Measure What Matters

Measure What Matters Summary

In “Measure What Matters,” John Doerr explores the concept of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), a goal-setting framework used by companies like Google, Intel, and Bono’s ONE Foundation. The book emphasizes the importance of setting clear, measurable objectives and using specific key results to track progress. Since reading this book, I have adapted OKRs to be the goal framework that I utilize for my entire life, including areas such as “Work and Career,” “Relationships,” “Finances,” and “Learning”

Measure What Matters Notes

Part 1 OKRS in Action

Chapter 1 Google, Meet OKRs

• An objective is what is going to be achieved.
• Objectives are
  • Significant
  • Concrete
  • Action-oriented
  • Inspirational
• Key Results are a benchmark and monitor how we get to the objective.
• KRs are
  • Specific
  • Time-bound
  • Aggressive
  • Realistic
  • Measurable
  • Verifiable
• If an objective is not met after all key results are achieved, then it was badly designed
• When people have meaningless or arbitrary shifting goals, they become frustrated.
• OKRs make having up to 20 direct reports at Google a functional possibility

Chapter 2 The Father of OKRs

• From inception, OKRs were designed to be simple. At its birthplace of Intel, a complex system would never last

Our MBO Ancestors

• “A corporation should be a community built on trust and respect for the workers–not just a profit machine.”
• If success is rewarded with bonuses, it detours people from taking risk

Measuring output

• Aggressive introverts attack the problem but not the person

Intels Lifeblood

• Publicly posting your OKRs gives you an opportunity to say no to things that don’t progress your priorities

Andy Grove’s Legacy

• Each cycle should have three or fewer objectives with no more than five key results each
• OKRs are a basis for individuals to pace themselves. It is not a legal document on which to base evaluations or bonuses
• It takes time to get good at OKRs. Four to five quarterly cycles

Chapter 4: Superpower #1 Focus and Commitment to Priorities

• What is the most important? Commit to those and defer the rest

In the beginning

• Senior leadership must commit to organizational level OKRs
• Top level OKRs take priority and everyone chips in to assist the team primarily responsible

Communicate with Clarity

• Senior leadership must know the top priorities for the organization at any one time. They then must make employees aware of those top priorities constantly and consistently

Key Results: Care and feeding

• Key results are number bound. They need to be measurable
• You should have 3 to 5 key results per objective. Too many more and you dilute the results and progress
• Key results should be reasonably challenging

What, How, When

• Yearly cycles are good for new organizations easing in. Quarterly is more nimble with changing markets

Pairing Key Results

• Key results should pair both a quantity and quality goal to make sure no unsafe compromise infests the process

The Perfect and the Good

• OKRs should adapt to changes. There is no such thing as a perfect OKR
• Completion of all Key results must result in attainment of the objective

Less is More

• Our time is finite. We can either half-ass a lot of things or give our all to 3-5 things.
• We must look at a list of many tasks with seemingly equal benefits and decide on the top 3-5

Chapter 6 Commit: The Nuna Story

• The more challenging an objective is the more temptation we have to abandon it

Chapter 7: Superpower 2: Align and Connect for Teamwork

• OKRs made public give transparency to the things we are working on. It opens them to criticism or praise

The Same page

• Vertical alignment is difficult for an organization
• OKRs make vertical alignment easier

The Grand Cascade

• Cascading occurs when upper levels of management push their objectives down to lower levels
• The problems with this
  • Loss of agility
  • Lack of flexibility
  • Marginalized contributors
  • One-dimensional linkages

Bottoms up

• OKRs skip the ladder. The CEOs objectives are clearly visible to all levels

Cross-functional coordination

• OKRs set up transparency which allows teams to clearly see when individuals or teams are knocking things out of the park or are falling behind. This allows others to come in and help

Chapter 8: Align: The MyFitnessPal Story

• Two great people with the best intentions for a business often pull in two different directions without proper alignment

Chapter 9 Connect: The Intuit Story

• Bosses and Supervisors need their own OKRs if the organization objectives rarely change

Chapter 10: Superpower 3: Track for Accountability

• OKRs have 3 Lifecycles

The Setup

• At large companies, OKRs need dedicated software. Text files don’t cut it when you have thousands of employees

Chapter 12: Superpower 4: Stretch for the Amazing

• Setting harder goals does mean you won’t always reach them. But you will perform better than if you only set easy to achieve goals

Our need to stretch

• For some we have this innate desire to push ourselves further and achieve more

Chapter 14: Stretch: The YouTube Story

Big Rocks

• When you have a bunch of big rocks, pebbles, and sand to put in a jar, you must start with the big rocks, pebbles, and then the sand. If you start with sand or pebbles the big rocks never fit.
• You must start with your biggest tasks first

A Better Metric

• In order for YouTube to grow they needed tasks that focused on increasing viewers watch time

Part Two: The New World of Work

Chapter 15: Continuous Performance Management: OKRs and CFRs

• End of year evaluations are ineffective due to recency bias
• “Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted”
• Conversations aimed at driving performance
• Feedback or networked communication among peers to evaluate progress and guide improvement
• Recognition or expressions of appreciation for contributions of all sizes

An Amicable Divorce

• OKRs and compensation are two different conversations

Conversations

• One on Ones should be driven by the subordinate
• Should be held weekly or monthly based on need

Feedback

• Feedback in a mature organization is always on and doesn’t have to wait for an HR meeting

Recognition

• Add peer to peer shoutouts to the end of staff and department meetings

Chapter 17: Baking Better Everyday The Zume Pizza Story

• “We go super fast. We just figure stuff out”
• Two things happen
  • Unsuccessful companies outgrow leadership teams capacity. Organization dies
  • Successful companies scale beyond the team’s capacity, and they get replaced