Migrate from Jira Goals to OKR Studio
A complete guide to exporting your Atlassian Goals and re-creating them in OKR Studio for a dedicated OKR experience
Why Migrate from Jira Goals?
Jira Goals (part of Atlassian Home) is designed as a lightweight goal-tracking layer across Atlassian products. While it works well for linking goals to Jira epics, it lacks dedicated OKR workflows like structured check-ins, cycle management, evaluation scoring, and detailed key result tracking with multiple measurement types. If your team is ready for a purpose-built OKR platform, this guide walks you through extracting your goals from Jira and re-creating them in OKR Studio.
Important: Jira Goals Does Not Have a Built-in Export
Unlike Jira issues (which can be exported to CSV/Excel), Atlassian Goals does not offer a native export or download option. This means migration is a manual process that involves documenting your goals from the Goals app and entering them into OKR Studio. The steps below make this as efficient as possible.
For teams with a large number of goals, we recommend completing the migration over 2-3 sessions rather than trying to do everything at once.
Before You Start
Jira Goals uses a hierarchy that maps naturally to OKRs. Understanding this mapping upfront will speed up your migration:
| Jira Goals Concept | OKR Studio Equivalent | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal (top-level) | → | Objective |
| Sub-goal (Key Result type) | → | Key Result |
| Sub-goal (Objective type) | → | Child Objective (aligned) |
| Goal owner | → | Objective / KR owner |
| Target date | → | OKR Cycle end date |
| Status (On Track / At Risk / Off Track) | → | Check-in status |
| Goal score (0.0 – 1.0) | → | Key Result progress (0% – 100%) |
| Contributing teams | → | Team assignment |
| Linked Jira epics | → | Related work (reference in notes) |
| Monthly updates | → | Weekly check-in notes |
Step-by-Step Migration Guide
Since there is no export button, the first step is to create an inventory of your goals. Open the Atlassian Goals app and create a spreadsheet with the following columns:
| Goal Name | Type | Parent Goal | Owner | Status | Score | Target Date | Teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Increase ARR by 40% | Objective | — | Jane Smith | On Track | 0.6 | Mar 31 | Sales |
| Close 50 enterprise deals | Key Result | Increase ARR by 40% | John Doe | At Risk | 0.4 | Mar 31 | Sales |
How to gather this data:
Pro tip: Only migrate active and upcoming goals. Completed or archived goals from past quarters can stay in Jira as historical reference — no need to move everything.
Jira Goals uses a flat goal → sub-goal hierarchy, but OKR Studio separates Objectives from Key Results. Review your inventory and classify each item:
It is an Objective if...
- • It describes a qualitative outcome
- • It is aspirational and directional
- • It has sub-goals beneath it
- • Example: "Become the #1 choice for mid-market"
It is a Key Result if...
- • It is measurable with a specific target
- • It is a sub-goal under an Objective
- • It has a numeric score or completion criteria
- • Example: "Increase NPS from 32 to 50"
Common pitfall: In Jira Goals, some teams create all items as "goals" at the same level. During migration, take time to restructure these into proper Objective → Key Result pairs. This is your chance to clean up your OKR hygiene.
Before entering OKRs, set up the supporting structure in OKR Studio:
1. Create Teams
- • Match the contributing teams from Jira Goals
- • Assign team leaders
- • Invite members via email
2. Create OKR Cycles
- • Create a cycle matching your current quarter
- • Set start and end dates from your target dates
- • Set status to "Planning"
3. Convert Scores
- • Jira scores: 0.0 – 1.0 scale
- • OKR Studio: percentage-based
- • Multiply Jira score by 100
- • Example: 0.7 → 70%
Using your inventory spreadsheet, create each Objective in OKR Studio. Work through them in order of hierarchy — company objectives first, then team objectives:
Navigate to Plan
Go to OKRs → Plan and click "Add OKR" to create a new Objective
Enter objective details
Copy the goal name from your inventory as the Objective title, assign it to the correct OKR Cycle
Assign team and owner
Select the team and owner that match the Jira Goal's contributing team and owner
Add Key Results
For each sub-goal classified as a Key Result, add it with the correct measurement type (Number, Percentage, Currency, or Boolean)
Set starting and target values
Enter the start value and target value for each Key Result based on your Jira goal scores and targets
Jira Goals uses a 0.0 – 1.0 scoring scale, while OKR Studio supports specific measurement types. Here is how to convert:
| Jira Goal Type | OKR Studio KR Type | How to Convert |
|---|---|---|
| Score-based (0.0 – 1.0) | Percentage | Multiply by 100 (e.g., 0.7 → start: 0%, target: 100%, current: 70%) |
| Numeric target (e.g., 50 deals) | Number | Use the actual numbers (e.g., start: 0, target: 50, current: 32) |
| Revenue target (e.g., $1M ARR) | Currency | Use the currency values directly (e.g., start: $500K, target: $1M) |
| Yes/No completion | Boolean | Set as Boolean — done or not done |
Pro tip: If your Jira Goals only used the default 0.0–1.0 scoring without specific metrics, this migration is a great opportunity to define actual measurable targets. Instead of migrating "score: 0.6", define what that 60% progress actually means in concrete terms.
If your Jira Goals had parent-child relationships between objectives (not just objective → key result, but objective → objective), recreate them in OKR Studio using the alignment tree:
In OKR Studio, use the OKR Overview page to view the alignment tree and verify that your hierarchy matches the structure you had in Jira Goals.
Replace the monthly goal update from Jira with weekly structured check-ins in OKR Studio:
Go to Check-in
Navigate to OKRs → Check-in to see all your Key Results organized by week
Update current values
Enter the latest value for each Key Result — progress is calculated automatically
Set confidence status
Mark each KR as "On Track", "At Risk", or "Off Track" — matching the status model you used in Jira Goals
Add context notes
Document blockers, wins, and insights — these replace the free-form monthly updates from Jira Goals
Key difference: Jira Goals sends monthly update reminders. OKR Studio supports weekly check-ins, giving you faster feedback loops. Most teams find that weekly cadence catches risks 2-3 weeks earlier than monthly updates.
After your team has completed at least one full check-in cycle in OKR Studio, transition away from Jira Goals:
Weekly Check-ins
Move from monthly updates to weekly cadence for faster feedback and risk detection
Rich KR Types
Track Key Results as numbers, percentages, currency, hours, or boolean — beyond a simple 0-1 score
Cycle Management
Structured quarterly cycles with planning, execution, and evaluation phases
Team Alignment
Visual alignment trees showing how team OKRs connect to company objectives