TJL #10: How to set goals like Google
How to achieve more and supercharge your career with Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) just like Google
Hi friends,
Welcome back to Today Jan Learned (TJL) #10. In this newsletter I try to share something interesting every day. Today’s lesson is about how you can supercharge your career by setting goals like Google.
In this edition I:
Explain what OKRs are;
Show you how to write effective OKRs; and
Provide 6 simple tests to see if your OKRs are any good.
Preface
This post is about the book Measure What Matters by John Doerr. The book talks about how Google sets their goals using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).
I copied the most interesting and actionable pieces from the book, replaced “Google” with “I”, and edited it lightly.
For example,
At Google, we like to think big. We use a process called objectives and key results (OKRs) to help us communicate, measure, and achieve those lofty goals.
Becomes
I like to think big. I use a process called objectives and key results (OKRs) to help me communicate, measure, and achieve these lofty goals.
I just want you to know that most of these words are, not mine, and copied straight from the book. Yet, I believe that they are true and very powerful. That’s what I want to share with you today.
Here we go.
(Google’s) OKR Playbook
I like to think big.
I use a process called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to help me communicate, measure, and achieve these lofty goals.
I believe my actions determine my future.
I also believe that, with the right goal-setting framework, people, teams, and organisations can experience significant growth in a short amount of time.
I view OKRs as the manifestation of these careful choices, using OKRs to coordinate my actions to achieve these lofty goals.
I use OKRs to plan what I’m going to produce, track progress, and coordinate priorities and milestones between myself, my teams, and the organisation.
I also use OKRs to stay focused on the most important goals, and to help myself being distracted by urgent but less important goals.
I don’t expect to hit all my OKRs. OKRs are big, inspirational, and incremental. If I hit all of them they weren’t lofty enough.
I grade my OKRs on a colour scale going from red (score of 0) to green (score of 1.0).
Writing effective OKRs
How do we write effective OKRs? Poorly done OKRs are a waste of time. Well done OKRs are both inspirational and motivational. It is imperative that we write good OKRs.
Good OKRs are an effective management tool because they provide clarity on:
what is important
what to optimise
what tradeoffs to make during their day-to-day work
Writing good OKRs is not easy, but not impossible. Use the following simple rules to guide you in writing your OKRs.
Objectives are the “Whats”
Objectives:
express goals and intents;
are aggressive yet realistic;
are tangible, objective, and unambiguous. (It should be obvious to a rational observer whether an objective has been achieved.)
successful achievement of an objective must provide clear value for Google/Employer.
An example objective could be: “Establish myself as an expert in my field.”
Key results are the “Hows”
Key results:
express measurable milestones which, if achieved, will advance objectives in a useful manner
must describe outcomes, not activities. (If your KRs contain words like “consult”, “help”, “analyse”, and “participate”, they describe activities instead of outcomes. Instead, describe the end-user impact of these activities: “publish average and tail latency measurements from six containers by march 7”, rather than “assess latency.”)
must include evidence of completion. The evidence must be available, credible, and easily discoverable.
Key results often start with “as measured by.” For example:
Objective: Establish myself as an expert in my field
Key result #1: As measured by publishing 10 blog posts on the subject
Example
This is an example OKR.
The objective is clear and aspirational.
Its key results are measurable and provide clear progress towards achieving the objective.
Two kinds of OKRs
Furthermore, we distinguish between two kinds of OKRs.
Committed OKRs are OKRs that we all agree on should be achieved and we are willing to adjust schedules and resources to ensure that they are delivered. The expected score for a committed OKR is 1.0. Anything less requires an explanation for the miss. Showing either error in planning or execution. This is closely related to experimental failure vs operational failure.
Aspirational OKRs are OKRs that express how we would like the world to look, even though we have no clear idea how to get there and/or the resources necessary to deliver the OKR. Aspirational OKRs should have an expected average of 0.7 with a high variance.
Litmus test
Use the following litmus tests to see if your OKRs are any good:
If you wrote them down in 5 minutes, they probably aren’t very good. Think.
If your objective doesn’t fit on one line, it probably isn’t crisp enough. Think.
If your OKRs are expressed in terms of team-internal terms (e.g. “Launch foo 4.1”) they probably aren’t very good. What matters is not the launch but the end-user impact. Why is foo 4.1 better than foo 4.0? Better: “Launch foo 4.1 to improve sign-ups by 25 percent.” Best: “Improve sign-ups by 25 percent.”
Use real dates. If every key result happens on the last day of the quarter, you probably don’t have a real plan.
Make sure your key results are measurable. It must be possible to objectively assign a grade at the end of the quarter. “Improve sign-ups.” is not a good KR, “Improve daily signups by 25 percent by may 1” is.
Make sure the metric you use is unambiguous. If you say 1 million users do you mean all-time users or 7-day active users?
Manager-led coaching
If you are a manager you can support your subordinate in his OKRs by asking yourself the following questions:
What behaviours or values do I want my report to continue to exhibit?
What behaviours or values do I want my report to start or stop exhibiting?
What coaching can I provide to help the report fully realise his or her potential?
What part of your/your subordinate job excites you most?
What, if any, aspect of your/your subordinate’s job would you like to change?
Now what?
In this post I explained what OKRs are, how to write good ones, and provided some tests to see whether the ones you wrote were any good.
Now what? Start brainstorming about your own objectives! Be bold! Think big! When you have nailed them down start thinking about your key results. How can you measure your progress towards those objectives?
That’s it! You can find me on my website janmeppe.com or on Twitter at @janmeppe.
Thank you so much for reading. See you next time!