OKRs and Enterprise Agility at SKILup Days 2024

Hey guys. Uh, first of all, thank you very much, like strong to give me an opportunity to give this presentation on this very important topic. It is okas and, and enterprise agility.

Often we run, uh, different kind of agile methodologies, innovative environment, scrum, scrumban, scrum, uh, uh, Kanban, hybrid methodologies. We are more focusing on the clean level, team level agility, how we become, how we become more agile. But what happens when, uh, we have an organ, we're working in an organization and the organization has certain vision, vision and certain goals.

So often it is seen that there is a disconnect between the agile execution and the overall enterprise strategy, all the organizational strategic objectives. But that's my topic of the presentation. How OKRs help an organization to become more agile, to become more responsive to changing, uh, market conditions.

So I'm Blavar, uh, having two decades of experience in the software industry. Uh, major portion is on the program and project management side have been using agile methodology for the past several years, have been associated with the SaaS company for the last seven years, and, uh, have been u leading different agile teams on different important projects to deliver some impactful features for our product. I am, uh, PMP certified and the self journalist, uh, and I love speaking.

I love writing. Just why you are seeing me here delivering this presentation. So let's start.

So as I told you, in in, in the at start, that organization, uh, spend so much time on devising studies, they assemble all leads or company leads into the meeting. Often they have a meeting on the offsite, on the onsite. So their focus is to formulate certain strategies so they can complete in the given market.

They can compete with their co competitors. But what happened when these strategies are translated into the execution plans, he observed the, in many cases, the strategies are not well translated into the execution plans of the departments and teams. So Gardner did end, uh, research on, on it.

And in 2023 report, Gartner highlighted three important challenges that organizations face, uh, when they try to like materialize their dreams, their goals into the execution strategies. So number one challenge is the ambiguous responsibilities. An organization having objectives, and then they try to communicate these objectives.

Then if they have 10 to 20 or 30 people at very small startup, then it's very easy to translate or communicate the vision goals to different team members. Say, we have a hundred plus people, 1 50, 200 people. Still the company is a startup, but it's gradually scaled when the company start gradually scaling, then it becomes really difficult to align with the organization strategy to keep strict with the most important work which organizing wants.

So number one thing we got to observe is the ambiguous responsibilities. And number two, inability to cascade objectives to teams and individuals. As I said, that if you are going, if you are scaling, then it becomes difficult to keep track of the overall objectives of the organization while you are doing so many things at, at the departmental level, at the team level.

And in between. There is one more important thing that happen that is no clear priorities. So gutter identified three key challenges that is being, that are being faced by the companies who are able to formulate their strategies, but somehow struggle at execution level.

Although these companies may use, uh, may use scan one, any other methodology, but here is, uh, the problem is not additive level. The problem lies in between what the Solution, let's take an exam. Our enterprise has certain visions, has certain vision and mission, and it has certain goals to achieve, say next, uh, six months.

That's the one year. And then they have certain initiatives converting into proper programs or projects, and they work in an high tricky fashion. So what I'm trying to communicate here is that, that this enterprise that has very ambitious goals and the team who is on the ground and executing the program projects.

So there has to be a very strong lead between the two, the strategies and objectives at the enterprise level and the teams who are executing those strategies. And objective, because we are not working in an environment where there is no change. We are observing or we are having constant changes.

So in order to cope up with the continuous change, there should be a strong link between the goals of the enterprise and the execution, uh, framework. What happens in an enterprise that works in this web and most of the organization work this, there's a team goals. They formulate these goals and they communicate to the teams and the team start working well.

Again, number one problem is the lack of alignment. Teams often work in silos with no unified direction. Misalignment can result in disjointed efforts and efficiencies where different department pursue conflicting priorities.

Sales has different priorities. Marketing has different priorities, right? Unclear priorities as I told that the uh, team does not have a clear focus to work on some impactful full work.

Like we already know the principle 80 20 principle. So there is a problem that what are the 20 most differentiating tasks that if we can do that can bring 80% of the desired outcome? And the third is the reduce agility.

And then it is very difficult to measure the problem. Major problem, not in term that okay, we destined to like, uh, 500 users for our product, uh, uh, this quarter that is miserable, uh, like objective. But again, when you are scaling and when with different department, different team, that is very difficult to objectively measure that how, how much, uh, contribution in terms of numbers, in terms of metrics a team has contributed to that overall objective of the organization, right?

