Fixing Your OKRs With Agility
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This document provides an overview of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), which are a goal-setting methodology used for organizational alignment. It discusses common challenges with implementing OKRs, such as having too many OKRs, output-focused rather than outcome-focused OKRs, and top-down command-and-control approaches. The document suggests leveraging Agile and Scrum principles to address these challenges, such as organizing teams around OKRs, using OKRs to guide product backlog refinement and sprint planning, and emphasizing autonomy and bottom-up goal-setting. Examples are provided of how OKRs can be integrated into frameworks like SAFe.
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Fixing Your OKRs With Agility
- 1. YuvalYeret.com 1 Fixing Your OKRs With Agility w/ Yuval Yeret
- 2. YuvalYeret.com Yuval Yeret SAFe Fellow/SPCT | Scrum.org PST | Business Agility Coach/Trainer | Professional Scrum w/ Kanban Co-creator & Steward
- 3. YuvalYeret.com OKRs - An Example using this session’s objective Objective Key Results Fixing Your OKRs leveraging agile ideas, principles and practices Have a high-level understanding of OKRs - Why / What / How Be able to describe and identify at least 3 OKR implementation challenges you might encounter Be able to describe success patterns to overcome at least 3 OKR challenges leveraging Agile/Scrum principles and practices Bonus: Be able to describe how to use Agile/Scrum practices to help improve any OKR implementation (including outside of Agile/Scrum context) Bonus: Be able to pitch agile/agility as a solution to flailing OKR implementations
- 4. YuvalYeret.com Why OKRs? In order to execute effectively on what matters most (your strategy), you will need to … Overcome: ► silos, politics and turf wars ► the ongoing grind (aka whirlwind) Through OKRs that provide ► Organizational Alignment ► Focus
- 5. YuvalYeret.com OKRs - an Alignment Framework OKRs stand for “Objectives and Key Results.” It is a collaborative goal-setting methodology used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with measurable results. OKRs are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable goals. source: https://www.whatmatters.com/faqs/okr-meaning-definition-example
- 6. YuvalYeret.com Why do we need an Alignment framework?
- 7. YuvalYeret.com Business and Transformational OKRs Transformational OKR - e.g. Improving Agility Business OKR - Building Solutions to capture unrealized Value
- 8. YuvalYeret.com YuvalYeret.com 8 Challenges and Success Patterns with implementing OKRs
- 9. YuvalYeret.com Everyone gets an OKR! ● Every executive has their OKRs ● Every team has their OKRs ● Every individual has their OKRs ● Everyone gets an OKR! ● Actually – everyone gets MULTIPLE OKRs! 9
- 10. YuvalYeret.com Why does it matter? Excessive WIP ● Decreases organizational productivity ● Confuses priorities ● Increases context switching ● Impedes the flow of value ● Everything is important == Nothing is important #1. Avoid having too many OKRs OKRs…
- 11. YuvalYeret.com ● Not everything needs to be an OKR!!! ● KPIs - running the business / KTLO ● OKRs - for developing your strategic differentiators (as measured by significant impact on a KPI) or dealing with systemic problems. ● BAU - Other work – not everything needs to map to an OKR/KPI… ● Start by bringing visibility/transparency to your OKR overload ● Categorize current OKRs based on whether they should actually be featured as OKRs or KPIs (or not). Apply Focus/Flow - Stop Starting Start Finishing #1. Try to choose fewer OKRs focused on THE most important opportunities for Developing/Growing the Business (WIGs)
- 12. YuvalYeret.com BTW - What can we also say about the work to Develop/Grow the Business (vs running it)? 12
- 13. YuvalYeret.com 13 OKRs typically require complex work… Try … mapping out OKRs according to level of agreement/uncertainty on the WHAT/HOW What have we learned about managing complex work? What works? What doesn’t?
- 14. YuvalYeret.com #2. Avoid … Output/Activity focused (tasks / milestones) OKRs Why does it matter? ● Remember - OKRs typically live in the complex domain ● Fixes specifications/designs too early ● Conducive to “Feature Factory” ● Impediment to Autonomy and Innovation Output-focused OKRs Objective: Release ALICE v1 Key Results: ● Develop Rear and Side Camera Distance Warning ● Fix 10 major/critical defects ● ALICE Gold Subscription ● Customer onboarding wizard
- 15. YuvalYeret.com Try using OKRs to provide clear intent Output-focused OKRs Outcome-focused OKRs Well-formed Outcome-focused OKRs Objective: Release ALICE v1 Objective: Increase market position within the autonomous delivery market Objective: Achieve a dominant position within the autonomous delivery market Key Results: Key Results: Key Results: ● Develop Rear and Side Camera Distance Warning ● Ability to deliver in dense metro areas through parallel parking ● Increase serviceable market to 75% including dense metro areas ● Fix 10 major/critical defects ● Improve customer satisfaction rating ● Increase Net Promoter Score from 35 to 60 ● ALICE Gold Subscription ● Focus on driving repeat business ● Improve repeat business rates from 60% to 80% ● Customer onboarding wizard ● Onboard new customers ● Acquire 15% new customers over the next 12 months 1. Assess your current OKRs - create some transparency to your current OKR maturity 2. Shift over time towards outcome-focus Objectives and eventually KRs 3. When looking at an output/task OKR - Ask Five Whys to get to the desired outcome… Assume Variability - Preserve Options Decentralized Control / Autonomy Customer collaboration over Contract Negotiation
