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Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
The ultimate guide to OKRs | Christina Wodtke (Stanford)
Mar 16, 2023
01:13:12
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Quick takeaways
- The importance of regular team celebrations to create excitement and positive change.
- The value of status emails in keeping everyone informed and reflecting on hindrances for continuous improvement.
- The power of storytelling for communication and engagement, with a well-structured story having a hook, middle, and ending.
Deep dives
The Power of Celebrations
The simple act of getting together and acknowledging the most awesome things that happened during the week can make people feel part of something special and create excitement and positive change.
The Cadence of OKR Process
The OKR process should have a weekly cadence. Every Monday, individuals or teams commit to what they will do in the upcoming week to move the ball forward. On Fridays, there should be celebrations to recognize and appreciate accomplishments and successes.
The Value of Status Emails
While status emails may seem tedious, they are valuable for keeping everyone informed. Short, concise emails can include information on confidence levels of key results, accomplishments from the previous week, and plans for the upcoming week. Reflecting on what hindered progress provides valuable insights for learning and continuous improvement.
The Importance of Storytelling
Storytelling is a powerful tool for communication and engagement. Stories capture attention, enhance comprehension, and improve information retention. A well-structured story should have a hook, a middle that provides information or a message, and an ending that either celebrates success or leaves a lasting impact.
Benefits of Status Emails and Slack
Sending status emails or using channels in Slack to share updates with the team can be invaluable for staying informed and aware of what's happening in the company. By skimming through these updates, team members can quickly identify who they need to communicate with and establish connections. This method serves as an efficient way to keep everyone in the loop and streamline communication, although some companies still rely on email while others use Slack for this purpose.
Streamlining the Approval Process for OKRs
The traditional approval process for OKRs can be time-consuming and hinder progress. To address this issue, a different approach involves having team members review and provide feedback on each other's OKRs within a 24-hour timeframe instead of seeking approval from superiors. This faster and simplified approval process encourages collaboration, allows for quick adjustments, and helps teams maintain momentum. However, it is important to set limits on the number of OKRs reviewed to ensure a manageable workload. This method promotes efficiency and prevents teams from getting stuck in a sluggish approval process.
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Christina Wodtke is an author, Stanford University professor, and speaker who teaches strategies for building high-performing teams. She’s also the author of Radical Focus, which some consider the de facto guide to OKRs. In today’s episode, we dive into OKRs and how they can be used to help your team achieve better results. Christina shares her expertise on crafting OKRs, how she uses them in her personal life, and common mistakes you should avoid when you sit down to write your own. She discusses effective goal setting and outlines a systematic approach to achieving key results. Finally, Christina gives some specific tips on how to improve your storytelling and drawing skills and explains why it’s smart to set ambitious goals.
Find the full transcript here: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-ultimate-guide-to-okrs-christina
Where to find Christina Wodtke:
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/cwodtke
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinawodtke/
• Website: https://eleganthack.com/
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
Referenced:
• OKR worksheet template: http://eleganthack.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/OKR_Worksheet.pdf
• Yahoo’s peanut butter memo: https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB116379821933826657
• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756/
• Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results: https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Focus-Achieving-Important-Objectives/dp/0996006087
• Pencil Me In: https://www.amazon.com/Pencil-Me-Christina-Wodtke-ebook/dp/B075Z8J35G?
• The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures: https://www.amazon.com/Back-Napkin-Expanded-Problems-Pictures/dp/1591842697/ref=sr_1_1
• The Minto Pyramid Principle: https://www.barbaraminto.com/
• Lane Shackleton’s guest post on Lenny’s Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-coda-builds-product
• The Product Trio by Teresa Torres: https://www.producttalk.org/2021/05/product-trio/
• Ken Norton’s website: https://www.bringthedonuts.com/about/
• The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth: https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Organization-Psychological-Workplace-Innovation/dp/1119477247
• The Overstory: https://www.amazon.com/Overstory-Novel-Richard-Powers/dp/039335668X/
• Cloud Atlas: https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Atlas-Novel-David-Mitchell/dp/0375507256
• Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9114286/
• The Team That Managed Itself: A Story of Leadership: https://www.amazon.com/Team-that-Managed-Itself-Leadership-ebook/dp/B07ZG5Y689
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Christina’s background
(04:54) How Christina uses OKRs to manage her personal life
(07:42) The purpose of OKRs
(16:15) Mission, vision, roadmaps, and OKRs
(20:57) How strategy ties in
(22:39) Why OKRs should be kept simple, and the ideal way to express key results
(23:45) The importance of customer satisfaction and why you need a qualitative researcher
(24:58) Common mistakes people make when writing OKRs
(26:14) An example of writing OKRs for an online magazine about interior design
(29:28) The importance of repetition
(33:17) The 5 whys
(36:40) Why you should start OKRs with your best multi-disciplinary team
(38:44) Christina’s book, Radical Focus
(40:26) The importance of storytelling and drawing (even badly!)
(43:21) Tips to become a better storyteller
(44:29) Using the Minto method for storytelling
(46:02) The cadence of OKRs and the importance of celebrations
(51:09) A different kind of approval process to get OKRs done more efficiently
(53:01) Why the focus on learning is more important than grading
(54:29) Why you should set ambitious goals
(57:47) Where to start
(1:00:48) The overemphasis of UX in product management education and the importance of business sense
(1:03:01) Advice for people seeking a career in product management
(1:05:44) Lightning round
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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