Slides from Stephen's presentation on OKRs - what they are, how to create them and what needs to be thought about in the environment around them

1. Amplifying performance with
Objectives and Key Results

2. Speaker, Consultant, Trainer and Thinking Partner
Specialist in complex, uncertain environments
18 years IT infrastructure, software and services
12 years leadership in high-scale cloud providers
15 years Kepner-Tregoe® clear-thinking
“Most Influential Business Leader” & “Most Improved Agile Team”
– 2016 UK Agile Awards
Best Leadership & Agile Coaching Provider
– 2020 UK Enterprise Awards
About Stephen

3. What’s on tonight’s agenda?
- What are these things called OKRs anyway?
- What do effectiveOKRs look like?
- Critiquing OKRs
- OKR environment and implementation tips

4. “There are so many people working so hard and
achieving so little”
“How well we communicate is determined not
by how well we say things but how well we are
understood.”
“Make mistakes faster.”
Andy Grove
Intel’s 1st employee
president, chairman and
CEO
John Doerr
joins Intel
in 1974
Compaq, Netscape,
Symantec, Sun
Microsystems, Amazon
Intuit, Macromedia and…
VC
Invests in
Google in 1999
“John, how do we run a
company? Any tips?”
“Why don’t you try OKRs?”
Larry Page &
Sergey Brin
A (very) short history of OKRs

5. Accenture
Anheuser-Busch
Asana
Baidu
Box
CareerBuilder
Capco
Cap Gemini
Datto
Dell
Deloitte
Domo
Dropbox
Edmunds
Eli Lilly
Eventbrite
FiServ
Flipboard
Gap
GE
GoPro
InsideSales
Instructure
ISO Energy
Juniper Networks
LG
Malwarebytes
Moz
Mozilla
Nerd Wallet
Open Square
Oracle
Panasonic
Paperless Post
Rackspace
Salesforce.com
Samsung
Schneider Electric
Sears
Siemens
Splunk
SunEdison
Tableau
US Navy
Viacom
VMware
Vox Media
Zendesk
…and many more!

6. Based on this data, who makes the better car?
10,740,000 units 10,131 units
2019 Toyota Sales 2019 Ferrari Sales

7. The work we have done
The amount we produced of a thing
The tasks we expect to complete
A stakeholder has received value
A need has been met
What impact the output actually had
Outputs Outcomes
Outputs and Outcomes

8. A powerful clean question*
Implement
ServiceNow
We resolve customer
incidents more quickly
Empower
people
“…and when X
happens, then what
happens?”
We release value to
stakeholders sooner
Become
agile
Our solutions meet
needs more often
* Normally a better choice than “so what!?”

9. What are OKRs?
OKRs are an focused, iterative and learning-based
framework for handling outcomes.
They drive execution, foster ambition, and promote
alignment and agility in teams.

10. The OKR Formula
I will {OBJECTIVE} as measured by {KEY RESULTS}
An inspiring or ambitious goal
that would add significant
new value
(qualitative)
Measurable outcomes that when
achieved, would demonstrate
completion of the Objective.
(quantitative)

11. Example: Engineering
I will {OBJECTIVE} as measured by {KEY RESULTS}
Key question: If we achieved the Key Results, have we made the Objective?
Objective
Make high-speed comms between Earth and Mars a reality by 2023
Key Results
• Mars-Earth bandwidth capable of 1Gbps (at 150 million km)
• Full day (Mars-day) coverage at [defined locations]
• All existing Mars surface probes connected at high-speed to Earth

12. Example: Sales
Objective
Significantly increase recurring revenue from DE market
Key Results
• Monthly recurring revenue (€MRR) of €250k
• Average subscription size grown to at least €395 per month
• Subscription churn % reduced to less than 1% per-month
I will {OBJECTIVE} as measured by {KEY RESULTS}
Key question: If we achieved the Key Results, have we made the Objective?

13. Example: Infrastructure
Objective
Achieve record network platform uptime during year 2020
Key Results
• Monthly average network uptime greater than 99.99% (4 mins)
• 8 months (75%) with an average network uptime of 99.999% or higher (26s)
• 10 service outages prevented
I will {OBJECTIVE} as measured by {KEY RESULTS}
Key question: If we achieved the Key Results, have we made the Objective?

