Webtagr - Technology News Summarizer

Cascading OKRs: A Better Approach

2025-01-17

Traditional cascading OKRs, breaking down company objectives into departmental and team goals, often fails due to its additive nature. This ignores interdependencies between departments. The author proposes an 'enabling' approach, focusing on how teams support the company's strategic objectives rather than simply decomposing them. Even if a team's OKRs don't directly relate to the company's, their supporting role is crucial. The article stresses that OKRs should serve the overall company strategy, not just quarterly goals. Teams should consider their contribution to the long-term strategic vision.

OKRs vs. Daily Grind: A Tale of Two Teams

2025-01-06

This post explores the contrasting uses of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in engineering and marketing teams. The author argues that marketing teams find OKRs easier to define because their work is more project-based, whereas engineering work is more product-driven. Engineering OKRs shouldn't simply reiterate the product roadmap; instead, they should highlight what's unique about the quarter, what's changing, and what challenges need addressing. For example, an OKR for a "smooth launch of Frontend Observability" focuses not just on the launch itself, but on ensuring a smooth launch and its positive impact on the business. The post emphasizes that OKRs should highlight special focus areas for the quarter, not try to encompass everything.

OKRs: Tool or Trap?

2024-12-25

This article explores the duality of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). The author points out that many companies misuse OKRs for performance reviews, leading teams to overemphasize measurable metrics while neglecting the actual objectives and external effects. The author uses the example of Alexa to illustrate how blindly pursuing key results can be counterproductive. In contrast, Honeycomb uses OKRs as a tool for communication and reflection, treating key results as clues to observe the world and improve work, rather than ultimate judgment criteria, thus avoiding metric distortion.