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Конспект книги “Christina Wodtke - Radical Focus”

Книга по внедрению системы OKR в компании.
Написана в духе «Цель» Голдрата: бизнес роман, описывает как главный герой книги, CEO стартапа, почти потеряв бизнес начинает внедрят систему OKR по совету своего инвестора. Главный посыл книги - чтобы преуспеть в любом начинании необходим фокус. Бизнесы рушатся потому что фокус компании постоянно «прыгает», направлен не на нужную область либо его нет совсем. ОКР позволяет помочь выявить фокус компании и придерживаться плана достижения результата.

«Solve the problems you have, not the ones you imagine.»

—

WHY WE CAN’T GET THINGS DONE

  1. We haven’t prioritized our goals.
  2. We haven’t communicated the goal obsessively and comprehensively.
  3. We don’t have a plan to get things done.
  4. We haven’t made time for what matters.
  5. We give up instead of iterate.

BEFORE STARTING OKRS, CHECK YOUR MISSION

Your mission is short and memorable.
They do have to be simple, memorable and act as guide when you make a decision about how to spend your time.
When you have a question in your daily work life, the mission should be top of mind to help you answer.

To make one, start with this simple formula:
We [reduce pain/improve life] in [market] by [value proposition].

Try to make a mission that can hold you for at least five years. An Objective takes you through a year or a quarter. A mission should last a lot longer.

OKR FUNDAMENTALS

Your Objective is a single sentence that is:

  • Qualitative and Inspirational
  • Time Bound
  • Actionable by the Team Independently

Here are some good Objectives:

  • Pwn the direct-to-business coffee retail market in the South Bay.
  • Launch an awesome MVP.
  • Transform Palo Alto’s coupon using habits.
  • Close a round that lets us kill it next quarter.

and some poor Objectives (cause they are really key results):

  • Sales numbers up 30%.
  • Double users.
  • Raise a Series B of 5M.

Key Results take all that inspirational language and quantify it. You create them by asking a simple question, “How would we know if we met our Objective?»
They can be based on anything you can measure, including:

  • Growth
  • Engagement
  • Revenue
  • Performance
  • Quality

OKRs Should Be Difficult, Not Impossible.
OKRs are always stretch goals. A hard ones. A great way to do this is to set a confidence level of five of ten on the OKR. A confidence level of one means “never gonna happen, my friend.” A confidence level of ten means “yeah, gonna nail this one.” It also means you are setting your goals way too low, which is often called sandbagging.

In companies where failure is punished, employees quickly learn not to try. If you want to achieve great things, you have to find a way to make it safe to reach further than anyone has before.

Do not change OKRs halfway through the quarter. If you see you’ve set them badly, suck it up and either fail or nail them, and use that learning to set them better next time.

OKRS FOR PRODUCT TEAM

If you are deploying OKRs for your product organization, the key is to focus your OKRs at the product team level. Focus the attention of the individuals on their product team Objectives. If different functional organizations (like design, engineering or quality assurance) have larger Objectives (like responsive design, technical debt, and test automation) they should be discussed and prioritized at the leadership team level along with the other business Objectives, and incorporated into the relevant product team’s Objectives.

The key is that the cascading of OKRs in a product organization needs to be up from the cross-functional product teams to the company or business unit level.

MONDAY COMMITMENTS

Each Monday, the team should meet to check in on progress against OKRs, and commit to the tasks that will help the company meet its Objective. I recommend a format with four key quadrants:

  • Intention for the week: What are the 3-4 most important things you must get done this week toward the Objective? Discuss if these priorities will get you closer to the OKRs.
  • Forecast for month: What should your team know is coming up that they can help with or prepare for?
  • Status toward OKRs: If you set a confidence of five out of ten, has that moved up or down? Have a discussion about why.
  • Health metrics: Pick two things you want to protect as you strive toward greatness. What can you not afford to eff-up? Key relationships with customers? Code stability? Team well-being? Now mark when things start to go sideways, and discuss it.

FRIDAYS ARE FOR WINNERS

In the Friday wins session, teams all demo whatever they can.

A Friday celebration of what’s been accomplished is the second bookend of a high-performing team’s week. This commit/celebrate cadence creates a habit of execution.

HOW TO HOLD A MEETING TO SET OKRS FOR THE QUARTER

  • Keep the meeting small – ten or fewer people if possible. It should be run by the CEO, and must include the senior executive team.
  • A few days before the meeting, solicit all the employees to submit the Objective they think the company should focus on. Be sure to give them a very small window to do it in; 24 hours is plenty.
  • Each exec head should have an Objective or two in mind to bring to the meeting.
  • Now have the team place the Post-its up on the wall. Combine duplicates, and look for patterns that suggest people are worried about a particular goal. Combine similar Objectives. Stack rank them. Finally, narrow them down to three.
  • Next, have all the members of the exec team freelist as many metrics as they can think of to measure the Objective.
  • Next, you will Affinity map them.
  • Write the KRs as an X first, i.e. “X revenue” or “X acquisitions” or “X DAU.” It’s easier to first discuss what to measure, then what the value should be and if it’s really a “shoot for the moon” goal. One fight at a time. I recommend having a usage metric, a revenue metric and a satisfaction metric for the KRs.
  • Next, set the values for the KRs. Make sure they really are “shoot for the moon” goals. You should have only 50% confidence you can make them.
  • Finally, take five minutes to discuss the final OKR set. Is the Objective aspirational and inspirational? Do the KRs make sense? Are they hard? Can you live with this for a full quarter?
  • Tweak until they feel right. Then go live them.

THE FIRST TIME

The first time you try OKRs, you are likely to fail.

There are three approaches you can use to reduce this risk:

  1. Start with only one OKR for the company. By setting a simple goal for the company, your team sees the executive team holding themselves to a high standard.
  2. Have one team adopt OKRs before the entire company does. Choose an independent team that has all the skills to achieve their goals.
  3. Start out by applying OKRs to projects, in order to train people on the Objective-Result approach.

IMPROVE WEEKLY STATUS EMAILS WITH OKRS

  1. Lead with your team’s OKRs, and how much confidence you have that you are going to hit them this quarter. You list OKRs to remind everyone (and sometimes yourself) why you are doing the things you do.
  2. List last week’s prioritized tasks and if they were achieved. If they were not, a few words to explain why. The goal «here is to learn what keeps the organization from accomplishing what it needs to accomplish. See below for format.
  3. Next list next week’s priorities. Only list three P1s, and make them meaty accomplishments that encompass multiple steps.
  4. List any risks or blockers. Just as in an Agile stand-up, note anything you could use help on that you can’t solve yourself. Do not play the blame game. As well, list anything you know of that could keep you from accomplishing what you set out to do. Bosses do not like to be surprised. Don’t surprise them.
  5. Notes. Finally, if you have anything that doesn’t fit in these categories, but that you absolutely want to include, add a note.

How Do You Assess Performance and Decide Who Gets Pay and Promotions? 

Instead of a one-time performance review event, use continuous conversations to coach and calibrate. Have 1-on-1’s at least twice a month and calibrate on three things: engagement, performance and alignment.

Quick Tips on OKRs Use

  • Set only one OKR for the company, unless you have multiple business lines. It’s about focus.
  • Give yourself three months for an OKR. 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 company OKR, then do groups. Don’t do every individual; that’s better in private 1:1s. Which you do have every week, right?
  • OKRs cascade; set company OKRs, then group’s/role’s, and then individual’s.
  • 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 is an antidote to Monday’s grim business. Keep it upbeat!