How Google sets goals: OKRs / Startup Lab Workshop

Google Ventures Startup Lab | GV partner Rick Klau covers the value of setting objectives and key results (OKRs) and how this has been done at Google since 1999. Understand the key attributes of effective OKRs and how to apply them in your own organization.

[jcarlin]

Awesome talk!

The most useful thing I was ever told about writing effective OKRs is "Key Results must describe outcomes, not activities. If your KRs include words like 'analyze', 'help', 'participate', they’re describing activities. Instead, describe the end-user impact of these activities. 'Publish latency measurements from ADR ad serving study by March 7th; is better than 'assess ADR latency'."

[Fbln]

Almost 10 years later: Thank you! Awesome talk, really helped me! You are a great guy!

[AlexandriaRohn]

00:00:15 We're her today to talk about Objectives and Key Results. This was and is critical to Google's DNA.
00:03:50 John Doerr brought OKR's to Google. It made goals visible and measurable.
00:07:36 Example OKR's.
00:15:14 Why use OKR's? Disciplines thinking. Communicates accurately. Establishes indicators for measuring progress. Focuses effort.

[JohnnyBTeam]

This is one of the most useful videos I've seen on YouTube. OKRs have helped us to focus our efforts and make more rapid improvements.

[yonoume]

Look at all of these captains and hero's highlighting what's essential, Hats off to all of you ladies and gentlemen thank you...

[joycemimi]

This is amazing, after 10 years and the content is still relevant. i just got to know about OKR and will sure implement it in our company to drive growth. I hope i will be assisted from time to time when I need your assistance. Thank

[Theartsygalslays]

The transparency of setting and sharing individual OKR's for all levels within an organization is brilliant for driving accountability and clarity at all levels. It's a practical method of forging deliberate cross-functional as well as down/upstream collaboration, so no one has any doubt about their contribution to the organization's success, and I've seen it at work firsthand. Worthwhile for any midsize (50+ people) or larger organization.

[digitaleneuordnung]

00:00 Intro
06:58 John Doerr's original pitch for OKR
15:14 Benefits of OKR acc. to John Doerr
18:35 Typical process, communication & cycle
23:14 Basic hygiene for working with OKR
30:17 Keys to good OKRs in terms of rythm & process
32:06 Objective vs Key Result
33:58 Personal vs Team vs Company OKRs
35:16 Sample of personal OKRs
51:44 Grading process
57:31 How to implement
1:02:56 Timeline and first steps
1:07:45 Q&A

[omargatti]

Thanks Rick Klau: I've never used such a miserable system to set my goals. You've been persuasive enough to make me get that OKRs could be dramatically important to monitor and increase my results.

I will set 5 OKRs exactly today.

[surabhigoyal]

Excellent insight and a great learning . It is 8 on 10 . If every company follows it I think success will never be difficult for anyone . Thankyou .

[shresthtoshniwal]

Here thanks to the Mosaic Fellowship job description! Awesome❤

[RickKlau]

@Pete:

1) Yes, that sounds right to me.
2) OKRs just help you prioritize where you should spend your time. If that means you spend more time influencing other teams to ensure you hit your goals, so be it.
3) I didn't understand Zach's question that way. Individual/team/leadership OKRs should relate to each other, but there's not a 1:1 mapping. You'll see evidence of each in the other's OKRs, but not reflections.

Hope that helps.

[muraliramaswamy]

This talk has better bite and more actionable points than John Doerr's book. Great talk

[RickKlau]

@Ty, I think starting out including everyone helps set the expectation from day one that this is not a top-down effort. It's fine to give guidance about what the company's priorities are, but I think it's critical that each employee feel ownership to their OKRs from the beginning. Good luck!

[RickKlau]

@Mike: We typically do a mid-quarter check-in where you assess how much progress you've made, ID any potential big misses, and ensure that you're more or less on track. Grades are officially captured/shared at the end of each quarter, and archived so that you can easily access past quarters if you want to.

[WilsonMar]

[1:48] The date on the presentation is Oct 24, 2012
[47:25] Grading .6 - .7 out of 1.0 is your target

[DanielThomasArgueta]

OKRs are going to be very useful for me. Thank you!

[RickKlau]

@Zach, no, I don't think it's that linear. You should be able to see the connection between the two, but I think it's rare that the CEO's OKRs would be directly derived from her direct reports' OKRs. In most cases I think the CEO will have broader responsibilities, and they may span several departments.

[mercanix_mot-r]

Excellent. Thanks. We've built almost all of this into our beacon software already (using different terminology unfortunately), without any inside knowledge about Google, so grading is a new insight. Now I know what needs to hit the burn-down list.;) Thanks again.

[IngJMatos]

I'm clapping my hands even if you can't hear me. Thanks!