Great overview. The most important part for was finding the balance between 'too-easy' and 'too-hard'. I usually went with something a bit too-hard (like commenting on 30 linkedin posts a day), that I wasn't able to keep up with - resulting in me giving up that goal. I agree that 70% of it would have been good, but the feeling failure is demotivating.
The other part I'm not sure I agree on is the objectives outside our control. Usually those are the ones that matter - like open rate, number of subscribers, revenue and so on. the objective 'Expand the reach and quality of my newsletter' sounds vague to me.
When you set an objective, and it's not going as you expect, it's your cue for changing the KRs. If the objective is too vague - you might continue with the same things, that don't work.
This reminded me about the tech books newsletter, that we started with Orel 2 months ago. I told him that my goal is to reach 1K subscribers by the end of Q1. He then asked me 'what will that goal help? what will you do differently if the progress is not as you expect?'
And I actually had an answer for that: 'I'll ask other creators to share my work, I'll double-down on Reddit and LinkedIn, I'll do cross-posts. If I'll need to, I'll figure it out'.
I prefer to use things that are outside my control, but are quantifiable. Now I can set up KRs that I think will contribute to it, and adjust based on the metrics. Maybe I mixing the O and KR parts, but that's what works for me :)
Thanks a lot for taking the time to develop it. I think I agree with you there, you are setting something outside of your control as objective, but a set of KRs in your control that contribute to it.
I think the key here is that completion of all KRs doesn't mean you'll complete the objective. The strategy there should be not to complete the goal itself by a certain date but to complete all KRs as those are the things in your control.
That "failure" to meet the objective is an important metric to realize these KRs, even if completed, are not bringing the expected results. It's nice feedback to pivot, I hadn't thought of it in that way.
As long as you know what actions to take in your day-to-day, any metric is good. All companies measure how the customer interacts with their product, and not only the metrics they control.
Thanks a lot for reading and commenting, it was a nice reflection :)
I found that defining OKRs for your personal career goals, is much more effective than working without any tracking of goals. Great read, Fran! Thank you as always.
Great post, Fran, with many solid takeaways. The one area you get at is the notion of “Health Metrics” - What are the things you need to protect as you push to achieve your goals? Christina Wodtke in “Radical Focus” (Second Edition) shares a great format called the “Four Square.”
I wrote about this on my site, and you can also use either a Figma or Miro template to set up your own personal OKRs:
Figma Template
See the FigJam starter template file in the Figma Community here:
I was not familiar with the book or the "four square".
At the same time, I have seen at my workplace the value of reviewing the confidence of a goal every week. It's valuable feedback to take action on them.
I was currently just re-reading my quarterly OKRs every week and updating any progress made on them. But I didn't stop to tag a confidence score that I'll meet them. Your post gave me an idea to improve my process.
Love the breakdown of the different types of goals.
I found that when people spoke about "Goals", it was vague and not clear what they mean.
I appreciate how you dived into the different types and shared your recommendation for what to prioritize. Also, thanks for the link to the Google OKR guide too. Added it to my references!
I am in the process of defining OKRs for a project. Your post came in great timing. Thank you 💪
I hope it helps, Artur! :)
Hah I completely missed this post, great one! 👏
Thanks Akos!
Great overview. The most important part for was finding the balance between 'too-easy' and 'too-hard'. I usually went with something a bit too-hard (like commenting on 30 linkedin posts a day), that I wasn't able to keep up with - resulting in me giving up that goal. I agree that 70% of it would have been good, but the feeling failure is demotivating.
The other part I'm not sure I agree on is the objectives outside our control. Usually those are the ones that matter - like open rate, number of subscribers, revenue and so on. the objective 'Expand the reach and quality of my newsletter' sounds vague to me.
When you set an objective, and it's not going as you expect, it's your cue for changing the KRs. If the objective is too vague - you might continue with the same things, that don't work.
This reminded me about the tech books newsletter, that we started with Orel 2 months ago. I told him that my goal is to reach 1K subscribers by the end of Q1. He then asked me 'what will that goal help? what will you do differently if the progress is not as you expect?'
And I actually had an answer for that: 'I'll ask other creators to share my work, I'll double-down on Reddit and LinkedIn, I'll do cross-posts. If I'll need to, I'll figure it out'.
I prefer to use things that are outside my control, but are quantifiable. Now I can set up KRs that I think will contribute to it, and adjust based on the metrics. Maybe I mixing the O and KR parts, but that's what works for me :)
That's a super valuable perspective, Anton!
Thanks a lot for taking the time to develop it. I think I agree with you there, you are setting something outside of your control as objective, but a set of KRs in your control that contribute to it.
I think the key here is that completion of all KRs doesn't mean you'll complete the objective. The strategy there should be not to complete the goal itself by a certain date but to complete all KRs as those are the things in your control.
That "failure" to meet the objective is an important metric to realize these KRs, even if completed, are not bringing the expected results. It's nice feedback to pivot, I hadn't thought of it in that way.
As long as you know what actions to take in your day-to-day, any metric is good. All companies measure how the customer interacts with their product, and not only the metrics they control.
Thanks a lot for reading and commenting, it was a nice reflection :)
I think every company works differently with OKRs and KPIs, as you said - whatever works for you :)
I found that defining OKRs for your personal career goals, is much more effective than working without any tracking of goals. Great read, Fran! Thank you as always.
Thanks, Basma.
They give a sense of direction and progress towards something!
Great post, Fran, with many solid takeaways. The one area you get at is the notion of “Health Metrics” - What are the things you need to protect as you push to achieve your goals? Christina Wodtke in “Radical Focus” (Second Edition) shares a great format called the “Four Square.”
I wrote about this on my site, and you can also use either a Figma or Miro template to set up your own personal OKRs:
Figma Template
See the FigJam starter template file in the Figma Community here:
https://www.figma.com/community/file/1228814772812219348
Miro Template
If you’re more of a Miro person, you can find the template in the Miroverse here:
https://miro.com/miroverse/okr-four-square/
Please give them a spin and reach out to me with any advice on how to make them better for setting & achieving your engineering goals.
Thanks, Mike, for sharing!
I was not familiar with the book or the "four square".
At the same time, I have seen at my workplace the value of reviewing the confidence of a goal every week. It's valuable feedback to take action on them.
I was currently just re-reading my quarterly OKRs every week and updating any progress made on them. But I didn't stop to tag a confidence score that I'll meet them. Your post gave me an idea to improve my process.
Leaving here your "root" article in case anyone wants to read further: https://michaelgoitein.substack.com/p/the-okr-stack-crushing-your-goals
Love the breakdown of the different types of goals.
I found that when people spoke about "Goals", it was vague and not clear what they mean.
I appreciate how you dived into the different types and shared your recommendation for what to prioritize. Also, thanks for the link to the Google OKR guide too. Added it to my references!
Glad you found it useful, Jordan!
I started shaping my "aspirations" as OKRs and they are now concrete. Before I had ideas but there was no path to achieve them