A stretch goal is a deliberately ambitious target, set high enough that full achievement is uncertain, to push a team beyond incremental thinking. In OKRs this is the aspirational goal, where scoring around 0.7 is considered success. The counterpart is the committed goal, which is expected to be fully delivered.
The logic of a stretch goal is that aiming for 100% of a hard target produces more than comfortably hitting 100% of an easy one. Google popularized scoring aspirational OKRs around 0.7, so consistently scoring 1.0 is a sign the goals were set too low.
Stretch goals only work when the culture separates them from commitments. If a missed stretch goal is punished like a missed commitment, owners simply set safe targets, and the mechanism quietly dies.
Committed: ship the API to all enterprise accounts. Stretch: get 40% of them building on it within the quarter, where reaching 28% (0.7) still counts as a win.
Vindaris runs OKRs, KPIs, EOS, OGSM, SMART goals, the Balanced Scorecard, and Hoshin Kanri in one place, each goal linked to the traceable work moving it. Start free, no credit card.
Sign Up for Free