Enabling capabilities of OKR

You’re being misled about the reason for OKR failure. There are countless posts, threads and even blog series on why OKRs fail. Most of them focus on misinterpretations of the framework, but in my experience these kind of mistakes only cover a small proportion of OKR failures.

For the purposes of the article I will assume the framework is being used to solve problems it is suited for. For example, improve focus, increase alignment, measure progress, execute strategy. If you’re trying to solve something else, stop reading here and find a different framework!

OKR is a simple framework often defeated by context. Unlike paid for frameworks like SAFe (shudder), they aren’t trying to solve everything. They represent a relatively small, but very important piece of a large puzzle.

What are the right connection points for this piece of the puzzle?

The thing about a jigsaw is that the picture starts to form when you connect pieces together. Here are the connections to look for when putting OKRs in the picture.

You can’t execute a strategy that doesn’t exist

I describe OKRs as a strategic execution framework. It helps us keep our execution aligned with our strategy. Here’s our first challenge. Most organisations Marty Cagan meets don’t even have a product strategy. My experience suggests that most companies don’t have a strategy, let alone most products.

Even when there is a strategy document, it fails to answer key strategic questions and doesn’t make the choices needed to be a strategy. So there we have problem number 1. Don’t bother using a strategic execution framework, unless you have a strategy.

Here are some characteristics of a good strategy:

• States where you will play in terms of market, customers and opportunities
• Proposes how you will win in that market. Given competitor awareness it provides hypotheses on where the organisation can outperform that competition.
• Prescient of the orgs capabilities and where it needs to improve
• Reflects and accepts uncertainty, offering a path where hypotheses are proved wrong
• Current, adapting to new learning and discovery
• Made explicit through documentation
• Is deployed and communicated in a way that recognises the sometimes different needs of its users

Used well, OKRs not only help us execute our strategy, they also help test our stategic hypotheses.

Data is a key ingredient for data informed decision making

We all know that key results must be measurable. They are there to help inform our decision making. They make our target metric for the period explicit and help us track progress towards the goal. With tools such as Amplitude, Pendo and Google Analytics we live in data rich times. Yet many teams struggle to create and/or get access to the data they need.

OKRs can help you emphasise shorter feedback loops, but not without the data to power insights.

You can’t change outcomes without changing behaviour

As with most frameworks, the true benefit is the behaviour change. OKRs encourage shorter feedback loops. If you want to move the needle on a metric you have to accept you won’t inherently know what activities will work. If you still focus on large initiatives and fixed roadmaps, OKRs won’t change your outcomes.

Empowerment - Teams solve the how, not the leaders

The framework solves organisational and team sized problems, but the onus is on the leadership team to create the context.

As I just covered we want shorter feedback loops. These are not possible when a team is having to check every action with their leadership. We can’t make that change if we focus on the outputs over our outcomes.

Teams must be empowerment to find the ‘how’ themselves. Goals are set mutually agreed through bi-directional discussion. From here leadership needs to allow the team to work out how to achieve those goals. Of course, leaders help by coaching people, but that is different from telling them what to do.

Leadership focus sets the tone

OKRs represent the most important goals for an organisation or team in a defined time period. It makes those goals explicit. Given this importance you’d expect the goals to be a source of constant conversation. If you’ve ever been a part of a leadership team, you’ll already know that keeping the main goals front and centre is challenging.

There is always something pressing to discuss. This usually extends to conversations outside the leadership team.

When teams hear leaders talk about everything but the critical goals, they naturally start to think that the goals aren’t as critical as they were told. Teams reflect the behaviours of their leaders. If the leaders don’t keep the most important things front and centre, nor will the teams.

Leaders who focus reflect on OKRs in several contexts.

• In leadership meetings
• In all hands calls
• In 1:1s

This helps remind teams what outcomes they should focus on.

These are some of the enabling capabilities for OKR success. I am interested to hear what others you’d add.