Objective Key Results (OKR’s) is a great addition to setting a clear direction for teams and to be aligned between a product team and consumers of the value the product teams create.

I started working with OKR’s with my product teams some years ago and added them as an artifact to my product catalog framework in 2019. The product OKR’s set the medium-term direction for the product, with a Red thread to the backlog/sprint as the short-term and the product vision is the long-term direction.

How to work with OKR’s in the Product Team

I like to use the OKR’s as a medium-term guiding star and as a strong artifact to build a bridge between the product team and the consumers of the product (stakeholders) on the direction the product is going. 

I see the process of defining the OKR’s equally important to the actual OKR’s. A strong process around defining the OKR’s ensures a deep understanding in the team about what we do, why we do it, what the goal is, and not least shared responsibility of archiving the objectives defined both in the team and with the stakeholders. 

From a responsibility perspective, the stakeholders/customer lead is responsible for defining the objectives while the team is responsible for defining the key results, but I generally recommend strong collaboration about creating both in shared workshops facilitated by strong Scrum Masters.

A product team should have 1-2 objectives per quarter.

The Objective

The objective defines where you want to go. It should be a short statement reflecting a goal or intent for the coming quarter. I like that the objectives define a business goal or business intent, as it makes it easier to be driven by the value the product team wants to create.

Each objective should have 3-5 key results.

The Key Result

Key results are a grouping of time-bound and aspirational measures that defines how we archive the objective they relate to. Key results are not a shared to-do list and they can reflect both the leading or a lagging indicator of success.

 

Tips for setting strong objectives

• What are you trying to archive?
• Why does it matter?
• Does the statement inspire you?
• When you read it out loud, is it clear and concise?
• Does it align with your long-term or high-level objectives (product vision/roadmap)

Tips for setting strong key results

• Include metrics so we know when we were successful
• Focus on what would be amazing to archive within the next 90 days
• Determine 2-4 key results per objective
• When you read it out loud, is it clear and concise?
• Does your team feel engaged and inspired by the key result?

Practical advice

• Mutually agreed and be transparent
• OKR’s are not a performance management tool
• Be ambitious 
• Less is more
• Don’t lose sight
• Ensure buy-in from business stakeholders and management

 

Continuously confidence score the OKR’s

Even with best-defined OKR’s things can still go wrong. Therefore it is important to confidence score the OKR’s to see if we are on track and evaluate if we need the reprioritize or change something. 

I recommend that the product team score each key result after the definition, and then on the planning meeting after each sprint on a scale from 0.0 to 1.0. 

The updated confidence scores are valuable input for the product manager when they prioritize and in their communication to the stakeholders.

 

Other ways of using OKR’s

As mentioned, I like to use OKR’s as a medium-term guiding star, but I have also seen OKR’s used by Vice Presidents to create structure and set direction on a higher strategical level, which also works very well if they are well defined. (but there are better ways of doing that)

 

Recommended material about OKR’s

When I start working with OKR’s in a new team or organization, I usually buy Radical Focus by Christina Wodtke books for all team members (and stakeholders) and encourage everyone to read the book.

I also ask the Scrum Master and product manager to reference to the book and content in the team’s daily work.

 

Book me to help you get started with OKR’s

I offer both training and facilitation to get you and your organization started with working with OKR’s

Contact me