# Succeeding with OKRs in Agile ## Pitch OKRs are about goals bigger than the next story. OKRs prioritize purpose and strategy over backlogs. Objectives are big goals; key results are smaller goals that build towards the objective. Does your agile team get lead astray by burning fires? Do you struggle to keep your agile team focused? ![](https://1936518372-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MAffO8xa1ZWmgZvfeK2%2F-MWT8A3Jw3RUx7opGZ6y%2F-MWTDZJ5zlYZjjrOtM73%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=09bffd15-173e-4cc9-9f06-2d7da56c7e47) ## Infographic ![Succeeding with OKRs in Agile infographic](https://1936518372-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MAffO8xa1ZWmgZvfeK2%2F-MYf14nuRnNsrikDsc40%2F-MYf1LvH-XpXiPCF1HQ7%2Fsucceeding%20with%20okrs%20in%20agile.png?alt=media\&token=7e9b9793-f570-4155-b10e-16d4aeffe8b0) {% file src="" %} High Resolution infographic {% endfile %} ## Notes ### Short Quick lessons * Bottom up * Don't impose OKRs from above * Don't set OKRs top-down * Organization * OKRs are a team sport * True north * Use OKRs to guide and fight to stay on course * Don't stick blindly to OKRs as the world around changes * Leaders * Build psychological safety / make failure an option * Make completely clear what the organization's priorities are * Reviewing * Ask questions as : * How does this create value ? * How will this be measured ? * Are these goals ambitious enough ? * Are the goals too ambitious ? * Team * Make the team responsible for setting their own OKRs and delivering them * Money * Do not link OKRs to bonuses and remuneration ### Introducing OKR * OKRs = Objectives and key results * Objectives are Big Goals * Key results are smaller goals that build towards the objective * Goals bring focus * Focus is powerful * **OKRs = "Test Driven Management"** * Decide what you want (Objective) * Next set a series of acceptance criteria : key results * Get on and develop * Don't consider yourself done until you can pass the tests and meet the objectives * Dissecting OKRs * OKR is something you and your team wish to achieve * Good OKRs are outcome-focused * Not about measuring progress towards a goal * Are all about delivering outcomes that add value * Each result should be useful in and of itself * An objective should have its own wholeness that is more than the sum of its parts * Whole objective should create more value than simply the value of the Key Results added together * OKRs get reviewed ***at the end of each quarter*** * The real benefit is in the outcomes delivered * ***Ambition over estimation*** * The aim of OKR * Not to do everything * **The aim is to be ambitious (push further)** * Teams are not normally expected to complete 100% of their OKRs * ***70% is more common*** * With OKRs teams are encouraged to **aim high** * Not impossibly high * BUT high enough to be challenged ### Why Use OKRs * 3 reasons why OKRs work well with an agile approach * Fill a need at the mid-term planning level * OKRs are essentially a test-first approach * OKRs enhance communication * Mid-term planning * Glue between the short-term daily / sprint planning and long-term plans * Test-Driven OKRs * Each Objective has a set of Key Results * Each of these Key Results is a test * Has the result been achieved * Each Key Result should be measurable * Test first approach * Creates focus * Tells you when to stop * *Stop when the tests pass* * Communication * Easier to communicate what a team is doing * A means of communicating status and progress * Success motivates continuation {% hint style="danger" %} *Some things are more important than OKRs and sometimes those things can't be measured.