I used to think OKRs were a bit like company values: something teams would set, file away, and rarely revisit. Basically, the business version of that gym membership you signed up for but never used… 

That changed when I worked at companies that really knew how to use them. Turns out, OKRs aren’t just another tick-box activity — they’re a strategic way to take a long-term vision and turn it into step-by-step action. I’d just never seen them done well before.

Now, I see OKRs as a framework I’d recommend to any company: they help sharpen focus, align teams, and turn strategy into something actionable. I use them not as an extra layer of work, but as a tool to create clarity, collaboration, and real impact. Think of them as the long-term benefits from using the gym (even when abs don’t magically appear after a couple of workouts).

This article was inspired by a recent workshop I hosted on OKRs and KPIs for subscription apps, alongside Rosie Hoggmascall (Author of Growth Dives and Growth Lead at Fyxer.ai) and Hanna Grevelius (Chief Product Officer at Bruce Studios, ex-Golf Gamebook, Fishbrain). We’ll unpack their practical insights — from setting the right KPIs to avoiding common OKR pitfalls — so you can move from chasing data to using it strategically to drive impact.

What are OKRs vs. KPIs?

Before diving into the practicalities, it’s important to understand how OKRs and KPIs fit into the bigger picture. Let’s look at it from the top down:

  1. At the very top sits your company’s vision: the ‘why’ behind what you do and where you’re headed. 
  2. Many companies also define a North Star metric (NSM): the single most critical measure that stays steady over time and keeps everyone focused on that vision.
  3. While vision gives you direction, it doesn’t tell you how to get there. Strategy lays out the long-term approach, often spanning years. But it can feel a bit abstract… 
  4. This is where OKRs shine: they break that big-picture strategy into clear, manageable steps — outlining what needs to be achieved and why.

OKR stands for objectives and key results:

  • Objective is the directional goal you want to achieve e.g. “improve the user experience”. 
  • Key results (KRs) are the measurable outcomes that tell you whether you’re making progress toward that objective — they define the KPIs (key performance Indicators) you’ll track.

On its own, an objective without clear key results is just a vague New Year’s resolution. Particularly for a subscription app, KPIs are the quantitative measures of success; think metrics like churn rate, monthly recurring revenue, user engagement, or activation rate. These numbers make it clear whether your efforts are making a difference.

Once your key results and KPIs are defined, you can plan various initiatives and experiments aimed at achieving them, turning strategy into actionable steps.

Here’s where it gets a bit more nuanced: not every KPI is tied to an OKR. The KPIs you use in OKRs are directly linked to key results — they are quantitative, time-bound, and aligned with your strategy, representing the metrics you’re actively trying to improve.

Alongside these, you’ll often track health KPIs: metrics you monitor to ensure your broader strategy stays on track while pursuing specific objectives.

For example, if your focus this quarter is acquisition and activation, your goals might be to increase new paying subscribers and improve trial-to-paid conversion rates. At the same time, you’ll want to keep an eye on metrics like first-to-second month renewal rate to make sure you’re attracting quality users. An often-overlooked health metric is refund rate, which can highlight whether expectations aren’t being managed properly as you scale acquisition.

Let’s hope I didn’t overload your brain with all that. Now, we’ll cover how to work out your OKRs and KPIs. Even if you already have KPIs in place, revisiting these steps can help ensure you’re tracking the right metrics. So grab another cup of coffee — we’ve diving in!

Step 1: determine your North Star metric

You can’t set effective OKRs until you know your North Star metric, aka the single metric that best reflects how you deliver value to customers and capture value as a business. This metric remains consistent over time and guides all your actions. Once you have it, you can work backward to identify the KPIs that matter most and influence your NSM.

For example, Spotify’s NSM is minutes listened, which is influenced by KPIs like the number of sessions and minutes per session — metrics they likely monitor regularly.

Here are five strong examples of North Star metrics for subscription apps:

  • Active subscribers: keeps the focus on engagement and retention
  • Core usage metrics: measures the key action that drives value, like workouts completed or songs listened
  • Active users: useful for freemium models where engagement drives conversion
  • Net returning revenue: tracks revenue growth from existing subscribers
  • Realized LTV per paying customer: ensures acquisition stays profitable

What your NSM shouldn’t be is revenue. Using revenue as your NSM can incentivize short-term hacks, such as hiding cancellation options, aggressive discounting, or other tactics that don’t create genuine, long-term customer value. Your NSM should guide you toward building a product that truly delivers value to your users.

