Operational Key Results

  • Aug 1, 2023
  • 2 Min Read

Definition

Objectives

Subjective/aspirational goal for improving business or customer outcomes

Key Results

Measurable means of showing progress towards achieving the objective

Key points

  • Are aspirational
  • Objectives aren’t ALWAYS in our control but Key Results should be
  • Can’t have too many or teams cannot focus or feel misaligned to the objectives 

Effective OKRs

  • Goals must be clear
  • Clearly define key results and track them along the way
  • Should serve to stretch the team but still be achievable - meaning the team has to understand what they’re doing and how they might achieve the thing
  • OKRs must capture things you want to change, vs. KPIs which show how you’re doing day-to-day
  • Teams may not always have control over Objectives but should over Key Results

OKRs as a Metric

  • Objectives are inspirational and aren’t tied to metrices
  • Key Results are impact-driven
    • How do you measure your impact?
    • Can use metrics but don’t over-index on the metric and lose sight of the impact of the Objective
  • Consider OKRs as a proxy to business impact rather than objective measurement of needle-moving

What Makes an OKR Not Work

  • Tracking the wrong Objective
  • Becoming fixated on the Objective and not the impact
  • Choosing Key Results that don’t actually add impact

Checklist for good OKRs

  • Track the objective
  • Deliver value
  • Objectively measurable
  • Resilient to scope change (ie, avoids commitment to specific solutions)
  • Can yield partial results to avoid binary success
  • Easy to understand for people without deep context to the team/org

Examples

  • Objective: reduce the number of systems that have access to credit card numbers
    • KR: Implement asymmetric encryption of credit card for web users
  • Objective: make it easier for customers to add credit cards to the native apps
    • KR: Reduce add instrument latency by 2 seconds
  • Objective: reduce the number of false auth declines
    • KR: Update expiration date of 80% of cards due to expire by the end of calendar 2023
  • Objective: reduce the number of failed releases
    • KR: Wallet Service performs automatic functional tests following deployment to Test Main
  • Objective: reduce the cost of logging
    • KR: Retire use of OperationLogger in cassa applications
  • Objective: reduce time spent supporting test environments
    • KR: Develop a self-service form to create test payment instruments