Apr 05, 2021 | by Budi Tanrim
What should design managers do with OKR?
Your team got OKR, then what?
Your product team has a target to achieve. Each company uses a different framework for this. The most popular framework is OKR (Objective Key Result).
The objectives represent the most important thing to achieve for the company’s vision. The objective can as simple as “increase revenue” or “increase customer satisfaction.” The Key Result could be: “reduce customer complaints by half” or “increase new customers by 20%.”
If I can summarize them, you want to do these five things:
- Understand the context
- Communicate this context
- Figure out the how
- Experiment
- Continuously communicate
One: Understand the context
Talk to whoever decide on the objective. Understand why it is essential for the company. If we capture this objective, how would this excel the company?
The objective typically relates back to these: Increase revenue, protect revenue, reduce cost, or avoid the cost. When you have that conversation, try to map it to any four of these.
Two: Communicate this context
Your team member deserves to understand why. Consider communicating the context to your team member. They should know what they will be working on for a quarter or more.
Three: Figure out the how
At this point, you should explore a few options. For example, if your goal is to increase revenue, then there are a couple of ways: 1) Increase new users, 2) Retain the old users, or 3) Increase the value of existing users.
Your team can start to build assumptions. Analyze data. Do user research. For example, if the objective is to increase retention, then write assumptions about why people stop using your product. From here, you can either analyze data or observe people.
Four: Experiment
You can’t succeed right away. You will go through several experiments to find the best levers to achieve your objective. Try to experiment as much as you can at a rapid tempo. Your goal is to learn the best way to deliver value to your customers relevant to the objective.
Five: Communicate
I can’t stress this, but you need to communicate with the executive team. If you experimented and fail, share what you learned. If you see some potential win, communicate the hypothesis. Constantly keep them in the loop. Sure, the product manager would do this, but please collaborate.
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