This document summarizes an OKRs meetup in Amsterdam on May 31, 2018. It introduces OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), provides an example, and discusses how OKRs differ from traditional goal setting. The majority of the document outlines best practices for implementing OKRs based on LeanBart's experience, including starting with one company objective, giving objectives 3 months to take effect, keeping objectives inspirational rather than metrics-focused, and emphasizing weekly check-ins and Friday celebrations. It concludes with top 10 takeaways around focus, connection of OKRs, public sharing, and maintaining an upbeat culture.

1. Amsterdam
OKRs Meetup
May 31, 2018

2. Welcome!
Bart & the Commitment Square
Drinks & Mingle
Agenda

4. Quick Intro to OKRs

5. Objectives & Key Results
OKRs

6. Example
Objective: Become more healthy and fit
Key Result: Reduce weight to 70 kg

7. OKRs vs Traditional Goal Setting
MBOs OKRs
Not ambitious Ambitious
Linked to compensation Decoupled from compensation
Annual (static) Quarterly (more agile)
Top down Top Down & Bottom Up
Private Public

8. Make my house a comfortable and
relaxing place to be after busy work days
1.0 all items from the ‘priority list’ are in place
0.7 4 items from the ‘priority list’ are in place
0.3 1 item from the ‘priority list’ is in place
PRIORITY LIST:
- Boxspring bed
- Large TV with Netflix
- Coffee Machine
- Artwork
- Large Plant (preferably palm tree)
- Fluffy Blanket
- Relax Chair
- Aroma Diffuser

9. The Commitment
SquareBart den Haak

12. LeanBart. @bartdenhaak
Independent IT Leader, currently @ ING
Past: entrepreneur, IT Leader, OKR evangelist
Sports: Kite surfer, snowboarder, free athlete
W: bartdenhaak.com
E:bart@leanbart.com

13. Why OKRs
1. Alignment
2. Acceleration
3. Focus

14. 1. Alignment
“..help everyone in the company understand
what’s important and how you’re going to
measure what’s important.”
~ Dick Costolo, former Googler and former CEO of Twitter

15. Connecting OKRs
Company OKRs
Business Unit OKRs
Team OKRs
Business Unit OKRs
Team OKRs

16. 2. Acceleration
“Stretch goals are the building blocks for
remarkable achievements in the long term”
~Christina Wodtke
WARNING: Do not tie OKRs to performance reviews and bonuses.

17. 3. Focus
Focus is hard! Even with OKRs.

18. Focus
Focus is hard! Even with OKRs.
OKRs solves the “shiny object syndrome” (SOS).

19. Focus
Focus is hard! Even with OKRs.
OKRs solves the “shiny object syndrome”.
If everything is important, nothing is.

20. Living your OKRs

21. WARNING: You will fail!
Main reasons:
1. No strategy defined!
2. Too many OKRs (Challenge with focus.)
3. Missing cadence of commitment and celebration

22. Quarterly OKR kick-off meeting
● Run by the CEO
● 10 people or fewer (sr executive team)
● Few days before, all employees submit the Objective (give them a small
window, 24h)
● Have someone collect the ideas (e.g. OKR master, consultant)
● Schedule 2 x 2 hour session (your goal, cancel the 2nd one)
● Each exec has 2 objectives in mind +
● Pick 1 objective!!
Discuss. Debate. Fight. Stack. Rank. Pick.

23. Monday commitments
Helps to focus

24. OKR Confidence
O: Establish clear value to distributors as a quality tea
provider
KR: Reorders at 85% 5/10
KR: 20% of reorders self-serve 5/10
KR: Revenue of 250K 5/10

25. OKR ConfidencePriorities this week
O: Establish clear value to distributors as a quality tea
provider
KR: Reorders at 85% 5/10
KR: 20% of reorders self-serve 5/10
KR: Revenue of 250K 5/10
P1: Start marketing campaign proposition X
P1: 3 solid fullstack candidate for team Y
P1: New Order fow Spec’d

26. Company Healths
OKR ConfidencePriorities this week
Risk Score below X
Employee Engagement score > Y
Revenue > X Mlj / week
Behind due to hot weather
O: Establish clear value to distributors as a quality tea
provider
KR: Reorders at 85% 5/10
KR: 20% of reorders self-serve 5/10
KR: Revenue of 250K 5/10
P1: Start marketing campaign proposition X
P1: 3 solid fullstack candidate for team Y
P1: New Order fow Spec’d

27. Next 4 weeks - Projects Company Healths
OKR ConfidencePriorities this week
Risk Score below X
Employee Engagement score > Y
Revenue > X Mlj / week
Behind due to hot weather
O: Establish clear value to distributors as a quality tea
provider
KR: Reorders at 85% 5/10
KR: 20% of reorders self-serve 5/10
KR: Revenue of 250K 5/10
P1: Start marketing campaign proposition X
P1: 3 solid fullstack candidate for team Y
P1: New Order fow Spec’d
Passive reorder notifications
New self-service flow for distributors
Hire customer service head

28. In Progress
KR: Reorders at 85% 5/10
KR: 20% of reorders self-serve 5/10
KR: Revenue of 250K 5/10
In Progress
OKR ConfidenceObjective 1
Backlog
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2
In Progress
KR: CTR > 20% 5/10
KR: NPS > 8 5/10
Objective 2
Backlog
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2
Title
Hypotheses
KR1
KR2