So the solution is objectives and key results. Objectives are the direction like their organization want to move or what organization wants so achieve. And the cases are how an organization can achieve that objective, right?

So okay is a goal setting framework that gives organization, uh, a framework where an organization, uh, formulate certain objectives and also formulate how uh, it is going achieve those objectives, right? Why OKRs? So many companies are using OKRs.

Even big companies are using OKRs and as well as OKRs are applicable at a very small startup. If you have 20, 20 people, you can implement KR say, if you are a hundred plus people, 200 plus new you can use ok. So OK is a very lightweight framework then we can use to connect the execution with this tab.

And if this connection is established, and if this connection is stronger, then it can fuel the enterprise agility, the required agility organization needs in order to thrive and digital it. So you can see on the screen a very simple structure of of an OKR, for example, top level object. For example, the company wants to, uh, increase market share in the SaaS industry, right?

So this is the direction the company wants to move or this is the objective the company wants to achieve. Then how this objective will be achieved, that is translated by the key results. So company has three key results achieve 20% increase in customer acquisition, expand into two new geographical markets, launch three new products tailored for enterprise clients.

So if these three key results are achieved, then the organization would be achieving or, uh, the objective and what is the objective Increase market share in the SaaS and industry. So this is a company level objective. Now, for example, in the there, the sales department and then sales department can pick up one key result and make it its objective and it can drive key results against that objective and work in that damage.

So for example, uh, in this scenario, sales partner has picked w objective achieve a 20% in case of customer acquisition, right? And made it object. Now there are key users.

If the sales department achieve, then it can achieve the objective of, uh, 20% increase in customer acquisition, which is, which is in fact the key result of the company level OKR, right? In a similar manner, if there's a regional sales team, which is working under the sales department, then it can pick up a KR of the sales department and make it its objective and then drive different key results and work in that direction. So in that case, the regional sales team has an OKI closed these, accept new enterprise customer, which is in fact a key result of the sales department, right?

And this regional team at its level create certain key results that are helpful to achieve the objective. So in a similar manner, if you can see that the OKR are being cascaded to different departments in the organization hierarchy, you can see the picture that CU has a vision or goals, and these goals are drive or translated into different objectives. These objectives have certain key results, and these key results have may become different objectives for different teams and different departments.

And this goes on and on. On an average we can say that the OKRs are translated into the departmental level and then the team level and then at last, at the individual level. So what does it mean that the departments can drive their OKRs?

Teams can make their OKRs inheriting from, uh, from the department, and even the individual team members may have their respective OKRs inheriting from the teams, okay? Right? So that is the alignment that actually do that actually connects different parts or different work, different team workers working in different d trenches in the organization to the overall objective of the organization.

Cascading has a DISA disadvantage as well because in case of any change at the enterprise, then this change again, will again, uh, need to be translated to different departments, the and the individual. But OK provides this flexibility that if an individual can drive an OKR from the top level, maybe from the team level, maybe from the departmental level, and even from the company level. So this flexibility is provided by the O care.

And this is, this, flexibility is very important in the current environment where we are observing constant change. And in order to try in the digital age, we need to have this kind of agility in our enterprise. If you are working in a project based organization that, again, KR helps you on the top level, you can have certain strategic goals written in terms of KR, and then you have certain initiated that are programs and projects and under a project you can have different team member working on different tasks, but this kind of arrangement can be done or this kind of, uh, implementation cabinet for the OKRs in a project based setup.

If an organization works under this OKR framework, then five, you can say benefits and organization candidate, or you may say also that the OKRs has five superpowers that can be gained, is the adopt OT Never think is focused. The team driving their KR from the departmental level or department driving their OKR from the company level has a clear purpose and what is important at what needs to be achieved in a certain period of time. In a typical manner, the organization work on a quarterly basis.

So they create annual okas and then drive, uh, their quarterly oka from the annual chaos, right? So in that three months period, like in in one quarter period, the team members were certain, okay, the departments and the teams and the company as well, they have a clear focus on what used to be achieving that three months time period, right? But we call less is more.

And then as you know, as DAB explained, that the cascading effect actually brings about the alignment among the departments among words. While alignment is important, Because when we want to do something, we cannot do it. We, we need to work in collaboration with other department.

