Aligning impact from boardrooms to pixels

This is my talk from Agile Australia 2017 on the topic of how using objective and key results (OKRs) helps companies alignment from vision to execution.

1. @lifeofmle
Aligning Impact from Boardrooms to Pixels
Michael Le

2. @lifeofmle
10 years working with startups and enterprise companies
Built and grew products with 15 teams
Past roles: Developer, Team Lead, Scrum Master
I am Michael Le, Product designer at
Hello

3. @lifeofmle
Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done.
Agile Manifesto, Principle #5
“

4. @lifeofmle
What are your goals?

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1
2
3
Priorities

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Only 1/3 executives can name
their top 3 company priorities
Donald Sull (MIT) & Rebecca Homkes (LBS)

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Company Goals
Teams
Objectives & Key Results

8. @lifeofmle
Define.Focus.Scale.

9. @lifeofmle
Define your goals

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objective key results
The thing you want to doWhen you know you reached it
qualitative quantitative

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We will ____________________
as measured by _____________
objective
key results

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Increase revenue by 15% in the
next 3 months

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We will __________________________
objective
key results
as measured by ___________________
help users discover relevant content
Increase revenue by 15% in the
next 3 months

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Objective
We will help users discover relevant content
As Measured By
Increase revenue by 15%
80% of users play the discovered content
NPS score improvement of 56 to 60

15. @lifeofmle
Objective
We will help users discover relevant content
As Measured By
Increase revenue by 15%
80% of users play the discovered content
NPS score improvement of 56 to 60
Guide for Objectives
•Short and inspirational
•Customer focused
•Solution agnostic
•Defines the why

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Key Result Values
•Acquisition
•Activation
•Retention
•Revenue
•Referral
•Customer experience
•Performance
Objective
We will help users discover relevant content
As Measured By
Increase revenue by 15%
80% of users play the discovered content
NPS score improvement of 56 to 60

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Definition of done
Acceptance Criteria
(OKRs)
Success Criteria
From Delivery To Value
Felipe Castro
OKR Coach, Partner at Lean Performance

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If you measure it,
then you can improve it

19. @lifeofmle0.5
10
no progress0.3
minimum effort
0.7
difficult but attainable
starting target
nearly impossible

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Objective
We will help users discover relevant content
As Measured By
✅Increase revenue by 15%
"80% of users play the discovered content
✅NPS score improvement of 56 to 60
Grade: 0.6

21. @lifeofmle
Defining goals helps with
communication

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Focus your goals

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Teams today are all too often feature factories, with
little regard for whether the features actually solve
business problems.
Marty Cagan
“

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Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
Objective
High Customer Value
Low Customer Value
Low Business Value High Business Value
Objective
Objective
2 4
1
3

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4 objectives
3 key results per objectivesx
12 priorities

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1 objectives
3 key results per objectivesx
3 priorities

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Objective
We will enable the small businesses to be more
efficient with daily transactions
As Measured By
Increase transactions by 15%
10 new businesses sign up
100% uptime

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Monday
Friday
Set activity priorities
Make it visible
Report and celebrate progress

29. @lifeofmle
‘Everyone is too busy’ is a cultural symptom of a lack
of clear strategy and prioritization process. Need
objective process for saying “No.”
Jeff Gothelf
Lean UX & Sense and Respond
“

30. @lifeofmle
Objective
We will enable the small businesses to be more
efficient with daily transactions
As Measured By
✅Increase transactions by 15%
"10 new businesses sign up
✅100% uptime
Score: 0.7

31. @lifeofmle
Focusing goals helps with
effectiveness

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Scale your goals

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It starts at the company level

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COMPANY
Objective
We will help users discover relevant content
As Measured By
•Increase revenue by 15%
•Acquire 1000 new users

35. @lifeofmle
COMPANY
Objective
We will help users discover relevant content
As Measured By
•Increase revenue by 15%
•Acquire 1000 new users
PRODUCT
Objective
We will increase revenue by 15%
As Measured By
•Increase of in-app revenue by 10%
•Reviews in app store of 4+
MARKETING
Objective
We will acquire 1000 new users
As Measured By
•Increase conversions of visitors by 5%
•Referrals from blogs to increase by 2%
Strict Alignment

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COMPANY
Objective
We will help users discover relevant content
As Measured By
•Increase revenue by 15%
•Acquire 1000 new users
PRODUCT
Objective
We will improve the offline experience
As Measured By
•Increase mobile usage by 30%
•Increase in-app revenue by 12%
MARKETING
Objective
We will incr. awareness amongst indie scene
As Measured By
•Increase new visits by 20%
•Increase NPS from 60 to 70
Directional Alignment

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Does this look like waterfall?

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QUARTER 1 QUARTER 2 QUARTER 3 QUARTER 4
COMPANY
DEPARTMENT
TEAM
Top down and bottom up

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OKRs are shared

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PRODUCT TEAM

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Product Managers
DesignersEngineers

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TECH PRODUCT DESIGN

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TECH PRODUCT DESIGN
Splitting Goals

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Scaling goals helps with
understanding

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How do you start OKRs tomorrow?

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Define your goals
•Present and explain OKRs to company
•Define the objectives
•Set the key results

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Focus your goals
•Execute your OKRs
•Iterate your process

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Scale your goals
•Share your OKRs
•Review and adjust OKRs

49. @lifeofmle
What are your goals?

50. @lifeofmle
Define.Focus.Scale.
Michael Le