Hey Dino, thanks for the kind words!

Asynchronous OKR writing certainly has some advantages (said as one of those people who likes extra time to digest) but in most cases I think you’re better off doing the actual OKR writing together. In my experience, the longer people have to polish an idea the more attached to it they become. Scribbling the idea at post-it level, debating it, and then refining it as a group seems to yield more aligned, better bought in teams.

For objectives, I keep the solo work timebox tight (4 minutes) because it stops people from digging too deeply. We almost always know what the most valuable work is so having extra time only adds more options and more confusion. For key results, it’s the reverse. Getting to great key results usually requires working through a bunch of mediocre ones first and extra brainstorming time helps people do that. Also, keep in mind that the 4 minute limit only applies to coming up with ideas individually, debating those ideas can take as long as it needs to.

With all that said, if your team prefers asynchronous drafting and debating then go for it! Having great OKRs matters a lot more than the specific path you take to get there.