Step 2: identify the KPIs per step of your growth model

Once you have your North Star metric, you can start mapping out your growth funnel: what does your acquisition, activation, engagement, retention, and monetization flow look like, and which metrics matter at each stage?

From there, you can start mapping out your growth diagram: what does your funnel (and growth loops) look like, and what are the relevant metrics per stage of it? As Ryan Kotzebue, explains in his article on subscription metrics, subscription apps fundamentally revolve around two things: 

  1. Selling subscriptions (acquisition)
  2. Retaining subscribers (retention)

Layered on top of that is monetization, which ensures your app is sustainable. To track these effectively, you need KPIs for each stage of the funnel. The ‘best’ KPIs depend on your app, your growth drivers, and the actions relevant to your business. 

But before we get to that, I want to address one of the most common questions I get from startups: how do KPIs vary per growth stage?

KPIs per growth stage

At different stages, you’ll focus more or less on certain metrics:

Early stage:  you’re likely still figuring out which metrics matter. What does retention look like? What drives value for users? Which metrics identify your product-market fit, and what numbers help answer ‘can we get people to pay for this?’ 

  1. Scaling up: shift KPI focus toward engagement and retention to build long-term loyal customers and unlocks additional acquisition channels.
  2. Later stage: once you have a solid base, look more closely at monetization and efficiency, e.g.  how to increase ARPPU and unlock expansion revenue to reduce churn and grow lifetime value.

Pro tip

During early stage growth, depending on your model and funding, you may also need to consider unit economics or volume (e.g. a marketplace app). 

Metrics across all stages are important, but which ones you track as KPIs depends on which part of the customer journey you want to understand. 

Let’s look at some recommended (and less recommended) KPIs for each stage of the funnel. 

Acquisition KPIs

When it comes to acquisition, many teams start with the basics: cost of acquisition (CAC) or return on ad spend (ROAS). But the real question isn’t just what you’re spending — it’s whether you’re attracting profitable customers and earning enough per user to scale sustainably.

A common trap is relying on the LTV-to-CAC ratio. For subscription apps, this is a shaky metric: it’s lagging, unstable, and can easily give you a false sense of growth. 

Instead, focus on metrics that give you a clearer picture of customer profitability, such as:

  • Average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) at meaningful milestones (Day 0, Day 7, Day 30, Day 90, etc.)
  • Payback period: how long it takes for cohorts to recoup CAC 
  • Gross contribution after CAC: how much profit remains after acquisition costs at Month 3, 6, and 12

Many apps get distracted by platform metrics like cost per click or click-through rate. These have their place for channel optimization, but they won’t tell you whether you can scale profitably.

Another common misstep, as Hanna pointed out in our workshop, is focusing on total downloads. It’s an easy number to inflate with ad spend, but it rarely reflects real value. As she put it with a great analogy: “Being proud of downloads without engagement is like bragging about having lots of Tinder matches… but never actually going on dates.”

Activation KPIs

We’re looking at the percentage of acquired users who activate: 

  • Trial start: installs that start a trial
  • Trial-to-paid: trials that convert to paid
  • Download-to-paid: installs that convert to paid

These metrics reveal where drop-offs happen, and help pinpoint whether it’s due to fewer trials starting or lower trial conversion — which becomes even more relevant if you don’t offer a trial at all. 

Note: Some apps classify these metrics under acquisition, while others place them under activation; it often depends on team ownership and whether traffic quality is a major focus.

You’ll also want to track the aha! moment — the point when users first experience real value. You can experiment early on by measuring engagement with key features to find which best predict paying or retained users. For example, at Fishbrain, they let users upload a past catch immediately, reducing time-to-value and boosting activation.

Other useful signals:

  • Time to aha! moment
  • Onboarding completion rate
  • Plan type selected

Each of these metrics offer value as they can influence monetization later on. What’s less helpful is just counting total trials started — that often drives volume over quality and lower-value users.

Engagement KPIs

A common starting point is tracking daily, weekly, or monthly active users (DAU/WAU/MAU). But alone this doesn’t offer much insight. ‘Active’ shouldn’t mean simply opening the app; it should reflect meaningful use.

Many subscription apps also track stickiness by dividing DAU/MAU (or WAU/MAU for less frequent use cases). This helps you gauge how effectively your app builds user habits over time.

Other useful engagement metrics focus on feature usage, helping you understand which features are most valuable to users. One metric that’s often overemphasized, however, is session length — for most apps, it doesn’t necessarily reflect real value or meaningful use.

