OKRs, Project initiation, part 5
In part 4 we saw the set of questions we need to ask to define the smart goals, in this, we will talk about OKRs and what is difference between OKRs and the SMART method.
OKRs help establish and clarify goals or objectives for an organization, department, project, or person.
OKR combines a goal and a metric to determine measurable outcome
Objective: Defines what needs to be achieved (similar to goals) and a desired outcome i.e., increase the brand awareness or increase in customer retention.
KR’s/Key Results: Measurable outcomes that define when the objective has been met.
To understand the Key Result, we need to ask ourselves:
How we will know whether or not we have achieved the objective.
Example
- If the objective is to run 6k next month.
- Then the Key Result might be to achieve the additional distance of 2k from 4k till the end of the 4th week.
OKRs can have sub types i.e.,
Organization/Company level OKRs: Company-level OKRs are shared across an organization so that everyone can be aligned and focus their efforts to help the company reach its goals and they are usually updated on an annual basis.
Let’s take an example of the company Kamivision (my last working company)
Objective: Improve the customer service rating of multiple platforms.
Key Results:
- Establish a new sales and support team to support 24/7 support service by the end of the year.
- Resolve the top 5 common issues mentioned about the platform and the top 3 requested features by the end of the 3rd quarter.
Department-level OKRs: Additionally department have their OKRs that are more specific to their job function as well.
Example:
Objective: Establish a new sales and support team for customer success.
Key Results: Establish a new sales and support team across 3 user-based countries but the end of the year.
Project-level OKRs: Project-level OKRs need to align with both company and department-level ORKs, some of the company-level key results can be a base for project-level.
Continuing the above example.
Example 1:
Objective: Optimize the web platform and increase the performance of the user experience.
Key Results: Then the Key Result might be to achieve the bundle size of 5MB from the current 20MB, till the end of the next month.
Example 2:
Objective: Add customer onboarding and platform rating system across mobile and web platforms to understand user likeness towards the platform.
Key Results: Then the Key Result might be to achieve the successful integration of the onboarding and feedback system in mobile and web platforms by the end of the second quarter. (In the case the metric to measure the success can be simple Yer or No)
To help shape each objective, we should ask yourself and our team:
- Does the objective help in achieving the project’s overall goals?
- Does the objective align with company and departmental OKRs?
- Is the objective inspiring and motivational?
- Will achieving the objective make a significant impact?
Now we know about both the SMART method of defining goals and creating OKRs, now the question is What is the difference? how does one differ from another? I got a great reference that further answers this question.
https://www.whatmatters.com/resources/okrs-smart-goals-difference-between
In the next blog, I will go into the scope component of project initiation.
