Creating a GREAT objectiveAnd a quarterly planning process to support OKRs

Kendra Moroz Director, Customer Engagement

TODAY’S WEBINAR HOSTED BY

@7Geese#OKRs

I’ll respond after the next 60 minutes!

Wendy Pat Fong Director, Customer Success

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What goes into a great OKR?A great starting criteria to create OKRs

An understanding of what a great OKR is not

A focus on the right metrics or key performance indicators

Translating tasks into results and planning out supporting projects

Getting an idea of how you plan to assess progress once it’s all over

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OKRs are not… Unspecific goals with a task list

Boring and monotonous

Overly specific to be constraining

A statement that notes a business vision

A one-size fits all model

Shortsighted

General actions you plan to take

instead, they are… Reminders why you do what you do day-to-day

Aspirational and challenge you to be innovative and creative

Written so anyone can understand how you’re contributing to business strategies and priorities

Aligned to organizational values

our blueprint for a great OKR

Time based with a clear due date for grading

Non-numeric, qualitative

Aspirational - saying your outcome with confidence sounds hard

Answers, “what am I working towards without focusing on the tasks that get me there?”

Empowers and promotes collaboration and cross-functionality

Numerically measured

Utilizes a threshold or delta to measure change (from x to y or ‘increases’ or ‘minimizes’)

They are the end result of a series of tasks, but not the tasks themselves

There’s a baseline measurement to move away from or towards

Answers, “how do I know I have achieved my outcome/objective?”

Objective criteria Key result criteria

KR #1: 80% of new customers continue their subscription after 2 months.

KR #2: 50% of new users return within 2 weeks.

KR #3: Churn rate is < or = 2% this quarter.

Objective: Customers consistently find our product useful

An example

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incorporating KPIs into OKRs

Best practices: Clearly define target metrics important to your core values and business priorities - this will keep employees engaged because it fits with the culture and direction of the team

Establish a baseline target of excellence and how you’d like to move away or towards the “now” equivalent of that metric

Discuss expectations on check-in cadence and make sure it’s realistic for the KPI

Define what the feedback loop is for the KPI - if you have to wait more than than the quarter to receive feedback from your KPI data, try to avoid looping it in your KPI otherwise you won’t be able to effectively grade success

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An example KPI in an OKRObjective: Current users consistently receive a

positive customer support experience

Ask yourself: Are you currently at these ideal numbers and want to ensure they stay that way

OR is it that you're not at these baseline numbers and want to get to these targets?

This informs how you select a metric to measure the specific outcome you're trying to achieve.

Decrease median response time from 4 hours to 1 hour on inbound reactive support tickets

Key result:

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the aim of setting OKRs is to have a bigger impact by splitting time on fewer things, and focusing on results, not tasks (tasks change)

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linking tasks and projects to OKRs

Move the conversation from, “what steps am I going to take to complete this outcome,” to, “what am I expecting to achieve if I successfully complete this objective? What target indicator will define success?”

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tasks to OKR: an exampleObjective or Outcome:

Key result #1 Key result #2Engage and retain existing users, increasing adoption rate to 60% (it is currently 45%)

Potential customers understand our industry’s best practices

5 companies successfully introduce a process they learnt through our spotlight stories

Supporting project #1

- Task 1: Review success metrics to identify highly engaged customers - Task 2: Interview customer - Task 3: Write and publish spotlight story

Supporting project #2

- Task 1: Identify target audience to engage - Task 2: Create engagement campaign on brand - Task 3: Ship and promote campaign, monitoring results

Engage customers to write stories

Create engagement campaigns to share stories created

Supporting project #1

- Task 1: Identify target audience best suited for webinar - Task 2: Create engagement campaign to inform customers of webinar - Task 3: Execute webinar, analyzing results to incorporate next time

Supporting project #2

- Task 1: Write blog content that resonates with current industry trends - Task 2: Use social media to engage potential customers - Task 3: Engage existing marketing leads using the content

Webinar on best practices in our industry

Write and network 5 blog posts per month to increase sales qualified leads

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Objectives focus on:

