Objective and Key Results

OKR is a management methodology that helps to ensure all the company is focused on the same important objectives.

• Objective: defines WHAT needs to be achieved, the direction to take.
• Key results: define HOW we reach the objective by defining goal metrics.

When defining objectives, these must:

• Express intention
• Have a clear value
• Be aggressive but realistic

Main objective must be well defined based on data, not choose it based on ideas.

OKR 4 principles

Focus

• They allow to establish a team commitment with objectives and priorities.
• Company must give example of the commitment with objectives.
• It is very important to explain the why of the objective that we want to reach.
• When defining objectives we must have clear they must be focused on solving a problem, not how to do it, this is responsibility of Key Results.

Coordination

We link individual with company objectives

• When colleagues help choosing how to reach objectives it is more probable that they contribute to reach it.
• For a good interdepartmental coordination, team objectives must be public because it allows:
  • Support a team to reach an objective
  • Other teams can contribute to the objectives
  • We establish interdepartmental priorities what may have dependencies between objective
• Worker feels more realized knowing the concrete way he contributes to the main objective.

Follow up

• Review and possible rethink of Key Results
• There is nothing more motivating that doing progress in our own work.
• If an objective is traced periodically there is more chance of achieving it
• OKRs are modifiable. Their cycles are:
  • Development
  • Update
  • Start
  • Stop
• Objective doesn't finish when completing development. It must be analyzed lately with KPI
• Autoevaluation: when completing an objective, we must extract personal conclusions and know how to extract conclussions of the objective based on the percentage achieved of the objective.
• You don't learn from experience, but reflecting about experience. "Have I contributed? Obstacles found? What would I change? What have I learnt?"
• Objective consecution are divided in green (80%-100%), yellow (60%-80%), red (<60%)

Demand

• Motivate excellence of the work as acceptance of failure

• Highest risk is not taking any. We must establish two types of objectives:

  • factibles: those we trust we are achieving

  • aspirationals (Big Hairy Audacious Goals): have a long term requirement.

    

Key results

Key results provide:

• milestones while reaching the goal. Divide and conquer. Any objective we have must be compartmentalized.
• Describe results. Each key result must be final, not completing an activity. Example; "reach 100 daily clients" instead of "increment number of clients"
• Once completed we must present the evidences of their consecution.