The goal with engagement KPIs is to identify metrics that:

  • Capture usage frequency and, where relevant, duration
  • Reflect a depth of interaction (beyond simply opening the app)
  • Provide early insights into retention and potentially an early warning of churn
  • Relate closely to monetization and conversion

Two additional metrics often tracked as health indicators are average rating (on iOS and Android), as well as, number of reviews. A sudden drop in ratings or review volume can highlight user experience issues. And if you’re focused on ASO, these are critical for growth and visibility.

Retention KPIs

Retention is one of the strongest indicators of long-term success, but how you measure it depends on your subscription model. Common retention periods include Day 1, 7, 30, 90, and 365, as well as the renewal rate percentage.

This is particularly critical for:

  • Monthly subscriptions: focus on the first-month renewal rate
  • Annual subscriptions: track renewal rate and first-year renewal rate

Keep in mind that retention metrics are often lagging indicators, which is why pairing them with engagement KPIs can give you earlier insights.

Another key metric is churn rate — split by voluntary (user-initiated cancelations) vs. involuntary (payment failures). This distinction helps you prioritize the right retention strategies.

Monetization KPIs

We’ve already touched on the challenges of using Lifetime Value (LTV) for acquisition. When it comes to monetization, the key metric is revenue per user. Generally, ARPPU (average revenue per paying user) — also referred to as Realized LTV per paying user — is a strong measure for tracking this over time and calculating your payback period.

While revenue itself isn’t a strong North Star metric, many apps track monthly recurring revenue (MRR) or net revenue retention (NRR), as they tie together retention, upsells, and downgrades. However, for OKRs specifically, these can be a bit too broad to drive focused action.

Another valuable metric, particularly for later-stage apps, is expansion revenue %, which tracks upsells, plan upgrades, and add-ons.

Finally, refund rates are often overlooked but can significantly erode your revenue if left unchecked, making them an important health KPI to monitor.

3. Bring your KPIs together and measure performance

Once you’ve selected your KPIs of choice, it’s time to bring them together. Rosie shared that she likes to take a super old-school approach (refreshing in an era obsessed with AI!) by drawing out the growth model by hand, then transferring it into a Google Sheet to track performance.

Next, she compares the metrics to relevant benchmarks — the State of Subscription Report 2025 is a great resource for this. A word of caution: benchmarks aren’t the be-all and end-all. They can vary widely across apps, so it’s also important to factor in historical data and common sense when deciding what’s realistic for your own app.

She then recommends color-coding metrics by performance; something I also do every quarter for the brands I work with.

  • Green: working well, not a focus point right now
  • Orange: working, but room for improvement
  • Red: needs improving

If you’re a startup, please don’t be disheartened by lots of red, as that’s completely normal! This is where strategy comes in. Take a step back (and another one), and ask yourself: which areas need the most improvement first, and which changes will have the biggest impact on the rest of your funnel?

When I’m debating which metric to focus on, I estimate the potential improvement this quarter then create a rough calculation of the impact that change could have over the coming year. This helps put different areas into perspective and narrow the focus. It’s a useful exercise to do individually or in small teams, then cross-compare calculations and assumptions.

Remember: OKRs are all about focus. Trying to include ten KPIs under one broad OKR that spans the entire funnel adds little value. It’s better to hone in on a few high-impact metrics that truly drive your objectives.

4. Finalize your OKRs

Now it’s time to start designing your OKRs. Remember: your objective is what you hope to achieve or change, while your key results use KPIs as precise measures of success. KRs represent outcomes that move you toward your objective, not a checklist of tasks or initiatives.

The way I think about it: you should be confident that if you hit your key results, you’ll achieve your objective. That level of certainty isn’t possible with a simple list of tasks.

For example, let’s say your OKR looks like this:

Objective: Increase the % of annual subscriptions

  • Key result 1: increase the % of new subscribers choosing annual over monthly by 20%
  • Key result 2: increase the number of upsells to annual by 15%

There are many initiatives you could test to achieve these KRs. Not all will work, but you can be confident that if more new and existing subscribers choose the annual option, it will positively impact monetization.

A less effective OKR would look like this:

Objective: increase the % of annual subscriptions

  • Key result 1: run five email campaigns promoting annual plans
  • Key result 2: add upsell emails into the onboarding flow
  • Key result 3: launch a paywall test where annual plans are the default
  • Key result 5: add a pop-up offering a one-off discount on annual plans

You could run all these initiatives and still fail to increase the % of annual subscriptions. That’s why key results need to be measurable outcomes, so you know whether you’re actually moving toward your objective. This also gives you the flexibility to pivot if your current approach isn’t driving results.

Shared objectives, separate KPIs

It’s important to align OKRs across teams, ideally at the company level, with multiple teams contributing through their own KPIs. This encourages collaboration and prevents an overflow of too many OKRs.

