The #1 issue I see with product managers new to OKRs is the challenge moving from activity and output to value and outcome goals.
Unlocking the true power of Objectives and Key Results depends on setting value-based goals because it's the only way to focus on what really matters, and measure whether teams are on the right track. Product managers that learn how to make this shift can expect exponential improvement in working on the right things at the right time, and abandoning work that doesn't deliver far sooner, before the "sunk cost" fallacy takes over. Unfortunately, the engrained habits of years of activity focus and project thinking continues to lead product managers and their teams astray.
Fortunately, renowned industry OKR expert Felipe Castro offers 3 reasons why value-based OKRs are crucial, with clues on how to make the shift.
Good OKRs restate success as improvement
Success can't be measured by simply "doing" things - it can only be measured by improving something. This is crucial because
Reason #1 - We want a results-focused culture, and not one focused on tasks.
Reason #2 - If you did all your tasks and nothing improved, that is not success.
Reason #3 - Your action plan is just a series of hypotheses
We'll lay out the forces behind these reasons, and a way to address each:
#1: Moving from task- to results-focused culture
No organization can survive with an army of mindless automatons.
Management needs to shift from holding teams accountable for delivering "stuff" to always re-centering on the crucial "why" behind the work. Everyone on the team should be able to state exactly why they're engaged in the work, what success looks like, and how it's measured. The Product role, as the chief keeper of the "why" and "value" needs to lead with articulate, passionate leadership and evangelism across their teams and pushing back against management when they ask for "stuff," always making sure that there's a measurable definition of success aligned to the Key Results.
#2: Redefining what "Done" and "Success" look like
Many teams ship stakeholder-requested features to great fanfare and celebration.
Days, weeks and months later, no one goes back to measure whether that feature has actually delivered the anticipated results. It won't take too many discovery and delivery cycles sunk into work that doesn't deliver before an organization is out of business, and by then it's simply too late. Product can avoid this by keeping focus on the feature's mutually-agreed upon success criteria after launch. Both quantitative (data & surveys) and qualitative (live interviews) approaches can be employed to track progress against the real meaning of success.
#3: Accepting that everything is just a hypothesis & how to de-risk
Product continuing to work with these concepts opens the door to the necessary mindset shifts to exponentially increase OKR effectiveness.
Moving from task- to results-focus, and redefining what "Done" and "Success" open the door to management and teams alike embracing the humility to accept that everything they're working on is really a hypothesis. The way forward involves Thinking Big, Starting Small, and Learning Fast, continuously aligning progress against OKRs at a regular cadence and pivoting as necessary.