Master OKR for Your Startup

Wen Shaw 蕭文翔
Cooby HQ
Published in
4 min readApr 8, 2023

By Wen, ex-Meta and Dropox PM. My startup Cooby builds the world’s most powerful WhatsApp.

中文版本在英文版下方 ⬇️。

Photo by Mark Tegethoff on Unsplash

My first stab at setting OKRs for my team was a hot mess.

I jumped in headfirst without knowing the ins and outs. But hey, we all start somewhere, right?

Luckily, after running quarterly OKRs for five quarters, we’ve leveled up our game. And now, I’m spilling the tea on how we did it.

Turns out the bumps we hit are pretty common in other planning processes too. So there’s a whole treasure trove of wisdom to unearth here.

Here’s the ultimate guide to mastering OKRs:

OKR Planning

Objectives (what’s) and Key Results (how’s) are the bread and butter of OKRs. They define what to work on. But planning isn’t just about deciding what to do — it’s about doing it right.

You know the saying, “Don’t jump to conclusions.” With OKRs, leaping to conclusions too soon is a major hiccup, so let’s break down some typical ways people jump the gun:

Pitfall 1: Goal without strategy

We all love setting KPI goals, but let’s be real: without a clear strategy, your team won’t know which business activities to focus on.

If you’re in SaaS and every quarter your OKR is “Grow MRR” (objective) and “Grow MRR 20% MoM” (key results), your OKR planning doesn’t do much.

In other words, setting OKR without a strategy is just like driving from A to B in a straight line without knowing the roads in between.

A better way? Set the right Key Results that measure your business activities, and the revenue will come ideally.

Let me rephrase: you can’t manage revenue, but you can manage the business activities that ideally will deliver the revenue.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

For startups, it’s pretty hard to know the right strategey with certainty. So, we all have to make educated guesses. But the good founders will make better and better guesses over time. In a nutshell, you’ll have to get savvy at ditching bad options and going all-in on the good ones.

Pitfall 2: Planning before diagnosis

Sure, brainstorming future plans is exciting, but don’t skip reflecting on past failures. Otherwise, you’ll keep tripping over the same mistakes.

Dig deep, find the root cause, and learn from it. That means a good diagnosis.

Analyze, diagnose, and understand the current problems before making new ones.

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

Alright, we’ve covered enough about planning. Time for OKR execution.

OKR Execution

If you only want a one-line takeaway, get your team on board.

Once you’ve got your OKRs locked and loaded, it’s time to make sure your team is all in. Or you’d face these issues:

Issue 1: Different team cadences

If your team’s execution cadence doesn’t line up with OKRs, you’ll be stuck spinning your wheels.

For example, our engineering team runs 2-weekly sprints (incredibly agile!). If OKR isn’t locked in the sprint, it’s not at the forefront for them.

Our fix? We maintain a separate Better Engineering backlog to include the OKR items, so they get added to the sprint too.

Issue 2: Day-to-day tasks aren’t driven by OKR

Don’t let action items slip through the cracks after your OKR review. Track them, assign owners, and hold people accountable.

Our solution? Run OKR review in our weekly staff meetings.

In staff weekly, people from each team (engineering, product, design, marketing, and support) come together, review OKR progress, and set Critical Tasks for the week. Next week, Critical Tasks are reviewed.

It’s all about keeping everyone accountable and laser-focused on the OKRs.

And that’s a wrap!

Sure, we’ve had our ups and downs with OKRs, but we’ve come a long way.

We may not have perfected the process, but we’re always learning and growing. And now you can too. So go forth, set your OKRs, and crush your goals.

中文版:新創上手 OKR 101

Photo by Mark Tegethoff on Unsplash

我第一次為團隊設定 OKR 時,結果一團糟。

我在沒有深入了解之前一頭栽進去。總是要從某個地方開始的吧。

幸運的是,在經歷了五個季度的 OKR 之後,我們終於懂了許多。所以現在,我來分享我們是如何解決遇到的問題!

這些問題在各種規劃流程中也很常見,所以學了一次,還可以用在很多地方!

掌握 OKR 的終極指南開始。

OKR 規劃

目標 Objective 和關鍵結果 Key Results 是 OKR 的基礎。它們決定你下季要做什麼事情。但規劃不只是決定要做什麼,更重要的事是要做得對

大家都說:「不要草率下結論」。在 OKR 中,過早下結論就是個大問題,要犯這個錯,有幾種方式:

陷阱 1:有目標無策略

創業的,都愛設定 KPI 目標,投資人要看,團隊也想看。

但事實是:沒有清晰的策略,只有 KPI。你的團隊不會知道應該做什麼(活動)會成功。

舉個反例,如果你在 SaaS 行業,每個季度的 OKR 都是「增加 MRR」(目標)和「月增 MRR 20%」(關鍵結果),那麼你的 OKR 規劃等於沒規劃。

換句話說,沒有策略的 OKR ,就像開車從 A 點到 B 點,不看道路地圖,就直線給它衝了過去。

怎麼辦呢?你該設定正確的關鍵結果,去衡量你的活動指標。理想上,活動指標做到了,營收將隨之而來。

讓我換個說法:營收是不能被控制的,但你控制團隊做什麼活動,達到什麼指標,理想上,營收就會隨之而來。

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

對於新創公司來說,100%確定正確策略是相當困難的。因此,我們都必須用「猜」的,但要有水準的猜。好的創始人會隨著時間,做出越來越好的猜測。簡而言之,你需要可以透過試驗,摒棄爛蘋果,全力以赴地把握好的機會。

陷阱 2:在診斷之前就規劃

人性使然,構想未來的計劃很讓人興奮,但不要忽略反思過去的失敗。否則,你會一次又一次地犯同樣的錯誤。

深入挖掘,找到根本原因,並從中學習。這意味著要做好診斷。

在制定新計劃之前,先分析、診斷並了解當前的問題

Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash

Ok,我們已經談了足夠的規劃。現在該談談 OKR 的執行了。

OKR 執行

一句話總結,就是讓你的團隊真的動起來

一旦你確定了 OKR,就要確保你的團隊全力以赴。否則你將面臨以下問題:

問題 1:團隊節奏不一致

如果你的團隊的執行流程與 OKR 不一致,就會出問題。

舉例來說,我們的工程團隊進行兩周一次的 sprint(非常敏捷!)。如果 OKR 沒有納入衝刺,那麼它們就不會成為團隊的首要任務。

我們的解決方案?我們另外維護一個的「Better Engineering」的待辦事項清單,將 OKR 項目納入其中,這樣它們也會加入 sprint。

問題 2:日常任務跟 OKR 脫鉤

在 OKR 審查之後,不要讓執行項目漏掉。追踪它們,分配負責人,並讓人們承擔起責任。

我們的解決方案?在我們的每週工作會議中進行 OKR 審查以及追蹤。

在每週工作會議上,來自各個團隊(工程、產品、設計、營銷和支持)的人聚在一起,審查 OKR 進展,並為本週設定關鍵任務。下週,再審查關鍵任務。

這一切都是為了讓每個人對 OKR 保持負責和高度專注。

就這樣!下集待續

其實,我們在 OKR 方面經歷了高潮和低谷,但我們走了很長一段路,學到不少。

我們不可能在 OKR 上盡善盡美,但我們會繼續學習成長。現在你也可以。開始設定你的 OKR,並實現你的團隊目標。

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Wen Shaw 蕭文翔
Cooby HQ

CEO & Co-founder of Cooby. Sequoia-backed. Ex-Meta and Dropbox PM. Cooby 執行長,曾任 Meta & Dropbox 產品經理.