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 #1 SaaS for OKR Goals

Top OKR Tips

from John Doerr
John Doerr and
“Measure What Matters”
Who is John Doerr?
• Began his career in 1974 at Intel where he learned OKRs from Intel’s
ex-CEO Andy Grove who is respected as one of the top CEOs in the
business
• Investor in some of the world’s most successful companies:
- Google, Amazon.com, Twitter, Intuit, Symantec and Sun
- Companies backed by John have created more than 300,000 new jobs.
• Chairman of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

A small sample of the companies John Doerr invested in and was on the Boards of:
 John Doerr launched his “Measure What Matters” book in
2018, a business bestseller about OKRs where he shares
valuable lessons about managing organizations effectively.
The OKR Revolution
Challenges that companies face

95% of employees do not fully understand the 40% of global CEOs cite failure to align as the
company’s goals or what’s expected of them single greatest challenge to executing strategy

84% of companies are not using their 50% of average workforce time is wasted
workforce to its full potential on non-productive work

Source: Brookings Institute & SHRM Research; Harvard Business Review: “Office of Strategy Management”, Robert Kaplan and David Norton; Harvard Business Review: “Why Strategy Execution Unravels”, Robert Kaplan and David Norton;
PWC - Saratoga Institute / Corporate Executive Board Research: Measures that Matter.
 The total cost of a typical workforce:

70%
Source: Brookings Institute & SHRM Research
OKRs

A management approach used to align everyone at your

company, focus everyone’s effort on what really matters
and make all progress measurable so that you can
achieve your top corporate objectives and accelerate
your business performance and results.
 The Google
OKR video

500,000+ global views!

A Simple Tool

• No rigid rules

• A few easy principles

• Adaptable and flexible

• Can fit your company’s context

Source: OKRs are described as “Open Source Framework” on p.85 in the book Objectives & Key Results by Paul R. Niven and Ben Lamorte
The performance of your company
is directly linked to the performance
of your people.

™
Companies That Use OKR Goals
John Doerr’s OKR Insights
OKRs at Intel Were the Modernized and Improved MBOs
John Doerr Defines OKRs

• OKRs are a management methodology that helps to ensure that the company
focuses efforts on the same important issues throughout the organization

• Objectives and Key Results, are a collaborative goal-setting protocol

for companies, teams, and individuals

• Ideas are easy but it’s execution that’s everything. OKRs help with better execution

Source: “Measure What Matters”, John Doerr, 2018

John Doerr & 4 Superpowers of OKRs

1. Focus and Commit to Priorities

2. Align and Connect for Teamwork

3. Track for Accountability

4. Stretch for Amazing

In a Nutshell: 4 Biggest Benefits for Your Organization

1. Focus

2. Alignment

3. Accountability

4. Acceleration
OKRs - Definition

• Objectives (Os)
- Simply WHAT is to be achieved
- Significant, concrete and action oriented
- They are vaccine against fuzzy thinking
- The objective is the direction

• Key Results (KRs)

- They benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective
- KR should be succinct, specific, and measurable
- The KRs typically include hard numbers

Source: “Measure What Matters”, John Doerr, 2018.

 We Want to:
{Objective}

as measured by this set of KRs:

{1. Key Result}
{2. Key Result}
{3. Key Result}
John Doerr on Value Proposition and Benefits of OKRs

• It’s about “achievement orientation”

• Surface your primary goals and channel efforts and coordination
• Link diverse operations, lending purpose and unity to the entire organization
• For anyone striving for high performance in the workplace, goals are very necessary
• Specific hard goals produce a higher level of output. Productivity is enhanced by well-
defined, challenging goals
• A two-year Deloitte study found that no single factor has more impact than “clearly
defined goals that are written down and shared freely… Goals create alignment, clarity,
and job satisfaction”
• Managers become coaches, mentors, and architects. Actions – and data – speak louder
than words

Source: “Measure What Matters”, John Doerr, 2018

Setting OKRs: “Bottoms Up” vs. “Top Down”

• Goals can be thoroughly cascaded, heavily

driven from the top, but with input from below

• You can tell people to clean up a mess, but

should you be telling them which
broom to use?

Source: “Measure What Matters”, John Doerr, 2018

A Critical Tool in Crises Situations
• In a crisis, you need a system that can drive transformation – quickly

• That’s what the Key Result system did for Intel. It gave management a tool
for rapid implementation

• John Doerr tells a story about a crisis at Intel and Operation Crush when Intel
needed to turn itself around. He closes Chapter 3 saying “Today, tens of billions
of microcontrollers – in computers and cars, smart thermostats and blood-bank
centrifuges – all run on Intel architecture. As we’ve seen, none of this would have
happened without OKRs”

Source: “Measure What Matters”, John Doerr, 2018

A Simple Tool For Any Company

• At small companies, they are a survival tool, at mid-sized rapidly-growing companies

they are a shared language for execution and clarify expectations;
at larger companies, OKRs are neon-lit road signs, they demolish silos
and enable connections among all far-flung contributors

• OKRs were constant reminders of what our teams needed to be doing.

