OKRs are merely a mechanism for generating public commitment to goals. You get to have a bit of a say what those goals are, but fundamentally they're about holding your feet to the fire after you spent a quarter bullshitting on Reddit because nobody in the organization has a foggiest clue about what needs to be done.
Understand OKRs for what they are, and you'll be a much happier developer. Don't treat them too seriously, use them as a productivity mechanism _for yourself_. Now, even if nobody knows what needs to be done, you can refer to your (approved) OKRs and do _that_, whether it makes sense a month after the quarter started or not.
I don't know how it is now, but at e.g. Microsoft in the 00's you'd set your goals once a year. A month later those goals were completely irrelevant to what actually needs to be done. And Microsoft is objectively one of the most successful software companies in the world. Waterfall, agile, OKRs or yearly goals, it doesn't matter. The reality is always dictated by circumstances. What matters is that every single thing I worked on while there makes money now, and a couple make billions a year.
Understand OKRs for what they are, and you'll be a much happier developer. Don't treat them too seriously, use them as a productivity mechanism _for yourself_. Now, even if nobody knows what needs to be done, you can refer to your (approved) OKRs and do _that_, whether it makes sense a month after the quarter started or not.
I don't know how it is now, but at e.g. Microsoft in the 00's you'd set your goals once a year. A month later those goals were completely irrelevant to what actually needs to be done. And Microsoft is objectively one of the most successful software companies in the world. Waterfall, agile, OKRs or yearly goals, it doesn't matter. The reality is always dictated by circumstances. What matters is that every single thing I worked on while there makes money now, and a couple make billions a year.