A quick Google will give you the copy and paste OKR template. If only building good OKRs were that simple.
I’ve seen them done well, OK and poorly. I’ve seen them done in large, multi-faceted companies and small businesses. I’ve seen the marketing team be involved from the get go, and I’ve seen OKRs roll down the corporate hill to teams who have to just adapt (or more accurately retro-fit) their existing plans to fit the square peg.
They’re tricky. And it really depends on the size of the business as to how complex they need to become, but there are some basic principles that I think will help set up a marketing team (and every other team) for success.
Do: ensure the objective ladders down from the company vision, mission and purpose.
Don’t: make the objective so up in the clouds aspirational, that it’s hard for everyone to understand it in real terms.
Do: make the objective clear, concise and easy to see which business metric is the focus for ultimate success, i.e. are you growing market share, striving for a revenue goal or trying to hit profitability?
Don’t: forget to size the objective to the attainable market, factoring in competitors and observable market trends (is the category expanding, stagnant or shrinking?)
Do: work with each team to understand the macro business metrics that help break down your overall objective into more easily, frequently measurable numbers when crafting the Key Results.
Don’t: work in silos or only at the top to avoid missing out on insights and SME knowledge that may unravel down the track when the KRs aren’t correlating with the objective after all.
Do: look at historical or market data to validate any hypotheses on which core metrics correlate with the objective. This will help ensure the KRs are good versus finger in the air.
Don’t: simply aim for x% more than last year, or focus on KRs that the business has always measured even if they might not be quite right. Be brave and lean into change if it’s required.
Do: set teams up for success by enabling access to the data and resources needed to attribute and/or correlate their activities back to OKRs, so everyone can see what’s working and what’s not.
Don’t: set and forget. The data will tell you what’s good and what needs rethinking. The market evolves. Customer behaviours evolve. Competitors change. It’s OK to pivot, adapt or optimise your KRs periodically to stay on the pulse of the market and what that means for your business in achieving its objective. Just don’t do it every week for goodness sake.
With good, clear, market-sized and easily measurable OKRs, not only the marketing team, but all teams will feel more confident rallying behind them, formulating plans that will all ladder back up to contributing to business success and be more accountable to what’s actually working (or not).
Marketers: if this resonates because you’re not clear on what your business is striving for, have the conversation. Get your business leader to read this and other related content or reach out for advice on how to have that difficult conversation - so that you can do better marketing.
Businesses: if you’re unsure what your marketing team is really contributing in real terms, or your product team for that matter - your OKRs may not be up to scratch or have been clearly communicated or implemented.
Let’s chat.