Back in May 2020, we set out to create a new planning process for our Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). The resulting outcome significantly exceeded our expectations.
Problem 1: Transparency
In most companies, there’s little transparency across teams. We solved this shortcoming by adding more meetings for all PMs, EMs and/or GMs to spend time discussing priorities and “aligning”. Depending on the size of the company, this process can range from annoying to excruciatingly painful.
Problem 2: Priority alignment
Once quarterly planning has started, it’s very challenging to see how priorities align across teams and company-level Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). For instance, previously we had a company-level OKR doc, a spreadsheet with all team-level Key Results (KRs), and 20+ additional docs with team OKRs. To add to the confusion, each department also had a separate sheet for their specific roll ups.
It was nearly impossible to see how the team-level KRs and priorities within each doc align with each other and roll up to company-level needs. If priorities changed on one team, it was similarly challenging to cascade that information across orgs.
Solution: OKR Doc
This document enabled 25+ different teams to work together asynchronously.