3 things I learned from OKR expert Jeff Gothelf this morning
I had the pleasure and privilege of hosting a webinar with Jeff Gothelf this morning. We were joined by strategy and OKR leaders from Boeing, Intel, Ford, IBM, and many more. Jeff is such a charismatic presenter and a true expert on everything OKRs. It's impossible not to learn something every time you listen to him.
Here are my 3 takeaways from the webinar this morning:
Everything we do is based on our best guess at the time. In life, and work, what we should do next is a best guess. The speed with which we understand if these guesses have paid off or not has increased dramatically. Especially in the software world, it is no longer the case where big updates or launches are the norm. Actually, there are thousands or hundreds of thousands of deployments every day. What we must do is be better at capturing, and actually using, the feedback. What slows us down is managing to outputs (did we make the thing?) vs. outcomes (what behaviors did we change?).
“Who does what by how much?" is an equation for good key results! Jeff’s example KR: 50% decrease in the number of existing customers leaving the service due to its user experience.
Who = Existing customers
Does what = Leaving the service
By how much? = 50% decrease.
I love how simple this equation is to run against any Key Result. But I actually think it has applications way beyond just KRs. Like any time you are trying to make a decision that impacts behavior, which happens A LOT in marketing.
Everyone has a customer, every customer is human, and every human is weird! The essence of managing outcomes and successful OKRs, strategy execution, and marketing is about behavior change. And behavior change is fluid. As customers (humans) use your product—no matter if your product is hardware, software, or service—they will change, shift, and develop new uses. It is imperative to stay connected to the humans that use it and understand, really understand, their behaviors.
I am personally excited to get my hands on the upcoming book, "Who Does What by How Much?" by Jeff and his co-author Josh Seiden. I pre-ordered mine this morning.
Love this original slide from Jeff’s presentation:
