This was when Google was founded less than a year ago. John Doerr, one of the company’s investors, talked to the company’s employees about a method called “OKR (Objectives and Key Results),” which is used to organize an organization. I gave a presentation.
One of Doerr’s presentation slides
OKRs were originally used at Intel. After that, OKRs quickly became popular at Google, and they continue to be used to this day. OKRs are a simple method for organizing at a company, team, or individual level. Even if your company doesn’t use OKRs, you may find them useful in your personal or professional life.
Rick Clough, a partner at Google Ventures (Google’s investment arm), previously gave a 1 hour and 20 minute presentation on how to use OKRs. It’s very interesting content that allows you to learn about how Google operates. It will be helpful for any company or individual who wants to approach their work using simple, easy-to-understand methods.
OKR has two elements
Let’s start by explaining how to use OKRs.
First, set a “goal”. Then, set some quantified “key results” that will help you reach that goal.
Make your goals clear and quantifiable. For example, instead of “I want my website to look better,” your goal might be “I want my website to perform 30% faster” or “I want to increase engagement by 15%.”
When Klau was working at Google on a blogging platform called Blogger, he set several goals each quarter.
For example, one quarter’s goal might be to “improve Blogger’s reputation.” Blogger was quite large at the time, but its popularity began to decline as other blogging services such as Tumblr began to gain attention.
To improve Blogger’s reputation, Klau set out easily measurable outcomes.
According to Klau, Google has annual OKRs and quarterly OKRs. Annual OKRs represent the big overall idea for the year. Once set, it is not something that cannot be changed; it evolves throughout the year. However, quarterly OKRs will not change.
Google also has company-wide OKRs, team OKRs, manager-level OKRs, and individual-level OKRs. By combining these, the company functions to ensure that it does not deviate.
According to Clough, a good number of OKRs for employees to set each quarter is four to six. If you set more than that, you will become exhausted.
A desirable OKR score is 0.6 to 0.7.
Review your performance metrics at the end of each quarter. Google uses a score from 0 to 1. The goal for each outcome indicator is not to score 1, but to score 0.6 to 0.7.
If you get a 1, it means the performance metric was too easy. (According to Krau, “getting a lot of 1’s means you’re not taking it seriously, rather than doing a great job.”) . On the other hand, if it is less than 0.4, you need to seriously consider what went wrong.
Returning to Clough’s example, we can see how well he achieved the performance indicators he set. Speaking at industry events was easy. Since I was able to execute it, it becomes 1. We had a tough time with the DMCA-related performance indicators, but I’m not surprised as the content was tough.
Clough also says it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes to score. Rather than spending your time worrying about how many points you should give, you should spend your time working toward your goals.
At Google, OKRs are made public for everyone, including management. If you look in the employee directory, you’ll see your colleagues’ OKRs listed as part of your employee profile. You can see not only the content of OKRs, but also the scores of OKRs over the past few years.
Some people may find this scary, but for Google employees, it makes it easier to understand what everyone is working on.
Klau said that he was previously in charge of YouTube’s homepage. Let’s say someone at your company wants to run a video on YouTube to promote their product. The colleague then looks at Klau’s OKRs and sees Klau’s goals for the quarter.
By doing this, it will be easier to construct a conversation to persuade Crow to post the video on the homepage, and you can plant the seeds for when Crow is thinking about OKRs for the next quarter. is.
OKRs are not used to determine promotions. However, it can be used to make employees aware of their accomplishments. If you’re looking for a promotion, Clough says OKRs are a quick and easy way to see how you’ve contributed to the company.
It may sound easy and simple, but that’s the beauty of OKRs. By setting small goals and working towards them, you will be able to do your work without wavering.
Click here for a complete presentation on how OKRs work.
Startup Lab workshop: How Google sets goals: OKRs
*This article was first published on October 28, 2020.
[Original text]
(Translated by Mariko Tahara, edited by Ayuko Tokiwa)
Source: BusinessInsider
Emma Warren is a well-known author and market analyst who writes for 24 news breaker. She is an expert in her field and her articles provide readers with insightful and informative analysis on the latest market trends and developments. With a keen understanding of the economy and a talent for explaining complex issues in an easy-to-understand manner, Emma’s writing is a must-read for anyone interested in staying up-to-date on the latest market news.