They told us precisely what we were achieving – or not

• If you get everybody pointing in the same direction, you maximize the results

• I relied on OKRs to communicate more clearly and help my team get

our most important work done

• John Doerr refers to OKRs as a “Swiss Army Knife”, suited to any environment

Source: “Measure What Matters”, John Doerr, 2018

A Must-Have for Every Company Today

• I couldn’t imagine there would be any other way to manage and lead a high-growth,
operationally-excellent company (on working at Intel using OKRs)
• OKRs can help set the culture of your company. It will help introduce a language
to the company
• Companies are turning to OKRs and CFRs (Conversations, Feedback and Recognition)
as tools for culture change. Goal alignment, transparency, check-ins, coaching,
and development are replacing the hierarchical structure
• On transparency of goals - research shows that public goals are more likely to be attained
than goals held in private. Simply flipping the switch to “open”
lifts achievement across the board. In an OKR system, the most
junior staff can look at everyone’s goals, on up to the CEO
• If you don’t measure it, it doesn’t matter
Image source: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/green-kingpins-pt-3-vc-john-doerr-of-kpcb
Everybody Does OKRs

• One of the essential qualities of OKRs is: everybody does them…Everybody

• Many early adopters were from the tech world but companies from other
industries such as BMW, Anheuser-Bush, Samsung and Disney follow
the principles and practices of OKR
• Regardless of the size of your company or its life-stage, through
the implementation of OKRs, you can begin the continuous management
improvement process
• In sum, objectives and key results are a potent, proven force
for operating excellence – for Google, so why not for you?

Image source: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2017/07/17/kris-duggan-betterworks-john-doerr-kpcb-book.html

Not a Silver Bullet

• It’s not some kind of silver bullet; it’s a powerful, clear, empowering
communications tool to get transparency, some accountability,
and a lot of enthusiasm about what it is that’s really important
• This is nothing more than a system to prioritize and communicate and to get
everybody’s efforts focused on the few things that really matter most
• If the fundamentals of strong leadership and sound judgement are in place, OKRs
can guide you to the mountaintop

Image source: http://fortune.com/video/2018/05/21/john-doerr-measure-what-matters/

The CEO’s Commitment to OKRs is Absolutely Critical

• OKRs require a public commitment by leadership, in word and deed

• This system works provided the leadership of the company embraces it.
If the CEO of the company doesn’t believe in OKRs and won’t pursue them,
I suggest you not try
• If the leader of the organization or the team sets personal OKRs as well as group
OKRs, I daresay this is the most powerful tool you can have to achieve operating
excellence and high performance in your organization

Image source: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/blog/techflash/2015/03/kleiner-sexism-trial-john-doerr-tells-how-he.html

Things to Keep In Mind

• The key for any team or any group is that you use this on a regular, written basis.

• Over the course of several periods, you and your team can get much better
at using OKRs
• If your sales force has got a revenue number that’s certainly important to being
an objective or key result somewhere in the system, it’s not okay to miss
the revenue forecast. Just let that be known: on that one,
we’re going to measure it at 100%. And by the way,
the sales force is going to be paid commission based
on whether or not they achieve it.

Image source: http://www.businessinsider.com/john-doerr-on-the-secret-sauce-of-venture-capital-2015-9

OKRs are a Tool to Help You

• OKRs are not meant to be strict or used as “chains or blinders”

per John Doerr

• They are adaptable and are meant to be helpful guardrails

• They are not the “only” thing you do, but the “must do”
It’s About Focus

• OKRs are not everything that is happening in the company. The sum of the OKRs is not a
work order for the organization

• These are the things that you, the leaders of the company, and the contributors,
have decided really matter. These are the things where we want special focus
or intention

Image source: https://www.recode.net/2018/5/14/17350538/john-doerr-measure-what-matters-book-kleiner-perkins-okrs-kara-swisher-teddy-schleifer-podcast

John Doerr on “What, How, When”

• It may make sense to ease into OKRs

• There is no religion and no one-size-fits-all

• The best OKR cadence is the one that fits the context and culture
of your business
Andy Grove’s Basic OKR Hygiene

• Less is more

• Set goals from the bottom up

• No dictating

• Stay flexible

• Dare to fail

• A tool, not a weapon

• Be patient; be resolute

Source: “Measure What Matters”, John Doerr, 2018

CFR - Conversations, Feedback, Recognition

• Due to the well documented failings of annual performance reviews

we need a new HR model for the new world of work

That transformational system, the contemporary alternative to annual

reviews, is continuous performance management. It is implemented
with an instrument called CFR

Image source: http://fortune.com/2018/04/16/john-doerr-okrs/

CFRs - Check-Ins

• As workplace Conversations/Check-Ins become more prevalent managers

are evolving from taskmasters to teachers, coaches, and mentors

• Critical topics for conversation between manager and contributor:

- Goal setting and reflection

- Ongoing progress updates

- Coaching

- Career growth

- Lightweight performance reviews

Image source: http://www.businessinsider.com/no-conflict-no-interest-john-doerr-twitter-2011-3