For example, we want to release a feature. A feature may have dependency on the engineering. We have dependency of product, we have dependency of the market marketings and customer support as cra.

So due to this inter interdependencies, this alignment helps us to resort to these dependencies, right? And give focus to the department so they can create their OKRs in way that are highly aligned with other team members or other departments, right? And once it is done, they have a focus, they have a alignment, and we get that level of commitment on the teams and depart.

That is very 'cause in any environment. In order to make the people productive, you need treat things. Experts say you need treat things.

One is autonomy and second thing is its purpose. A third thing is trial to get more better, right? An OKR framework provide, they give you autonomy to create your OKR related or inherited from the, uh, upper level, say department level, say company level, and give you freedom to create key results.

That how in what manner you can achieve data objective, right? And this it process give you multiple learning cycles so you can improve your working Tracking. If you have an objective and you have a clear key, then key should be measurable.

And this is the principle of the, okay, we cannot meet any key that is not measurable. For example, in the previous slide, we see that there is an objective to increase market share, but there are three key results which are highly measurable. They have some numbers allowable release three features increase 20%, uh, customer acquisition, the case there should be measurable.

And that's where we, we can actually track the focus of an objective. And that's how we actually, uh, track the progress of the OKR. So this tracking is very important, and you can see that if you have implement KR, the department at tier and digital level, then this tracking is applicable to each level.

You can nurture the results and that's actually the, uh, superpower of the OKR because it can help you objectively measure the company performance at any level. And then the last is a stretch. Certain goals are challenging, certain goals are big rocks that we may think we cannot achieve, but we can try.

These are the stretch goals and helps you to define these kind of stretch goals that so, uh, are not true commitments but keen, but teams stretch, team stretch and try their best to achieve them. And this is the typical OKR cycle. Like if you want to implement OKR, then you have to start OKR planning like four to six weeks before the actual quarter starts.

For example, if you want to start, uh, OKR implementation from January, January 25, and what happens that you need to plan is like four weeks, uh, like, uh, in the month of November or early in the December, right? And there the business actually bring stone drives in business prior and finalize company level chaos. That's a very cheap like 3, 2, 4 and max five.

And then after this finalized, uh, edition of the OK r, the departments make their OK r the team make their OKRs and even individual make their OK R, right? And then once OKRs are, uh, uh, designed, they are published and every company, uh, member moves the OKF. Then there is a checking session.

Checking sessions are sometime like, uh, maybe a half an hour, one hour one-on-one sessions between the subordinate and the line manager at the team level, uh, team lead between team lead and the departmental head at departmental level between departmental head and the CEO level at the company level. So what happens, these check-ins provide an opportunity to discuss the OKRs progress and the manager gives their feedback. And uh, at this point we generally a very conservative feedback, which we'll cover in the next slide.

And then once the, uh, the OKR cycle, which is uh, in fact treatment cycle, a quarter cycle is go, is, uh, new to completion, then okay, assessing then that how much we are going to achieve, uh, per this quarter, or if you are working in the six month period, then how much we are going to achieve per six month or whatever the time period period we set for the, okay. And then at the, and at the end of the quarter, uh, the retrospective is then that what we learn, what did, uh, what uh, we get right, what we get wrong and how we can improve. And then the next, uh, cycle for the oak, yeah, for the next quarter, uh, is a start.

So I was talking about, uh, that OKRs framework is one thing that is more at debt planning level. But what happens during the quarter, as I told you that data, the care check-in session, these check-in sessions, uh, have a distinct term, which is called CFR Conversations. Feedback and recognition at this is a very good opportunity for a manager to give a constructive feedback, a feedback that is helpful for the team member to grow, to reflect, uh, on his, uh, thicknesses and to leverage his strength, right?

And it is an opportunity to get guidance from the manager, the how that certain, okay, I can be achieved, right? So this session, uh, which is called see path is done, uh, is done at different lab team level, member level, departmental level, team level, and the company level. So conversation, feedback and recognition.

The last part is the recognition. If team member has done, uh, department has done, uh, or uh, uh, completed certain objectives, but it then the designation should be done in any way. And this is very open in, you can formulate any means of recommendation, but you, as you can see, that this very systematic process, sometime we work hard, but we forget to recognize people in the timely manner.

