Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs

A fascinating read filled with eclectic stories of corporate experiences--the good and the bad. This book provides deep insight and guidance for considering what really matters and is most effective in the internal workings of your company to bolster success.

Use of OKRs is fantastic in any size business. Global goal setting and feedback- everyone in the company on the same page! Get ideas from all levels to solve problems and see improvements. Love it. Get input from everyone. Super great examples of how it works. Very good summary of each chapter at the back for quick refresh. Every business owner should read this book to make that company run well.

I have found this book really useful. I would say it could be useful also for anyone working in a large organization and dealing with the challenges, virtues and downsides of performance indicators methodologies, both for career development within the organization and for the organization's success. The book confirms the need to read Andrew Grove's (1983) High Output Management. And it reminds us that Peter Drucker's (1954) The Practice of Management is still relevant. I would highlight several ideas promoted by the book: First, regarding OKRs: the benefits of the transparency of OKRs, with all OKRs visible to the entire organization, from the CEO down to the lowest level employees; the recommendation of dual planning (annual and quarterly); the role OKRs should have on engagement, commitment and motivation; the importance of constructing and cascading OKRs in a meaningful way as opposed to by rote (set them and forget them), enthusiastic compliance instead of bureaucratic compliance; the need to have two kinds of goals (committed and aspirational); the need to encourage staff to define a portion of their OKRs, to let them develop their own objectives, a healthy proportion of alignment (top-down) and autonomy (bottom-up); the key role of culture and the impossibility sometimes of changing it without staff renewal; the recommendation to separate bonuses from the OKR cycle; the flexibility to adjust or discard OKRs mid-cycle; the real risk of big organizations at any time of having some significant percentage of people working on the wrong things; Second, all the discussion regarding performance management, the recognized futility and sometimes demoralizing effect of annual performance reviews, is very insightful. Other thoughts, not original from this book, but worth recalling: ideas are easy, execution is everything; the ideal number of direct reports to a manager should be somewhere between 7 and 20; the most important things need to get done first or they won't get done at all; not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted; transparency and accountability are two related but clearly different concepts, the latter rather an outcome, the former totally an output; moral suffers when people know they can't succeed. Unfortunately, the book has its shortcomings, most of them associated with the testimonies of OKR virtues. Particularly interesting is the case of Zume Pizza, presented as a success case (and OKR as one of the critical factors of that success story). However, we know now that the company bankrupted a few years after the book was published, showing that even the most successful venture capitalist is not always right, his knack for business not always foolproof. And also showcasing that OKRs might be necessary but certainly not sufficient. At any rate, since the book is complemented by a website (https://www.whatmatters.com/) I wish the author shared there a post-mortem, assessing what happened and the relationship between OKRs and that failure. On the other hand, the case of Bono's NGO could have been spared. Zero value added. And, maybe, also the one about the Gates Foundation. Both examples are part of the book's evangelizing, metaphor-ridden and inspirational tone, where billionaires are presented as driven only for the possibility of bringing happiness to humanity and not as real people, that take most of their decisions in the pursuit of money, power or fame.

A must read for any professional!

I just finished "Measure What Matters" by John Doerr. Such a great book full of advice for companies struggling with #execution. My favorite #quotes from this book: "Good ideas with great execution are how you make magic." @Larry Page "Ideas are easy. Execution is everything." "I view this year's failure as next year's opportunity to try it again." @Gordon Moore "Specific hard goals produce a higher level of output than vaguely worded ones." "Set goals from bottom up." "Dare to fail." "... four OKR superpowers: focus, alignment, tracking, and stretching." "Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them." @Andy Grove "When you are tired of saying it, people are starting to hear it." Jeff Weiner "Done is better than perfect." Sheryl Sandberg "... if we try to focus on everything, we focus on nothing." "Growth costs money." "... you can only do one big thing at a time really well, and so you better know what that one is." "Doing too much too soon will definitely end in pain." "To inspire true commitment, leaders must practice what they teach" "Transparency seeds collaboration." "Having a good mission is not enough. You need a concrete objective, and to need to know how you're going to get there." "... my favorite definition of entrepreneurs: Those who do more than anyone thinks possible ... with less than anyone thinks possible." "If you set a crazy, ambitious goal and miss it, you'll still achieve something remarkable." @Larry Page "Stretch goals can be crushing if people do not believe they're achievable. That's where the art of framing comes in." "Feedback is an opinion, grounded in observations and experiences, which allows us to know what impression we make on others." Sheryl Sandberg "Feedback can be highly constructive- but only if it is specific." "Continuous recognition is a powerful driver of engagement." "... a really good company values different opinions." "... behavior defines a company more meaningfully than product lines or market share." "Vision-based leadership beats command-and-control." "People watch what you do more than what you say." "Time is the enemy of transformation." "... there was no shame in trying your hardest and failing, not when OKRs help you fail smart and fail fast." "Goal setting is more art than science."

