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The main problem I've seen with OKRs in a technical setting is that they haven't accounted for steady state support, or sudden urgent issues. Both of those mak
by krnlpnc 4y ago
The main problem I've seen with OKRs in a technical setting is that they haven't accounted for steady state support, or sudden urgent issues.
Both of those make up important work that has to be done in a timeframe shorter than the OKR reporting period.
As a result important work goes untracked, and completeness of KRs are affected since people had to focus on "unexpected" issues instead.
A compounding effect is burnout because a persons OKR workload and review process doesn't accurately reflect the day-to-day work that they did. Heroics are needed to avoid people higher up the management ladder seeing unfinished work under your name.
- spookthesunset 4y agoI’ve seen this too. Unless upper management fully understands and supports the fact there is day to day “keep the lights on” work… a lot of what your team does won’t get credit. It takes a lot of work to drill into everybody’s heads that OKRs aren’t an exhaustive list of what a team is working on.
- wildrhythms 4y agoMe irl :( Every time I'm sent the quarterly email demanding my OKRs I just copy over the couple of single line items like "Support X" and "Maintain Y". I'm sure there's someone I've never met wearing a suit and thinking I'm worthless as a result.