Book Summary: Measure What Matters by John Doerr

Why you need to read this book

• learn how to prioritize tasks and respond flexibly to changing market conditions;

• start setting ambitious goals and track them against specific and measurable key outcomes;

• figure out how to motivate employees to teamwork;

• understand how to achieve the largest ambitious super goal.

Measure the most important. How Google, Intel, and Other Companies Achieve Growth with OKR

Insight 1. Understand the goals and key results

Imagine the 1999th. Google is located in a small two-story building, consists of 30 people and is already 18th in the ranking of search engines. One day John Dorr comes to them - a man who two months ago agreed to invest tens of billions of dollars in a barely emerging company. Dorr adheres to one of the most effective management techniques that he borrowed from his years at Intel.

The Google team - on the advice of the investor - is adopting the methodology. And then gradually comes to what we can see now: the number of employees exceeds the figure of 85,000, according to versions of popular databases, the company is recognized as the most powerful brand in the world and the most expensive back in 2011.

“Goals and Key Results” is a methodology for setting goals and concrete steps towards achieving

It's simple: your goal is a direction, something that you want to achieve. This is your “What.” Key results - metrics, indicators characterizing the achievement of the goal. This is your “How.” They are easily measurable. “I reached them? Well no? What percentage? " Everything is simple.

OKR is not a magic lotion; it does not negate the need for teamwork and corporate culture as a whole. But if the leader and team build the OKR system, it can lead them to the mountain top.

Insight 2. Use four OKR superpowers

Superpower 1: Priorities and Commitments.

Superpower 2: Synchronization and transparency.

Super Strength 3: Performance Monitoring.

Superpower 4: Striving for outstanding results.

- using OKRs increases focus, commitment;

- the need to ask a large number of questions and the selection of the most important issues give clarity about what is really important and what is completely irrelevant;

- focusing energy of all employees;

- planning and operating in a quarterly system significantly increases the flexibility of operations;

- you don't do everything, but you do the most important thing;

- each target is measured, so easy to verify;

- each action refers to the general sense of undertaken activities;

- lets you see how our small, individual activities fit into the larger picture of where the company is going;

- the basic benefit is the certainty of each person in the company as to what - and why - they are expected from them (as people we need not only to show the direction, but also the sense that lies behind it);

- when everyone in the company knows that their work matters, engagement increases (the psychological principle is followed, according to which no one wants to be a weak link, so they try harder).

Google divides OKR into two categories: priority goals and ambitious goals. In 2008, one of the Google employees Sundar Pichai got the idea: in 3 years to create the best web browser.

The largest companies in the world boast of using the method, including: Google, BMW, LinkedIn, GoPro, Aol., Kroger, DropBox, Twitter and Oracle. Google contributed to the popularization of the method by publishing in 2013. Companies that implemented OKRs faced challenges that the methods used so far could not meet. The most frequently indicated include:

- Inconsistency in what has been planned and what is being implemented

- Lack of ability to quickly plan and implement development initiatives

- No standard and different expectations regarding goal setting

- The need to integrate the goals of cross-functional teams

- There is no information as to what others do when they achieve the same goal

- Individual goals are not linked to company goals

- Teams don't know how their work affects the company

The OKR-based approach makes specific problems possible to solve. The results that most companies pay attention to:

- Goal communication is regular and understandable

- People are involved in important activities that allow them to develop

- Increased independence in setting well-matched goals

- Image banners of goals throughout the organization

- Regular meetings focused on priorities

- Visualized and clearly defined goals have facilitated cooperation

- Maintaining motivation and commitment as well as sense of purposefulness

- Common language and inspirational conversation about the company

The value of OKR’s is hidden in the approach to setting, monitoring and achieving goals - this allows it to be defined as a new generation method. Its application brings a lot of energy to the organization, but requires very carefully prepared and implemented implementation.