So this, okay, these check-ins provide opportunity that, okay, where the team member struggle, you have a constructive feedback mechanism and where the, where the team member has access, then you have the recognition mechanism and where we structured, uh, way of recognize a team so they can feel motivated and they can, uh, they can thrive at their workplace. So I have explained you, uh, an agile environment and in that agile environment it implement OK R and not only ok, the OIA with the superpowers along with the CFR, then how it can help our enterprise, right? To drive the required enterprise agility.

Number one thing, enhance focus and prioritization. No prioritization is very important. And if you are working on project basis, then this prioritization helps you to select certain projects which have high potential to achieve the organization objective.

For example, if you are a having a backlog, so many features that I attend, right? And you need to prioritize which features should be implemented for the next KR psyche or the next three months, five months because we have a limited engineering capacity And zu healthy, so practice in prior view and the focus multi of you, the OKRs give you a clear focus both at the company level, department level, team level, and the team member then. And the second part is the alignment because each team on department drives all create their cars inherited from the company level, right?

So they have common objectives, yes, they have different keys that, but they are all key and objectives are combined to achieve a bigger objective. So everybody feels connected, everybody knows that how his or her work is contributing to the overall objective of the organization. And of course o are flexible.

If there is a change in the enterprise level in the market, then companies can change the os for example, company, uh, create the, and, and at the annual lab and the execute Cuban quarter with test with those objectives. And in the second quarter there are certain changes in the market so they can change their care. And again, the teams or departments can create their OKRs according to the new news of the organization, right?

So this is also possible so that that kind of flexibility is provided by OKRs to accommodate the desire change, right? Increased transparency, as you can see, it's a crystal there that what are the company objectives? Departments driving their own objectives and the team depa, uh, team member driving their own objectives.

Everything is very transparent and everything very connected and very, very much aligned. So anyone can see, okay, if you are working in that direction, then how it can contribute to the different parts of the organization, right? App, our teams, as I told you that occurs, provide autonomy to the team members.

They can work, they can think then how object it can be, uh, despite of dictating them, despite of micromanaging them. Teams are empowered, right? And remember we have c FFR session, we have these OK are con, uh, continuously assessed and the guidance is provided by the manager to members, right?

And the last thing is a continuous improvement. 'cause the security cycle, KR works for female. And then we again, sick and discuss, uh, assess the okia, how much they're effective, and then we can change our priorities according to the new dynamics of the market, but to continuous learning and improvement.

So adeas, I will say that everything move fast in digital customer desires, competitive trades, technology choices, business expectations, revenue opportunities and demand. OKRs, cultivate enterprise agility, empower organization to respond quickly to market changes s innovation and pivot efficiently than needed. And OKRs also promote collaboration and IT progress for building resilience and adopting enterprise culture.

And when we implement OKS effectively that all enterprises can drive continuous improvement, agility, and sustainable growth. So I would, uh, I would advise you guys if you haven't implemented before, give it a try and I can give you my personal experience that, uh, uh, we implemented. ok.

ok. I have been shepherd, uh, who has been involved, uh, in the s implementation across the company level, and then after the OK are very implemented. I have been involved, uh, on the quarter planning cycles to guide teams, how they can ride better OKRs, how they can, uh, actually, uh, and what are the, uh, interdependencies and how to resolve them among the departments, among the teams in order to bring that kind of alignment, right?

Which is required the OK R framework. And, uh, we also drive how we can actually make the performance using this ok r right? And I can tell you that this OKRs give us enormous strength and normal, so resilience to cope up with the market conditions.

We also created the covid scenario and, but our pace of, uh, was a bit dis, uh, like affected, but we continued our, uh, progress and OKRs were instrumental behind the hypergrowth of our company. We were a small startup, but in few years we became, uh, uh, uh, we, we came to a level where it was acquired at a very good, uh, like, uh, price, which is around three $65 million, uh, by cloud hosting company. And, uh, I would say that OK, instrumentals in this program and played a catalyst role in this, uh, whole, I would say story.

So if you haven't tried it, give it a try and let me know if you face any problems if you have, uh, any questions. Thank you very much for your time listening me. If you want, uh, more details on the OKR subject, then you can read which of what matters written by.

And he has written excellent examples of big companies, how they implemented OKRs to achieve the required growth and achieve the business objectives. Thank you very much.