14. Key Question:
Did you achieve
everything (100%) of
what you planned?
A traditional objective approach*
Organisation’s
objectives are set
Objectives are
cascaded
Performance is
Evaluated
12-Month Cycle
* Simplified version of Management by Objectives “MBO”, Peter Drucker

15. Internet Explorer 7
In 2008 the average domestic
internet speed was 3 Mbps
(in 2018 this was up to 96 Mbps)

16. “We should make the web as fast as
flipping through a magazine”
Larry Page / Sergey Brin - 2008

17. A Key Result for Chrome Use
2008 KR:
Chrome reaches 20 million
seven-day active users
Q4
2009 KR:
Chrome reaches 50 million
seven-day active users
2010 KR:
Chrome reaches 111 million
seven-day active users

18. SMART Objectives
Measurable
“Usually, there's no point in starting a
job you know you can't finish”
“Others have already
done it successfully”
Achievable Realistic Time-boundSpecific
* A and R are sometimes “Attainable” and “Relevant”

19. High Level OKR Cycle
3 - 20 Year
Mission
(possibly infinite)
(Teams)
Create OKRs
OKR Review
OKR Retro
Most organisations
work in quarters
OKR creation is
collaborative
Key Question:
Did we achieve value?
And are we satisfied
with that?
Check-Ins

20. What do effective OKRs look like?

21. Attributes of Effective Objectives
Objectives are inspiring or ambitious goals that would add significant new value
Great Objectives are:
Ambitious and/or inspirational, creating a desire to succeed
Stretching and high value, but is not (believed) impossible
Describes a ‘better’ future. Does not maintain status quo
Represents an important and relevant priority
Understandable and could be validated by observers
Inspiring
Bold yet Attainable
Outcome Focused
Aligned
Clear

22. “Make high-speed comms between Earth and Mars a reality by 2023”
Yes. A superb engineering result would unlock other options
Yes. This isn’t easy, but is not believed to be impossible
Yes. There is a qualitative result described
Yes. This is part of progress toward a colony on Mars
Yes. This is understandable with general knowledge
Objective Examples
Inspiring?
Bold yet Attainable?
Outcome Focused?
Aligned?
Clear?

23. Objective Examples
“Customer Loyalty”
Inspiring?
Bold yet Attainable?
Outcome Focused?
Aligned?
Clear?
Unknown without assumptions
Unknown without assumptions
No. I don’t understand this Objective
Unknown without assumptions
No. I don’t understand this Objective

24. Objective Examples
Inspiring?
Bold yet Attainable?
Outcome Focused?
Aligned?
Clear?
Yes. Language like ‘most successful’ can be inspirational
Yes. Client events take work but with focus can be done
Yes. There’s a specific event this Objective is targeting
Yes. (Presuming this is important!)
Yes. Easily understandable
“Run the most successful client event we’ve ever had”

25. Specific
Quantifiable
Easily Verifiable
Actually results!
Stretching yet achievable
Attributes of Effective Key Results
Clear and unambiguous, it should not be subjective
Quantitative KRs (numbers!) clarify intent and progress
KRs with clarity avoid subjective discussion
Think effect and impact. KRs are NOT tasks or to-dos!
Tough KRs focus, impossible KRs demotivate
Key Results are our evidence that prove (for us) that our Objective is complete.
Great Key Results are:

26. “Mars-Earth bandwidth capable of 1Gbps (at 150 million km)”
Yes. The detail of the KR is unambiguous
Yes. There are numbers here that we can measure
Yes. Bandwidth tests are a common resource
Yes. This describes an outcome, not an activity
Yes. This is a big leap in speed, but is possible to achieve
Key Result Examples
Specific
Quantifiable
Easily Verifiable
Actually results!
Stretching yet achievable
Is it…

27. No. What does ‘like’ mean?
No. There are no numbers or thresholds here
No. Without being more specific, we could ask, but why?
?
?
“People like our website”
Key Result Examples
Specific
Quantifiable
Easily Verifiable
Actually results!
Stretching yet achievable
Is it…

28. Yes. Retention is a clear and known measure
Yes. We can identify numerically where we are
Yes. This is straightforward to calculate
Yes. This is describing an improvement
Yes. Influencing this number isn’t easy, but possible
“Customer retention increases from 84% to 90%"
Key Result Examples
Specific
Quantifiable
Easily Verifiable
Actually results!
Stretching yet achievable
Is it…

29. Objective
Respond to Customer enquiries within SLA
Key Results
• Most enquiries were answered within SLA
• Teach our teams about the SLA
• Make sure that Customer enquiries are categorised OK
• Increase headcount
• SLA performance baselined and published
How could you improve this OKR?

