from 7.5 to 8 by: developing 10 new features
Customer Success Department Manager	Awesome! My team can help to reduce customer response time < 24 hours by: deploying a self-serving product knowledge base
These managers will then collaborate with their team members to create action plans that can successfully accomplish those goals.

Make alignment visible and actionable in Jira

The key to proper OKR alignment is transparency, where everyone can see how they contribute to the company’s goals. Simple yet comprehensive Jira OKR management tools like OKR for Jira allow employees to clearly see how company objectives break down into team objectives and the status of each action plan or Jira issue.

To further align goals into daily tasks, OKR for Jira shows how each Jira issue affects the key results and objectives. With the right tooling, alignment isn’t just a strategy: it becomes part of your team’s daily workflow.