You want to focus on the right metrics for growth, not just if something is completed

the impact of a series of tasks

are larger in scale

focus on aspirations and innovation

smaller action items

are small in scale

focus on milestone completion

Tasks focus on:

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top-to-bottom or bottom-to-top?Making an objective great means also considering how it aligns with other objectives in the organization

OKRs are driven by business priorities and core values - alignment keeps everyone’s agenda focused to what defines success for the team as a whole

Organization objectives act like a “North Star”

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grading OKRs

Have a conversation about grading while you set your OKR

Make sure your expected evaluation criteria matches your culture

One-size-fits-all is not the right approach - every OKR is unique

OKRs are about achieving objectives, not bonuses

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performance bonuses and OKRs co-existingBest practice: keep the two separated

Linking incentives to goal-setting can lead to competition over collaboration, quantity over quality, and less innovative, challenging, and success stretching goal-setting

Keep in mind… Connect bonuses to organizational OKRs over individual OKRs - promote collaboration over competition

Have oversight over everyone’s OKRs to ensure they meet company-wide expectations

Link bonuses not solely to OKR performance, but other criteria, such as professionalism brought to work, skills acquired, the level of OKR difficulty, amongst others.

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a great OKR is a goal that people want to look at Every month, every week - consistently engaging OKRs turns goal-setting into a habit. This changes how individuals approach everyday jobs-to-be done.

Milestones become natural, focusing conversations on what you need to do next to aim even higher.

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When to create great OKRs: planning best practices

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quarterly planning process best practicesBest practice is to:

- Go over yours and your team’s prior performance

- Evaluate how things went and why

- Discuss how you’re going to align goals over the new quarter

- Document how you plan to ensure mistakes from the last quarter aren’t carried over

- Remind the team about core values and strategical vision

Timeline: 3 weeks prior to the current quarter’s end

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Step 1: Leadership creates OKRs at the organizational level. Once finalized, they are distributed to everyone on the team.Timeline: 3 weeks before the quarter’s end

Step 2: Team leads discuss with their team how everyone can work to bring these organizational OKRs to life.Timeline: 1 week after organizational objectives are distributed

Step 3: Team leads are responsible to communicate how their teams align to the organizational objectives.Timeline: 1 week prior to step 4, an all hands meeting

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Step 4: ALL HANDS MEETING!

Connect to finalize and visualize everyone’s OKRs. Discuss how they relate to each other, what will be done over the quarter to ensure both parties are committed to reaching the desired outcomes.

Discussions focus on risks, blockers, or resources needed to support the OKRs.

By the end of this meeting there should be no lack of understanding, on for example, how an OKR may not support an organizational goal.

Timeline: A few days before the start of the quarter.

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awareness alone isn't valuable - it's how you wield it

Every great planning day incorporates a discussion where everyone gets asked ”can you commit to all of this?”

Have conversations that answer what success means in relation to how each team will support the other. and what resources is needed to make that support a success

Clearly discuss how goals will be tracked and how everyone will be held accountable

Aligning conversations

Assess cross-functional goals

Reflect on personal commitment

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THANKS TO THE MANY GREAT QUESTIONS THAT INSPIRED THIS CONTENT

Identifying key metrics that will help motivate employees who are disengaged. Amy

Translating tasks into outcomesTheodora

What is the right balance between OKRs for a team vs. their other day-to-day work?Clint

Is it better to focus on quarterly objectives or annual ones?Vishal

More about the OKRs planning processRakesh

How do you write compelling OKRs quarter after quarterJamie

Just to learn best practicesEVERYTHING!

What does a standard / best practice quarterly planning process look like from start to finish, including recommended timings? Filip

Aidan, Paola, and Laurie

How do you get individuals to update status of their OKRs?Akshay

How do you translate KPIs into OKRs?Kat

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FURTHER QUESTIONS

JOIN US, TUESDAY AUGUST 18TH

WEBINARSA RECORDED VERSION OF THIS QUESTION-ANSWER SESSION WILL BE AVAILABLE WITHIN 24S, SENT VIA E-MAIL.

WE’D LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK!

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