* {% endhint %} ### OKR History * Management by Objective - Peter Drucker (1992) * Managers decide strategic objectives * Effort & Resources * OKR - Andy Grove at Intel * Extended MBO with a focus on delivery | MBOs | OKRs | | -------------------- | -------------------------------- | | What | What and How | | Annual | Quarterly or monthly | | Private and siloed | Public and transparent | | Top-down | Bottom-up or sideways | | Tied to compensation | Mostly divorce from compensation | | Risk-averse | Agressive and aspirational | ### Outcomes, value and benefits * Outcomes should be things in their own right * Not proxies for something else * Outcomes should benefit customers * Value and benefit are synonous * People tend to associate 'value' with a number * Benefits fits more easily when talking non financial value #### Value Value comes in many different forms * Learning is valuable * Knowledge on new tech for example * Feedback is valuable * Extend our existing knowledge * Risk reduction is valuable * Increases the probability of delivering value * Money * "Money is the best form of feedback" ![](https://1936518372-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MAffO8xa1ZWmgZvfeK2%2F-MWZR1lf-Q9q8kZBt9pP%2F-MWZSDlNncvAVXuQvi22%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=9e9deeab-b19b-4d19-bb94-fd980453db58) #### Pieconomics In [Grow the Pie](https://www.amazon.fr/Grow-Pie-Companies-Deliver-Purpose/dp/1108494854) * Taking a board-level 'stakeholder-value' approach to value * Rather than a narrow 'shareholder' value view * Grow the pie so that there is more for all * Compelling evidence that pursing a larger pie for all * creates non financial value * benefits society * brings financial rewards too ### Writing OKRs * Quarterly writing of new OKRs is a strategy question : * *What are the strategic priorities for the next quarter ?* * *What does the team aim to do ?* * *What targets will the team set for itself ?* * Prioritization is not just about deciding what to do * It is also deciding **what not to do** * Everything that is not in the OKRs is lower priority (by definition) * OKRs operate within a cycle : prioritize, focus, execute, review #### Team setting * *Are you setting utility OKRs or aspirational OKRs ?* * One team may embrace ambition and aim high * Other teams may value predictability and set goals they are confident can be achieved * Mark aspirations * Some teams mark objectives or key results that they feel to be aspirational #### Limited number * Aim of OKR = create focus * Self-defeating to set too many OKRs * Teams exist to share work * TowarD a common purpose * OKRs serve to provide that purpose * OKRs serve to help say "NO" * At least "Not Now" * 3 is the maximum (Allan's recommendation) * This rule of thumb serves both for the number of O and the numbers of KRs #### Priority * All OKRs are not equals * Some might be higher priority * Possible to prioritize Key Results independently of objectives * Example : KR1 of O1, KR1 of O2, KR2 and KR3 of O1, ... * Warning : it complicates matter #### Effort * In sprint or days per OKR * Priority does not correspond to the capacity allocated #### When to Set OKRs ? * No specific time to set them * Should not be set weeks and weeks in advance of the quarter they will apply * Just a few weeks : * 2 or 3 should be fine #### Not Money Profit is a side effect of delivering on that purpose and creating value ### Objectives * First thing to write = Objective * Something the organization wants / values * Something that contributes towards the bigger goals that leaders have outlined * The thing you are trying to achieve * Perhaps the thing you are trying to build / create * A change you are seeking to make * The objective doesn't need to explain the problem in detail * Make the value the objective brings obvious * Example : * Retool the delivery pipeline to facilitate CD * **VS** Increase ROI by reducing TTM with a new delivery pipeline and continuous delivery practices * Use the "so that" * Avoid boxing yourself into a specific approach or solution {% hint style="info" %} One OKR for the team per quarter : nominated by the team to increase productive capacity {% endhint %} * Testing trouble : time * Some OKR can be measured after a specific amount of time * Can be marked as achieved * Final judgement for a later date ### Key Results * Deliver value with each KR * Fight against dominos * Don't accept dependencies * Test-driven * KRs are the tests against which the objective will be measured * Example : * Make the site easy to use OR The site is secured * *Turn into testable statements* * New users can complete a purchase on the site within 5 minutes without cursing ### KR tricks * ***Experiments*** * Phrasing a key result as an experiment can be a useful way of attempting something with an uncertain outcome * Exemple : Run 3 experiments to increase page views * Success is doing the