On Questions Linking OKRs to Compensation

• For companies moving to continuous performance management, the first step is

to divorce compensation from OKRs, both raises and bonuses. If you really want
to develop people, you should give them clear feedback about what they need to do
to grow. But that’s not when you tell them what their bonus is

• OKRs will influence your performance rating and review, but not determine it.
So it’s one factor out of several
- I’m not saying that everything in the OKR system has to be divorced from bonuses
or incentives – not at all – it’s just if the whole body of OKRs is all tied to bonuses
and incentives, then you’re not going to get the risk-taking that you want

• If you really want to develop people, you should give them

clear feedback about what they need to do to grow.
But that’s not when you tell them what their bonus is
Image source: http://fortune.com/video/2018/05/21/john-doerr-measure-what-matters/
But wait, there is more…

™
OKR Examples
Example OKR for Customer Experience

• Objective: Create an Exceptional Customer Experience

• Key Results:
- Improve the Customer NPS (Net Promoter Score) from 5 to 9
- Increase Repeat Customer Business to 70%
- Maintain Customer error rate under 10%
Many Ways to Wordsmith OKRs

• Objective: Recruit 5 great people and improve our talent

• Key Results:
- Interview 10 qualified candidates
- Hire 5 new employees
- Improve the Employee NPS from 6 to 9
Starting to Use OKRs
Less is More

We must realize – and act on the

realization – that if we try to focus
on everything, we focus on nothing.
A few extremely well-chosen
objectives impart a clear message
about what we say “yes” to
and what we say “no” to.

Source: High Output Management, Andy Grove, p.111

The key is to set and use
OKRs frequently.
Source: HR Technology Disruptions in 2016, Bersin by Deloitte, Josh Bersin
The biggest impact on
performance and results
is when goals are
COMBINED WITH
Check-ins & Feedback.

Source: Gallup – Employees Want a Lore More from their Managers

How Many?

• Typically, you should have 3-5 quarterly Objectives

• And you will have 3-5 KRs per each O

Three Keys to Success

1. Discretion

2. Common Sense

3. Walk before you run

 “Never mistake activity with results.”
- Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM and RJR Nabisco
(Credited with turning around IBM’s fortunes)
Image Source: Forbes
Don’t mistake or confuse Goals with Tasks

• A task (a “to do”) is something that you do

• A project is an initiative – to complete your project, you have to do various tasks

• A goal is the desired future state - a Result - which you want to achieve
- i.e. you have to complete a projects which include tasks (and sllocate resources, schedules,
etc.) in order to achieve your goal
Visual Goal Alignment:
A Linked Hierarchy of Goals and Objective to Objective Alignment
Start Your Meetings by Checking Progress on OKRs

• How is your progress

on your top goals?

• Do you think you’re

on track overall?

• What are the small wins

you’re proud of?
Identify Problem Areas Early

• Where are you stuck?

• What are the bottlenecks

where I can help you?

• What goals are “At Risk”

(in the red)?

• How can I help you attain

these goals?
Cross-Functional
Alignment & Collaboration

• Are teams aligned?

• Is there cross-functional
collaboration?

• Are people commenting on each

other’s goal progress, praising
goal attainment, nudging
the effort, offering feedback?
 1. Set clear direction – set
& track agile goals (i.e. OKRs)
Feedback
2. Do regular 1-on-1 Check-Ins
Progress Recognition (weekly or bi-weekly
Check-in
conversations with coaching
& development)

3. Enable constructive peer

Review
feedback
Agile Goals / Snapshots
OKRs 4. Provide regular recognition

5. Periodic performance
snapshots (typically
The Cycle of 2-4 times per year and
Effective Management grounded in data collected
from regular check-ins)
Free Gifts
for Our Webinar Attendees
 Want a Live Demo ?
• Free Goals/OKRs Consultation
• Customer Case Studies

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Thank you!

™
Image Sources
• Page 2: https://www.forbes.com/profile/john-doerr/#697fec9c26c5

• Page 4: http://www.kpcb.com/partner/john-doerr

• Page 6: https://twitter.com/johndoerr & http://www.thedrive.com/tech/3932/google-founder-larry-page-now-building-flying-cars

• Page 7: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/5122033/Bill-Gates-donates-1.3-million-for-childhood-pneumonia-research.html

• Page 22: https://www.recode.net/2018/5/14/17350538/john-doerr-measure-what-matters-book-kleiner-perkins-okrs-kara-swisher-teddy-schleifer-podcast

• Page 23: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841778_1841780_1841785,00.html

• Page 25: http://allthingsd.com/20130508/accels-breyer-leads-forbes-midas-list-of-top-tech-investors-again-while-kleiners-doerr-leads-in-media-scrutiny/

• Page 29: https://techcrunch.com/2015/07/30/kpcbs-john-doerr-is-coming-to-disrupt/

• Page 30: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/no-conflict-no-interest-john-doerr-twitter-2011-3

• Page 31: https://www.zdnet.com/article/silicon-valley-visionary-award-honors-intels-andy-grove/

• Page 58: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology-world-pays-tribute-to-former-intel-ceo-andy-grove/