We fought the OKRs, and the OKRs won.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a popular way to align teams and strive for the same goals.
Wikipedia makes it look easy. Getting the framework to work? In an early-stage company? Turned out to be much harder than I thought.
After going through several OKR cycles with our team, we initially learned a lot about how not to do it.
Our key mistakes
Setting too many objectives or key results — the point of undivided attention is, well, not to divide it. With a team of less than 10, having more than a couple of items diminishes the attention given to them.
Picking lagging indicators — a goal is only motivating when you see how your actions move the needle. When people feel like something is out of their hands, they don’t have that drive to get it. This happens when their contribution is a small part of the whole, or when action and result are too far apart.
Caring too much about definitions — frameworks are only helpful as far as they work for your team. Being strict in following the ‘rules’ for OKRs was detrimental to what they could mean for us. Not everything can be represented in numbers. That doesn’t mean you cannot quantify things.
How and when did we know OKRs weren’t working for us?
The writing on the wall was loud and clear. Month after month, the OKR reviews were greeted with minimal enthusiasm. Even forgotten.
At the end of the quarter, we lost track of at least a couple of our key results and hadn’t even worked towards them.
Almost as bad, our OKRs were muddying the water in our communication with the rest of the company.
The team was more focused than ever. But as we scrolled through our long list of unachieved OKRs, it felt like we hadn’t achieved anything.
For a couple of quarters, we tried to improve. We put more effort in. We did more of the same, just tried harder. It didn’t work.
Turning point
Things changed for the better once we decided to stop and think. Reconsider what the priorities for our OKRs would be.
First of all, we decided to aim for something that inspired the team. To be inspiring, it would have to be compact and memorable.
Next, we made sure the value behind each key result was crystal-clear.
Finally, we diversified our OKRs. Instead of having everything connected to the core tasks of the team, we decided to mix in goals focused on team/personal growth and the way we build our team.
With these changes applied, our team rallied around the new objectives.
One of which was the engineering win. A moment where the engineering team made a direct impact on accelerating a deal.
An engineering win happens when the team delights customers with excellent results. With stellar tech support. With clear answers to hard questions.
The measurement of each engineering win was subjective, and the sales team was the judge. Still, subjective detection aside, we could measure the number of wins, and over the past six months have achieved more than two dozen.
The goal sparked a new ritual. It drove our engineering team to contribute to sales velocity — and with success.
These engineering wins contribute to company results. Which is great, but a company doesn’t run on results alone. Other key results have boosted the team in very different ways.
We’ve had one for escaping the bubble of our team by linking up with external people.
One for always showing a demo instead of just telling the team about what we’ve done.
Most recently, one for building a habit around giving and asking for feedback.
Every single one makes the team stronger. The whole team is positive about the way we run our OKRs today, and our review meetings are lively and full of energy.
Getting to this point took us about a year of trial-and-error.
Still, I’m happy to say that these (sometimes painful) iterations were more than worth it.
Want to get started with OKRs in a growing team? Expect to miss the mark sometimes. Keep at it until you find the OKR flavour that works for your team. Only then you’ll see objectives and key results work as a driver for success.