experiment itself and absorbing the learning * Like this it makes safer for the team to take on risk * ***Hypothesis-driven development*** * Template ![](https://1936518372-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MAffO8xa1ZWmgZvfeK2%2F-MWZzTjapdbuBE0UZeQx%2F-MWZzt4iHodGxGG3CwW7%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=56907b05-eafe-4a44-a4d8-d18562b59733) * Outcome of those KRs = learning * Time-boxed * Experiment for 4 weeks for example * Survey * Make changes to people * Test it with a survey ### Organizing to deliver OKRs * 2 schools : * OKRs are additives * Add more work * A new way of injecting work * OKRs are everything * OKRs = origin of all work and all organization ![](https://1936518372-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MAffO8xa1ZWmgZvfeK2%2F-MW_-rDxZXzNjFvm5skS%2F-MW_09OlYKmOlGBrCtLq%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=55791d33-6af8-45f9-b06b-905354c09ae0) * OKRs everywhere * "Will this contribute to achieve the OKR?" * Sprint planning with OKRs * Planning meeting needs to include a full review of the current OKRs * Direct the team to the highest prio OKR * Avoid the temptation to do a little of everything #### Traffic lights and status | Color | Status | Meaning | | ------ | ----------- | ----------------------------------------------- | | White | Not started | | | Yellow | On course | | | Green | Achieved | No more work needed | | Red | Troubled | Problems encounter | | Purple | Abandoned | Team has accepted the goal will not be achieved | ### OKRs and backlog * 2 approaches : * Backlog first * OKRs first * Success * No longer burning down the backlog * Delivering OKRs * Choose Sprint Backlog items derived from the OKRs * Might be KRs themselves ### BAU * Problematic in an OKR driven world * Does not generate new business benefit * Option 1 : suppress BAU * Force BAU to go away * Option 2 : reduce or remove BAU * Set an OKR to reduce BAU * Think about google * Community support portal for example * Option 3 : make BAU better * Make the work better * More efficient with better quality * Option 4 : Objective 0 * BAU in the OKRs * Objective 0 -> keep the existing system operation within the historic range * Add a 4th OKR for BAU here ### Beyond the quarter * 3 horizons in terms of planning : * Now : sprint planning looks a few weeks into the future * Soon : OKRs look to the next few months * Later : looking months and years into the future * Can create valuable learning * Don't expect plans not to change * What if thinking {% hint style="info" %} OKRs form a link between the big and possibly nebulous strategy and the specific-code face work of agile teams {% endhint %} * Don't forget technology * Technical excellence and consistently high quality = key strategy for agile teams * **Technical liabilities** over technical debt * Better metaphor * Debt has a good side (buy houses, ...) ### Leaders * They need to set the context of work through culture, big goals and strategy elements * They need to embody and live the culture as role models for the teams * They can promote behaviors and decisions in line with the culture * It is the myriad of tiny daily decisions that managers make that bring culture, goals, strategy into being ### Culture * OKRs require supportive culture * Psychological safety * Failures will happen * *"if you aren't failing, you aren't trying"* * Delivery culture * Culture needs to value delivery * Not hours worked, not partially done work * Delivery = actual working products being used by actual customers ### Aspirations * Utility mode vs aspirational mode ![](https://1936518372-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-legacy-files/o/assets%2F-MAffO8xa1ZWmgZvfeK2%2F-MW_6g7A9pb2TvZizZI0%2F-MW_7KgzSeE8x6j6yJEE%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=b6b10eca-95e1-41a2-80e5-dea6bdaf5f89) ### Warnings {% hint style="danger" %} Don't link remuneration to OKR outcomes {% endhint %} * Once money is attached to OKRs * People feel compelled to chase 100% success * Easiest way = reduce the target * Look at employee behavior instead * What behaviors would you like from your team members ? * What kind of behavior makes work go more smoothly ? > As with agile, you need to find you own way to OKRs \[...] be prepared to experiment.