Like most business books this likely could have been a long journal article, but overall still worth a quick read.

I couldn’t put this book down, so I read it in one sitting. Many business books talk about the organizational brilliance of Andy Grove's Intel, Google, disruptive startups, and high-performing charities. This one actively teaches you how to mimic their organizational brilliance. The book distinguishes itself by providing clear examples of how OKRs help organizations achieve their full potential. Primary source documents, including internal memos, show how Intel CEO Andy Grove used OKRs to rapidly respond to competitive threats. As an admirer of Google, I enjoyed learning how OKRs were used at key points in its history. When Google employed 25 people, CEO Larry Page set OKRs for every engineer. When Chrome sought to disrupt the browser market, OKRs enhanced the product team’s creativity. When YouTube sought to establish its own identity within Google, OKRs helped the team set appropriate business goals. It’s really nice that specific OKRs from Google’s history are included in the book. Some people mistakenly believe that OKRs only work for Google, and the book provides clear examples of how OKRs were successfully implemented by startups, large corporations, and non-profit organizations. Entrepreneurs will enjoy learning how fitness, education, healthcare, and food delivery startups used OKRs to find new markets and manage their expanding headcount. Fans of corporate transformations will enjoy learning how OKRs led to human resources and technology process overhauls at some of the world's largest companies. Non-profit leaders will enjoy learning how the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Bono used OKRs to impact millions. All in all, I found the chapters to be short yet impactful, and arranged in a logical sequence. I particularly liked that as the book progresses, it provides clear examples of how to overcome the nuances of implementing OKRs. I felt my OKR-setting muscles getting stronger by the end of the book.

