| I don't really believe in "individual OKRs" even though that's talked about in Measure What Matters. You don't come up with a list of OKRs before driving to the store, but you absolutely reference the dashboard with clusters of gauges on your drive there. At a firm level, this is as concise an example as any of what good looks like: https://felipecastro.com/resource/The-Beginners-Guide-to-OKR... For me, though, what good looks like is: In OKRs… - Os are the clusters of gauges you'd want on a live dashboard of your company (not of your product), (e.g., 1. maintain speed over distance, 2, engine running well, 3. vehicle systems nominal) - KRs are what each gauge cluster's needles point at (1a current velocity, 1b trip distance, 1c fuel consumption, 1d miles to next oil change, 1e miles till empty) Dashboard space is limited, so only have a specific number of clusters with no more than a few gauges per cluster (max 2 or 3 positive, max 2 or 3 counter-balances, no more than 3-5 total) They are not project milestones, they are not deliverables per se, they are numeric needle gauges making subjective qualia (the Os) objective (the KRs). Your GPS/map tool is for your projects. The dashboard is for how the vehicle is performing at its job. As in the example above, consider having counter balancing gauges to keep you honest. For example, in cluster 2, RPM is great, but engine temp shouldn't go red and oil shouldn't go empty, or your high revs are gonna give you a bad time. If finance or other overhead functions love running MBO (management by objective) using e.g. KPIs or BSC (balanced scorecards), let them. Don't screw up the value of a few clear strategic objectives with a few meaningful gauges with their excel spreadsheets. Above, I've said I don't believe in personal OKRs. That's not entirely true: I think a lightweight process is super valuable to keep your eye on the ball, manage yourself above the day to day, run your career and personal life as if excellence matters in all things. Excellent work, excellent home, excellent friendships ... Same principle as TODO, DOING, DONE being same as personal Kanban, it categorically helps. It's not ceremony or process that helps, it's the mindfulness and north star. |