- 16. YuvalYeret.com OKRs as Bets Inspecting and adapting HOW (to achieve a goal) • what’s needed to achieve a Key Result? Inspecting and adapting the WHAT/WHY (the goal itself) • The relevance of the Key Result or even the Objective itself
- 18. YuvalYeret.com #3. Avoid OKR Command and Control - Too Detailed, Too Strict, Top-Down Cascading Why does it matter? ● Strict Cascading kills Autonomy / Initiative ● Leads to task/output orientation by the time teams create KRs OKR OKR OKR OKR OKR OKR OKR
- 19. YuvalYeret.com What’s the difference between OKRs and MBO? https://www.whatmatters.com/resources/okr-and-mbo-difference-between
- 20. YuvalYeret.com Use OKRs as an Alignment framework that enables autonomy https://engineering.atspotify.com/2014/03/spotify-engineering-culture-part-1/
- 21. YuvalYeret.com #4. Alignment != Command & Control Try ● High-level OKRs that inform rather than prescribe ● Teams / Teams of teams define their own OKRs - Bottom- up and sideways ● Align/relate through “Why Now” ● Take inspiration from Scrum Sprint Planning structure OKR OKR OKR OKR OKR OKR OKR
- 22. YuvalYeret.com #5. Try to Avoid - OKRs coordination hell https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/improving-focus-alignment-organizing-around-okrs-managing-yuval- yeret/ Why does it matter? ● Coordination overhead ● Tempting to divide and conquer / cascade into output/task OKRs (since each team/product/value stream cannot own outcomes)
- 23. YuvalYeret.com ▪ Experiment with organizing teams around OKRs - Identifying/ Assessing products/teams topology using an OKR lens ▪ You can start with 1-2 experiments around OKRs while keeping the rest of the organization as is. ▪ It doesn’t have to be an organizational change ▪ There will never be a perfect way to organize that eliminates all dependencies/collaboration. ▪ use techniques from the agile scaling patterns/frameworks world to help ease collaboration across teams (e.g. Big Room Planning) Organizing around value unlocks engagement/ motivation through Purpose #5. Try organizing around OKRs
- 24. YuvalYeret.com #5. OKRs are in conflict with agile/Scrum artifacts/commitments ● Confusion - What do we use as Input for Sprint Planning? PBL? OKRs? Both? ● When are OKRs created? How? How do we keep them realistic? ● What’s the relationship between Product Goals, Sprint Goals and OKRs? OKRs (Product / Corporate / Strategy) Agile/Scrum (typically in IT / Product Development)
- 25. YuvalYeret.com #5. Explicitly connect OKRs and your agile ways of working Some options to try: ● Use OKRs to guide PBL management/refinement ● Inspect how you’re doing on OKRs during Sprint Review and use that to adapt the Product Backlog OKRs KPIs
- 26. YuvalYeret.com Bonus: Let’s take a look at SAFe’s perspective on OKRs ● Strategic Themes ● Epic-level initiatives ● Be intentional about your transformational goals using OKRs
- 27. YuvalYeret.com Case Study - Big Room OKR Term Planning (Does this look familiar to anybody?) When What Facilitator Outcome Location 30m Quarterly Planning Adjustment Guidance for Team Quarterly OKR finalization Main room 2-3h Teams finalize Quarterly OKRs Individual Team Breakouts Leadership Team circulates and available to give feedback / answer question Updated Quarterly OKRs Assigned Breakout Rooms 1-2h Final Quarterly OKRs Review Align on Final Quarterly OKRs Main room LUNCH 1h Risks Management & Confidence Vote Determine what part of Quarterly Plan still needs work Main room As needed Rework as needed (if short - plenar. if this is in- depth will be in breakouts / open space mode) Final Quarterly Plan Main room 30m Retrospective / Closing Documented learnings for next cycle Main room Length What Facilitator Outcome Location 15m Opening / Overview Clarity on purpose/ approach to Planning Main room 30m Reiterate Company OKRs Leadership Team Clarity on annual + Quarterly Company OKRs Main room 2h Teams draft realistic Quarterly OKRs Individual Team Breakouts facilitated by SMs/POs Team Quarterly Draft OKRs Assigned Breakout 15m Leadership Team + PO - Huddle Plan how to collaborate cross-team around dependencies Leadership Breakout room 1h LUNCH (Opportunity to connect across teams or continue to plan in teams) room Breakouts 1h Teams draft realistic Quarterly OKRs (continued) Individual Team Breakouts facilitated by POs Team Quarterly Draft OKRs Assigned Breakouts 1-2h Review Team Quarterly Draft OKRs - Lightning round readout from each team + Confidence Vote Feedback on Quarterly OKRs Main room 1h Leadership Team + PO - Review & Problem Solving Adjustments / Guidance for Day 2 Leadership Breakout Day 1 Day 2
- 28. YuvalYeret.com How about SAFe’s PI Planning? Try… ● Using OKRs to guide Feature creation and prioritization ● Considering OKRs draft until PIP ● After PIP refine OKRs based on PI Objectives ● Bring Objectives to PIP as input, create KRs as PIP output
- 29. YuvalYeret.com Can we use Scrum/Agile principles and practices to improve how our organization uses OKRs? Can that help us bring agile ways of thinking to the wider organization? 29
- 31. YuvalYeret.com If you want my help… 31 Learn about Evidence-Based Management and how to leverage it to improve your OKR operating system https://yuvalyeret.com/agility-consulting-training/get-professional-about-scrum-and-kanban/scrum- org-professional-agile-leadership-evidence-based-management-training/ Launch or Boost your OKR operating system with emphasis on Empiricism, Empowerment, Organizing around Value, and Lean/Agile principles https://yuvalyeret.com/agility-consulting-training/strategic-alignment-and-execution-at- scale-leveraging-okrs/