An alternative to OKRs for the "what's important now" layer of the The Decision Stack (Eriksson) — answering the same question ("what's important right now and how do we measure progress") in narrative form instead of objective/metric form. VMOs are mentioned alongside NCTs as another named substitute, though not elaborated in the source.
Like OKRs, NCTs only work if the layer still connects up to strategy and down to opportunities — the specific tool matters less than the team agreeing what it concretely means and keeping it wired into the rest of the stack.