This is the second part of the conversation with Letitia about her journey to adopting OKR in Vidio. The beginning of the conversation starts in part 1.
Do you see a correlation between a well-written OKR with the execution on the ground?
My weekly individual OKR serves as a guide about my goals are for a particular week. Thus, I am clear about the scope and what’s expected from me — by others and by myself. It gives me the confidence to execute. When I am clear and confident, I am more effective for my team.
In addition, when a team member didn’t formulate her OKR clearly, it alerted me whether she really understood what’s expected from her. I find OKR as an effective indicator for this purpose.
What do you think Product Narrative (PN) had done that lead the OKR adoption in Product, Vidio successful?
Many months before we formally engaged with Product Narrative, I think you have successfully convinced many of our Product Managers about OKR by clearly explaining what it is and its inherent benefits.
If I am not mistaken, you and Ignas shared how PN had helped other companies in South East Asia, including Indonesia, adopting OKR around April 2019.
The timing couldn’t be more perfect as we’re earnestly searching for something to help the Product Management division execute faster and more collaboratively with other divisions. Essentially, we’re looking for a better “way of working.”
Fast forward to our formal engagement period (Q4 2019), what’s working really well is PN team was always around to consult and coach us in real-time during our weekly OKR cadence.
PN team was present to understand the individual learning progress of each Product Manager (8 of us).
And, you and Ignas meticulously explained every OKR element required to make this successful. For example, how to shift our mindset from thinking in terms of tasks to outcomes; or, the tips for us early learners on writing a Key Result in a noun or passive form.
I remember we spent more than 3 hours in one of our weekly cadences. (chuckles)
Before we end this call, anything else you’d like to add or share?
I’d like to specifically thank you and Ignas for introducing OKR to Vidio.
Because of OKR, I find it easier to work with my team. And, vice versa.
It makes me really happy. Thank you so much!
Fun facts
1/Tisya finds it harder to write Objectives than Key Results.
2/ The Product Management team in Vidio takes pride in keeping their stories organized and well attended: at the end of the week, all relevant stories must be “accepted.”
Tisya used the weekly individual OKR to nudge a team member who did not consistently accept his Pivotal Tracker stories. For a few weeks, one of his KR was to have all his stories accepted before noon on Friday. (The team’s OKR Review happened every Friday evening.)
“I am sure because he has to self-score this KR, he became more motivated to make sure it’s done properly,” Tisya confessed.
OKR can certainly be used to improve something that is not yet working.
Felipe Castro, a highly respected global OKR trainer, said OKR is about creating sustainable change in performance. It is about changing behaviors, systems, tools, or processes so that you can maintain new levels of performance.
(I am a big fan of Felipe Castro’s work. I’d highly recommend anyone serious about building value-driven teams and OKR to follow his writings on LinkedIn Medium.)
OKR is about changing behaviors, systems, tools, or processes so that you can maintain new levels of performance.— Felipe Castro
3/ Tisya noticed many of her team members initially often oversubscribed to as many KR as possible. As the team learned, they self-adjusted and proactively communicated it back to her.
Peek into how Tisya described it in her own words in this clip (in Bahasa Indonesia):
