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The OKR madness: 16 mistakes to avoid
There are a few different ways to facilitate goal setting and measuring progress. Unfortunately, many of them are flawed and end up bringing more friction, confusion, and madness into product organizations. Well, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) can be one of them. And, more often than not, their miraculous promises at the start don’t leave up to expectations when leaders decide to scale it across teams. Sadly, the blame usually goes to the tool itself rather than to the obvious dysfunctions in how their leaders lead and how their teams operate.
I try to avoid recommending OKRs without understanding the teams’ context first or providing a prescriptive “way” to use them. This is because all organizations are a bit different and there are multiple ways to succeed.
But with that said, when choosing to use OKRs, there are a few crucial and common antipatterns you want to avoid.
The good news?
None of this is rocket science. And when using OKRs well within the right environment, it can be an extremely powerful tool... So let’s dive in!
(Note: Everything I’ve learned about OKRs comes mainly from Jeff Gothelf, John Cutler, Joshua Seiden, Teresa Torres, Marty Cagan, Christina Wodtke, Itamar Gilad, Sonja Mewes & Nattlija Hellesoe, Felipe Castro, Jonathan Smart, and Tim Herbig.)
16 mistakes when using OKRs
1. Doing OKRs for the sake of doing OKRs
Many companies start doing OKRs because, well: “Everyone else is doing it and, look, they’re doing great!”. But doing OKRs is never the end goal. Instead, leadership needs to have a deep conversation about why they should adopt them in the first place, and what they’re hoping to achieve.
2. OKRs without a Strategy
OKRs are particularly useful for leaders who want to empower their teams with problems to solve or opportunities to tackle, in a strategic way. Which means that there’s a clear reason why certain problems have been prioritized. And, at the same time, other…
