Why did we fall in love with Objectives & Key Results?

What are OKRs?

OKR is the acronym for the "Objectives & Key Results" method. Its originator was Andy Grove, head of Intel. While the author of the name itself - John Doerr, who introduced the method at Google. It is to the high effectiveness, confirmed by such giants as Facebook, Google and Amazon, that the OKR method owes its popularity today. We are not at all surprised by it! We fell in love with it, too.

OKR is, in a nutshell, the ability to set goals effectively. Seemingly nothing new (after all, we have management by objectives, SMART and other such methods), but nevertheless the way the goal is framed is unusual.

The objective of the OKR is constructed from two main elements:

• O (from Objective) is a general direction, a place we want to get to. It is expressed in a qualitative, non-quantitative way. The purpose of this element is to show the company's ambition.
• KR (from Key Results), on the other hand, are a number of measurably expressed indicators that will allow us to assess whether we have already reached where we were going. It's a good idea to express the goal in several ( optimally it's 2-5) related steps, containing numerical criteria that will be easy to measure at any time.

An example of an OKR might look like the following:

O1 - Sell through LinkedIn

KR - Increase profile visits by 25% in 2023

KR - Acquire a minimum of 100 quote requests via LinkedIn in 2023

KR - Make a minimum of 2 sales to customers acquired through LinkedIn

Intuitive, easy and objective - just the way we like it.

Why did we choose this method?

From the very first contact with the OKR method, we felt that we had to implement it. First, because it has an element of inspiration and motivation in it. From the first sentence (O - objective), you can understand where you want to go and identify with this plan. Secondly, OKRs are very transparent - they arrange plans into a cycle of events and allow us to understand what will constitute success, the achievement of our goal. And the third undoubted advantage is the simplicity of this method - we can successfully apply it both to strategic goals and to those of individual teams and even individuals.

And something that is simple, unambiguous and scalable can't fail to catch on!

When this article is written, the process of building OKRs for EXSO is already complete. We were able to articulate the 2023 objectives and their metrics very quickly and in consultation with the entire team. We are happy to boast about how we defined our O - Objectives. Let the rest (i.e. KR) remain a business secret.

We have four ambitious goals for this year. We have expressed them as follows:

O1: pObjective - We are exploring the world - winning foreign clients, building a network of partners, realizing unusual expeditions.We are telling the world about our events, increasing our reach, making people want to work at EXSO and share our story, all while having fun!

O2: pAccess - We are experts - we train, we build tools to do so, we stay up to date with technology, especially our technology stack. We are becoming a truly technology company and an expert factory.

O3: prOdukt - We have the best CPQ (Configure, Price & Quote) product on the Polish market and we are recognized in this competence area. We know how to bring new products to market, we regularly prototype, test hypotheses and look for new solutions.

O4: prOcess - We have full control over the company, we are organized and optimize our operations, We have defined responsibilities and work standards.

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What now? We act! We started by translating the KRs into tasks for each department. Then we did some training to gain momentum. We also implemented regular status reviews, more frequent than in the past. The first quarter is behind us, and we have already completed some of our KRs, which was a cause for more or less celebration in the team.  

So far we have had only good experiences. For us, OKRs are just OK. We recommend, we encourage, we recommend!

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