Author John Doerr began his career under the tutelage of the great Andy Grove, CEO of Intel, who transformed that company into the world's largest manufacturer of semiconductors. It was Andy Grove who turned a simple method “OKRs”, into a devastatingly effective business tool which became the lifeblood of Intel. In 1978, Intel had developed the first high-performance, 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086. Soon it was getting overtaken by Motorola’s 68000 which was easier to program. Using OKRs, Intel launched “Operation Crush” to deal with this threat. The results were fast, focused and effective. “When we smacked Motorola between the eyes,” Doerr writes, “A manager there told me, ‘I couldn’t get a plane ticket from Chicago to Arizona approved in the time you took to launch your campaign.’” Doerr left Intel to join the venture capital firm at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and became an early investor in Google. There he managed to entrench Andy Grove’s business tool to great effect and it is acknowledged as a key contributor to Google’s success. The results have made Doerr the 105th richest man in the US. This book describes how to use this tool. John Doerr is the current evangelist for OKRs, OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. As a strategist, I know the importance of knowing where you are going or as Yogi Berra pithily said: "If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” However, as Doerr writes, and as you and I know, “Ideas are easy. Execution is everything.” OKRs are for executing. An “objective” is simply what is to be achieved, no more and no less. Key results benchmark and monitor how we get to the objective. The difference between ‘key results’ and ‘key performance indicators’ are very different. I may really be impressed that you performed well, but your efforts are only useful if you achieved the results I need. Marissa Mayer would say of OKRs, “It’s not a key result unless it has a number.” With a number attached, OKRs are either met of not met. There is no grey area, no room for doubt. The time frame for an OKR can vary from a month to a quarter or more, but at the end of the period, they have either been met or they have not. When the objective is clear and specific, it produces far better results than when it is vaguely worded. ‘Performance excellence,’ or ‘Customer satisfaction’ are very different when expressed as ‘98% error free’, or ‘delivered within 12 hours’. Aside from Google and Intel, OKR adherents include IT firms such as AOL, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Oracle, Slack, Spotify, and Twitter. But adherents also include firms such as Anheuser-Busch, BMW, Disney, Exxon, and Samsung. The simplicity of the design of OKRs hides the complexity of implementing the method. When the OKR is formulated, it will undergo iteration – this is inevitable. And this is not the problem. The problem is the commitment of the most senior managers to the discipline that is required. Without the most senior managers' commitment this will fail, much as your previous systems have failed to produce the promised result. In a meta-analysis of seventy studies, high commitment to managing the company by objectives showed a productivity increase of 56%. Where that commitment was low, productivity increases were a mere 6%. The problem with getting results is compounded when we are employing people to think. On an assembly line, it’s easy enough to distinguish output from activity. It gets trickier when employees are paid to think. In a thinking environment, many of the benefits of OKRs are highlighted. A particular challenge for many in such an environment is separating the person from the activity. All too often, feedback becomes very personal leading many managers to avoid confronting non-performance. When the focus is on unequivocal results that can be tracked, then non-performance can move to an analytical discussion. After all, a performance management system is a tool, not a weapon. The OKR is formulated as “We will achieve a certain objective as measured by the following key results. This begins at the highest appropriate level of the organization and then all below can align their OKRs to this meta-OKR. When Bob Noyce and Andy Grove began the “Crush” project, the directive to Intel’s management level was simple and clear: “We’re going to win in 16-bit microprocessors. We’re committed to this.” This objective was given to the top one hundred people at the meeting. It was conveyed to the next level in 24 hours. Intel was close to a billion-dollar company at the time, and “it turned on a dime” - through a clear, aligned, objective and a clear required result. The “Crush” project included top management, the entire sales force, four different marketing departments, and three geographic locations—all working together as one. It was proof of Andy Groves assertion that “Bad companies are destroyed by crisis. Good companies survive them. Great companies are improved by them.” Great companies are not great because they have a great idea, but because their execution is great. There are no exceptions. Those who do not have excellent execution are an accident waiting to happen. Using OKRs, a successful organization can focus on the handful of initiatives that can make a real difference and defer the less urgent ones. The very act of formulating the objective makes communication with clarity possible. Focusing on results rather than activities allows people to adjust their activities to meet the results, rather than to slavishly following performance indicators, as the environment changes. Consider this horrifying finding: In a survey of eleven thousand senior executives and managers, a majority couldn’t name their company’s top priorities! “There are so many people working so hard and achieving so little,” Andy Grove noted. To address this issue will require commitment to making the OKR process effective, and this commitment should not be understated, which is why it has to start from the very top. If you are a leader of your business your commitment should start with a reading of John Doerr’s book, and then share it with your colleagues. My personal experience with the process is best summed up by actress Mae West’s famous statement: I never said it would be easy, I only said it would be worth it. Readability Light --+-- Serious Insights High ---+- Low Practical High +---- Low *Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on strategy and implementation and is the author of the recently released ‘Executive Update.’

This is the solution that agile and scrum processes have been screaming for. Headless sprinting and agile-because-specs-are-hard has been the bane of software development culture for at least a decade now. OKRs are the balancing pole that has been needed along the way, making sure that short sighted decisions are harder and focus flux is minimized. This book has made its way to a top company in Denmark, and its just getting started with OKRs with amazing results. OKRs should be the next golden standard in Agile. This book, although superficial in implementation details, has gotten a spot in my top 5 of all time books. The idea is simple, the implications are enormous.

Impressive book alot of information and learning experience

If you are a manager or in a role where process improvement is one of your job goals, this book is a really good read. It will give you a very useful lens to look at processes and their improvement. The same principles can be used for self improvement, but classifying it as a self improvement book is probably not right. In short, the book is definitely worth the time and money.

This book teaches you to set goals and how to teach them. Don’t go corporate, be disruptive. Stay focused, be flexible and achieve results.

There are two types to lead companies. One is authoritarianism. The other is democracy. OKR is a way to motivate employees and make them perform better. And that also betterment performance of the company as a whole. It's a bottom-up and democratic approach. Google is the very type of a democratic company. If your company is more or less democratic, OKR would probably fit it. If it isn't, I don't recommend reading this book.