30. Friday are for winners

32. Improve weekly status emails

34. Getting started with OKRs
● Start with only one OKR for the company by using the commitment
square.
● Have one team adopt OKRs before the entire company does
● Start out by applying OKRs to projects to train people on the objective &
key result approach
Focus on learning what works in your company culture

36. Top 10 Takeaways
● Set only one OKR for the company, unless you have multiple business
lines. It’s about focus.
● Give yourself three months for an OKR to have an effect. How bold is it if
you can do it in a week?
● Keep the metrics out of the Objective. The Objective is inspirational.
● In the weekly check-in, open with the company OKR, and then do groups.
Don’t do every individual; that’s better in private one-on-ones, which you
do have every week, right
● OKRs connect; set company OKRs, and then team OKRs

37. Top 10 Takeaways
● Set only one OKR for the company, unless you have multiple business
lines. It’s about focus.
● Give yourself three months for an OKR to have an effect. How bold is it if
you can do it in a week?
● Keep the metrics out of the Objective. The Objective is inspirational.
● In the weekly check-in, open with the company OKR, and then do groups.
Don’t do every individual; that’s better in private one-on-ones, which you
do have every week, right
● OKRs connect; set company OKRs, and then team OKRs

38. Top 10 Takeaways
● Set only one OKR for the company, unless you have multiple business
lines. It’s about focus.
● Give yourself three months for an OKR to have an effect. How bold is it if
you can do it in a week?
● Keep the metrics out of the Objective. The Objective is inspirational.
● In the weekly check-in, open with the company OKR, and then do groups.
Don’t do every individual; that’s better in private one-on-ones, which you
do have every week, right
● OKRs connect; set company OKRs, and then team OKRs

39. Top 10 Takeaways
● Set only one OKR for the company, unless you have multiple business
lines. It’s about focus.
● Give yourself three months for an OKR to have an effect. How bold is it if
you can do it in a week?
● Keep the metrics out of the Objective. The Objective is inspirational.
● In the weekly check-in, open with the company OKR, and then do groups.
Don’t do every individual; that’s better in private one-on-ones, which you
do have every week, right?
● OKRs connect; set company OKRs, and then team OKRs

40. Top 10 Takeaways
● Set only one OKR for the company, unless you have multiple business
lines. It’s about focus.
● Give yourself three months for an OKR to have an effect. How bold is it if
you can do it in a week?
● Keep the metrics out of the Objective. The Objective is inspirational.
● In the weekly check-in, open with the company OKR, and then do groups.
Don’t do every individual; that’s better in private one-on-ones, which you
do have every week, right
● OKRs connect; set company OKRs, and then team OKRs

41. Top 10 Takeaways
● OKRs are not the only thing you do; they are the one thing you must do.
Trust people to keep the ship running, and don’t jam every task into your
OKRs
● The Monday OKR check in is a conversation. Be sure to discuss change in
confidence, health metrics, and priorities
● Encourage employees to suggest company OKRs. OKRs are great bottom
up, not just top down.
● Make OKRs available publicly. Google has them on their intranet.
● Friday celebrations are an antidote to Monday’s grim business. Keep it
upbeat!

42. Top 10 Takeaways
● OKRs are not the only thing you do; they are the one thing you must do.
Trust people to keep the ship running, and don’t jam every task into your
OKRs
● The Monday OKR check in is a conversation. Be sure to discuss change in
confidence, health metrics, and priorities
● Encourage employees to suggest company OKRs. OKRs are great bottom
up, not just top down.
● Make OKRs available publicly. Google has them on their intranet.
● Friday celebrations are an antidote to Monday’s grim business. Keep it
upbeat!

43. Top 10 Takeaways
● OKRs are not the only thing you do; they are the one thing you must do.
Trust people to keep the ship running, and don’t jam every task into your
OKRs
● The Monday OKR check in is a conversation. Be sure to discuss change in
confidence, health metrics, and priorities
● Encourage employees to suggest company OKRs. OKRs are great bottom
up, not just top down.
● Make OKRs available publicly. Google has them on their intranet.
● Friday celebrations are an antidote to Monday’s grim business. Keep it
upbeat!

44. Top 10 Takeaways
● OKRs are not the only thing you do; they are the one thing you must do.
Trust people to keep the ship running, and don’t jam every task into your
OKRs
● The Monday OKR check in is a conversation. Be sure to discuss change in
confidence, health metrics, and priorities
● Encourage employees to suggest company OKRs. OKRs are great bottom
up, not just top down.
● Make OKRs available publicly. Google has them on their intranet.
● Friday celebrations are an antidote to Monday’s grim business. Keep it
upbeat!

45. Top 10 Takeaways
● OKRs are not the only thing you do; they are the one thing you must do.
Trust people to keep the ship running, and don’t jam every task into your
OKRs
● The Monday OKR check in is a conversation. Be sure to discuss change in
confidence, health metrics, and priorities
● Encourage employees to suggest company OKRs. OKRs are great bottom
up, not just top down.
● Make OKRs available publicly. Google has them on their intranet.
● Friday celebrations are an antidote to Monday’s grim business. Keep it
upbeat!

46. Contact us :-)
leanbart.com / bart@leanbart.com
melanie.wessels@booking.com