Glossary
OKR
OKR stands for objectives and key results: a short qualitative objective paired with about three measurable results that prove it happened. Andy Grove built the method at Intel and John Doerr took it to Google. Objectives are set for a quarter and scored at the end, which makes them a planning tool rather than a weekly one.
01
How OKRs and a weekly Scorecard fit together
They answer different questions. OKRs say what the company is trying to change this quarter. The Scorecard says whether the business is running normally this week. Teams that use both keep three to five objectives on the quarterly plan and leave the weekly board for the recurring numbers, with a row or two tracking work behind an objective.
The usual mistake is turning the weekly board into an OKR tracker, which loads it with rows that only move once a month. The second one is scoring. Teams work out that a 0.7 average is the expected result, so they set results they are confident of hitting and the method stops asking anything of them. Score honestly or stop scoring.
Worked example: A software company of twenty-two people ran four quarterly objectives and a nine row weekly board. One objective was to make onboarding self-serve. Its results were a published setup guide, median time to first login under a day, and half of new accounts activating without a call. Only the median time went on the weekly board, because it was the one that moved weekly.
Sources: Measure What Matters, John Doerr (2018); High Output Management, Andrew S. Grove (1983)
SMART goal
SMART is a checklist for writing a goal so that anybody can tell whether it was met: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
02KPI
A KPI is a number a leadership team has agreed to run the business by: one owner, a goal written next to it, and a slot on the weekly agenda.
03North Star metric
A north star metric is the single number a company picks to stand for the value it delivers, used to keep every team pointed the same way.
04Company Rocks
Company Rocks are the three to seven priorities the whole business commits to for the next ninety days, agreed before anybody sets a personal one.
05KPIs: what they are, how many to track, and which matter
A practical guide to key performance indicators for small companies: definitions, leading vs lagging measures, examples by department, and how many to track.
Start with a real question
Not sure which of these you actually need?
Tell us what the leadership team is arguing about. A person replies within one business day with a straight answer, whether that is a book, a tool or an implementer.
A person reads every one.