That said, make sure the KPIs aren’t competing. Hanna shared a great example: two key metrics Fishbrain tracked were ad revenue and subscription revenue. Focusing on both created conflicting goals, which led to misalignment instead of collaboration. So always double-check that your KPIs bring teams closer together rather than create competition.

OKRs should be challenging

When creating OKRs, involve your team and ask: will these really push us? OKRs aren’t meant to be fully achieved every quarter. A common benchmark of success is 0–1, with the goal of achieving an average of 0.6–0.7 across your main 3–5 OKRs. This ensures your goals are ambitious enough to drive meaningful progress.

5. Share your OKRs internally

This step really deserves its own focus because it’s so important. I once went on a work trip with most of our team to discuss a change in direction. We spent hours brainstorming, debating, and finalizing the OKRs for the upcoming quarter. I was excited to share them internally and happily presented them to the rest of the team.

Here’s the problem: the Head of Product hadn’t attended the optional work trip, so he missed all the context behind the OKRs. This was a double mistake on my part:

  1. Not involving a key stakeholder in finalizing and setting the OKRs
  2. Not telling the story behind why those OKRs were chosen, and taking people along on that journey

He ended up providing really valuable feedback, and ultimately he was fully onboard — but it was a tough conversation. He didn’t appreciate being skipped over and didn’t understand where this major shift had come from.

The takeaway: communicate the story behind your OKRs as clearly as the OKRs themselves. Rosie emphasizes that OKRs should be so clear that any team member could recite them without needing to look.

6. Build an OKR rhythm

OKRs need to be ingrained in your day-to-day work. While you set them quarterly, you should be reviewing relevant KPIs weekly, usually through dashboards, and reflecting on OKR progress each sprint.

At the end of the quarter, it’s time to score your OKRs. Some teams do this subjectively (how close did we get to achieving the objective?), while others score each key result from 0–1 based on progress relative to the starting point, and calculate the average. Make sure to celebrate achievements, even if you aren’t hitting 1s across the board — hitting 1s consistently usually means your OKRs were too easy.

OKRs become most powerful after a few quarters, as you develop a rhythm for working, reflecting, and learning what’s effective. Each quarter, review your KPIs to ensure they remain relevant. You may need to revise them during the quarter. Rosie’s advice is to use KPIs until they break, because as your app evolves, metrics that once mattered may need adjustment.

Mythbusters: KPI edition

Before including a KPI in your growth model or reviewing it, ask yourself:

1. Is it truthful?

As Rosie Hoggmascall put it in the webinar, truthful metrics drive value — they can’t be gamed or inflated artificially.

2. Is it simple to understand? 

Avoid overly complex metrics that are hard to explain or rarely used. Companies sometimes get distracted by clever, calculated metrics instead of focusing on clear, actionable ones.

3. Is it leading?

While lagging metrics like churn are important, they should be complemented with leading indicators. For example, average revenue per user after seven days can help predict improvements in lifetime value.

4. Can you trust the data?

A KPI is only as good as the data behind it. If teams doubt the accuracy of tracking, they’ll doubt the metric itself. Regularly audit your tracking setup.

5. Does it align teams?

KPIs should bring teams together, not create conflicting goals. For instance, measuring one team on trials started and another on trial-to-paid conversion can cause tension; driving more trials might hurt conversion quality.

These checks are essential whenever you add a KPI. Just because you can measure something doesn’t mean you should. Fewer, more meaningful KPIs will give you clearer signals, and you can always dig deeper when needed.

OKRs are a powerful tool… when used correctly

At their best, OKRs are much more than another quarterly to-do item or a set of forgotten slides. They translate your strategy into clear, measurable steps that everyone on your team understands and feels ownership of. KPIs keep you honest, showing whether your work is actually making a difference and whether you’re focusing on the right things.

For subscription apps, growth depends on balancing acquisition, activation, engagement, retention, and monetization — OKRs and KPIs provide the structure behind this balance. They allow you to zoom out on the big vision while zooming in on the metrics that prove progress.

If there’s one key takeaway: don’t drown yourself in data, and don’t get lost in vanity metrics. Be intentional:

  1. Choose a North Star metric that reflects value for both your business and your customers
  2. Build KPIs around the stages of your funnel
  3. Use OKRs to drive focus and collaboration each quarter

When approached this way, you’re not just tracking numbers for the sake of it (or dreading OKR check-ins like I once did). You’re making real progress toward your vision, staying connected to the bigger picture, and creating impact that compounds over time.