30. Exercise!
Instructions
• We’ll put you into teams
• Go to the corresponding Miro workspace (group 1 / team 1)
• Look at the example OKRs
• Critique and discuss what could improve
• Add stickies with your feedback!
* NB the attributes of OKRs are on Miro #3
10 minutes

31. OKR Implementation
(and the environment for OKRs)

32. High Level OKR Cycle
3 - 20 Year
Mission
(possibly infinite)
Create OKRs
OKR Review
OKR Retro
Check-Ins

33. Example OKR Cycle (Quarter)
OKRs
Created &
Published
Check-in Check-in Check-in Check-in Check-in Check-in Check-in Check-in Check-in Check-in
Mid-Qtr
Review &
Retro
Q+ Drafts
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12Week

34. An OKR authoring flow (unlikely to be linear!)
Prioritise an
Objective
Does the Objective
meet the criteria for
a good Objective?
Add some Key
Results (3-5)
Does each Key
Result meet the
criteria for a good
Key Result?
Brainstorm some
Objectives
If all KRs were
complete, would the
Objective also be
complete?
Refine Refine
Repeat for your next
priority Objective for
up to 5 (max!)
Does it pass a “So
what?” test*?
* Even if an Objective is beautifully crafted, asking ‘So what?’ checks if it really is relevant.

35. True value
from OKRs
OKRs = more
paperwork
Mindset
Values
Principles
Practices
Tools and
Processes
More visible,
less powerful
Less visible,
more powerful
“Doing” agile
“Being” agile
“Agile Onion” diagram by Adventures with Agile

36. Example Principles for OKRs
1. Focus. Limit work in progress to 3-5 Objectives and Key Results maximum
2. Aspirational. Make OKRs ambitious, and some with high (50%+) chance of failure.
3. Complete transparency. All OKRs and current states are visible to everyone.
4. Measures matter. Be conscious, clear and explicit about what measures are and do.
5. Within your control. Or you must make sure teams you rely on agree with you!
6. Flexibility. Embrace change when it makes sense. Stop doing things that don’t.
7. Freedom. Don’t prescribe ‘how’ or detailed tasks. Let people achieve their own goals.
8. Self-scoring. Individuals self-score results and assess their own performance.
9. Bidirectional. Generate 50% of all OKRs from “bottom-up”.
10. A tool, not a weapon! Separate the practice and process of OKRs from reward.

37. A real example
We care about stakeholder value created over volume of work
We prefer creation of value across countries over local solutions
We expect the core of everyone’s work to be OKR-related
All KRs should start the quarter with a confidence of 50%
We respect continued personal development alongside OKRs

38. NO-KR Anti-Pattern Bingo!
Committing to
unfeasible and
demoralising KRs
Sand-bagging:
KRs too easy
Work in Progress
(WIP) too high
OKRs aren’t
visible outside
team
KRs are just
(lists of) tasks
KRs are chained
or sequential
"milestones"
OKRs aren’t
looked at. Fire
and forget!
OKR
performance is
tied to individual
pay and reward
Leaders making
OKRs a weapon,
not a tool
Unclear
guardrails
surroundingOKR
practices
Endless
refinement and
redrafting of
OKRs
OKRs are 100%
top-down
Expecting
perfection in Q1
(orY1!) of using
OKRs
ExpectingOKRs
alone to change
everything
Big bang rollout
(all teams, levels
start OKRs
together)
Not knowing why
you’re using
OKRs
OKRs are written
in isolation of
collaborators
Reviews and
retrospectives
have no teeth
Authoring OKRs The OKR Cycle Implementing OKRs

39. Summary

40. Summary
(if used in the right way)
OKRs are a focused, iterative and learning-based
framework for handling outcomes. They drive
execution, foster ambition, and promote alignment,
and agility in teams.
And finally, OKRs aren’t easy. Practice, learn, improve.

41. Contact / Connect
07967 682006
linkedin.com/in/stephencloud
stephen@opensquareconsulting.com
opensquareconsulting.com
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