How We Introduced OKRs at Animoto

When I joined Animoto as Head of People, I spent my first few weeks observing. I sat in on team meetings, held one-on-one’s with every leader, sent out our first-ever engagement survey, and most importantly, I listened.

Through this period of observation, I picked up on some recurring themes. While there was a spirit of camaraderie and teamwork within the company, there was room for improvement in our clarity and organizational alignment. The team was craving cohesiveness, and I knew exactly what would help — OKRs!

What are OKRs?

OKRs are a goal-setting framework that effectively and efficiently connects the company’s overall strategy with what employees are working on from day to day. The framework was created by John Doerr during his time at Intel and became popular at Google. Today it is one of the most well-known goal-setting frameworks out there.

Okay, but what do OKRs actually mean?

OKRs stand for Objectives and Key Results.

Objectives in OKRs are the high-level, aspirational stretch goals. They are what we are trying to accomplish and should be significant to the company. They should also be aligned and supported by the entire organization, and we measure their success through Key Results.

Key Results are the specific, measurable, time-bound, and actionable things that need to be accomplished in order to achieve an objective. In other words, Key Results are how achieving the objective is possible.

Example:

For a more in-depth explanation, along with best practices, tips, and tricks for OKR-setting, check out the book Radical Focus by Christina R Wodtke or read over this article from Google’s re:Work blog.

How we integrated OKRs into our organization

Once the need and solution had been identified, it was time to get the team bought-in. My first step was meeting with our CEO, Brad Jefferson. His support was critical to the success of OKRs at Animoto. I sat down with Brad, sharing data, elaborating on existing challenges, and explaining the OKR framework. Once he was brought around to the concept of OKRs, I was able to share my vision of how we could implement it at Animoto.

While I had managed to convince Brad of the benefits of the OKR framework, I still had to convince our executive team and management team that this was the right way to go. The OKR process would be a big undertaking for the team to manage, and if they didn’t see the benefit or understand the mechanics, there would be issues.

As expected, the execs and management team were a little harder to convince and required several meetings discussing the OKR framework and how it had been successful for other organizations. Once everyone was on board, we collaborated on a rollout plan and created a training program to share with the whole company at our weekly Monday Morning Meetings.

I’d be lying if I said everything was a breeze from that point on. There were a lot of hiccups and challenges along the way as we navigated the various logistical and philosophical components of making OKRs work for us. It took time and practice to customize the framework. Three years in, and we are still optimizing.

However, the OKR framework has been transformational. Our scores on engagement surveys show that employee understanding of our strategic vision has gone up, as well as scores related to cross-functional collaboration. Everyone has a clearer understanding of the long-term and near-term company vision, and teams are collaborating up front on how their goals intertwine.

How your company can benefit from OKRs

Forcing difficult strategy conversations

When we implemented OKRs at Animoto, some deeper strategic conversations that had been neglected surfaced. I remember one of the first OKR setting meetings we ran with our executive team. We had sticky notes all over a white board with several initiatives that all felt critical at the time. The OKR framework forced us to have difficult conversations about what actually needed to be accomplished within the next six months to a year, and what could be considered nice-to-have or aspirational things that we could wait on. By the end of the discussion, we were able to agree on a whittled-down list of initiatives that included 3–5 things we felt were the most important to focus on at that point in time and all be in agreement.

Communication and surfacing blind spots

Another great benefit of OKRs is the way they help ensure that departmental and cross-functional teams are communicating with each other about their goals, while shedding light on potential conflicts that wouldn’t be in the service of the greater company OKRs. Teams are able to see where they may have dependencies on other teams to execute against OKRs and plan accordingly. For example, if marketing has an OKR that requires help from design, design can be looped in during the OKR-setting phase and commit the appropriate amount of time without it conflicting with their own goals.

Accountability

With OKRs and specifically with Key Results, you are tracking your progress towards your goal over time. This process of checking in regularly builds a sense of confidence that each team is tackling the right set of problems. But OKRs also give insight into whether or not the things we’ve agreed upon are being accomplished. Ultimately, OKRs offered Animoto a level of personal, team, and company accountability that had been a challenge in the past.

Some tips for making OKRs successful:

• Iterate, iterate, iterate.
• Be flexible and customize — OKRs should work with you and for you. There is no right or wrong way as long as you are adhering to the core principles of the OKR methodology. You have to make it work for you.
• Create champions across the organization! This was extremely important to the success of OKRs at Animoto. Our Vice President of Product, Stevie Clifton, became a huge advocate for OKRs. His advocacy brought the product teams onboard which in turn influenced our engineering and design teams.
• Put your OKR-setting phases on the calendar at the beginning of the year and share the calendar with the organization. This will help you keep consistent OKR setting and ensure employees are planning OKRs at the appropriate times.
• Revisit your OKRs often. Integrate them into your team meetings and conversations. Make sure you are grading them along the way, as well as after the fact, reflecting on what is going well, what can be improved, and what you would do differently.

What we’ve learned

OKRs have been a game changer for us. While there will always be room for improvement, it’s helped the company rally around goals and initiatives. Teams have greater levels of visibility into what is being worked on across the organization, and there is a higher level of accountability for the work being done. Through the OKR framework, we’ve learned the beauty of strategic alignment and can encourage everyone at Animoto to do the best work of their lives.

Does your company use the OKR framework? We’d love to hear what you’ve learned along the way.

Want to work for a company that values alignment and goal setting? Join our team, we’re hiring!

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