These 5 questions help to make your OKRs more successful

So you are working with OKRs – do your teams now complain about effort „on top“? Do they feel there is missing support for their goals, or do they simply forget about their objectives along the way?

Here are five steps to turn your OKRs into a winning system.

Question 1:

Do your teams complain about additional effort „on top“? Do OKRs feel like a burden for them?

Solution: Identify a top priority goal with your team!

• Your goal must address a top priority issue, otherwise, your efforts will fall flat. 

• If OKR feels like „additional work“, it is usually because the OKR does not describe the real top priorities or challenges of your team.

• Remember: OKR is designed to help you achieve better results for the important things, not to add additional goals „on top“.

Question 2:

Do your OKR members not know how to achieve their OKRs? Do they complain about other departments not supporting them?

Solution: Define an actionable team!

Here are the attributes of a successful OKR team:

• Must be willing and have the time to work on the top priorities
• The functions needed to achieve the goal must be included 
• The people who actually do the work must be included

Question 3:

Do your OKR efforts „get lost“ after the drafting? Do teams start with good intentions and then forget about the OKR?

Solution: Have team members commit to invest specific time and effort

• OKR is a focusing tool, not a de-focusing tool
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  • If key players cannot ensure to invest time and effort, it is a sign that you’re not focusing on a top priority
  • or: you are lacking core assets (players)

• OKR is a tool to take your team to a new destination
  • It is not a „fire and forget“ method
  • When in doubt, better let it be!

• Here is a tool that has helped me get teams to commit:
  • Agree on a limited time invest (e.g. 4 hrs/week)
  • Agree on a trial period (e.g. one quarter)
  • This way, people can be sure not to be eaten up by the effort
  • Plus: you can hold them accountable for their commitment

• Think of an airplane ticket:
  • What sense does it make to buy a ticket if you can’t check in for the flight?

Question 4:

Do you feel that your OKR results are somewhat underwhelming?

Solution: Focus on value for the customer

Here are some steps to a good OKR:

• Have your team write for itself a challenging, only 70% attainable goal
  (Do not write the goal for them)
• The OKR describes a real, valuable outcome for a clearly defined customer (external or internal), not a roadmap
• The team defines Key Results which:
  • ​​​​​​​They themselves can measure
  • Do show real progress towards the outcome
  • Are defined ~50% top down and 50% bottom up

Question 5:

Do you feel that your OKRs are based on assumptions? Do your checkins revolve around unsolved topics?

Solution: Work on your product strategy to fill the gaps in your OKR environment!

• OKR is a tool to make your achievements outcome-oriented
• It helps you bring better outcomes, especially for cross-functional teams
• It can also help you understand your organisational challenges better

• It will not, however, fill the gaps in your strategy (or your staffing)
• No team of helpful minions will appear out of nowhere, just because you have written down a nice objective

• Here is more on product strategy and why it is essential

Article image: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash / useproof.com