4 ms·

Ask HN: Have OKRs worked for your company?

7 points by osigurdson 4y ago

KenPainter 4y ago
Okr's are the current trend for doing what we've always done, trying to predict the future. We use them only because they are fashionable. We structure flexibility into annual objectives so we can be flexible during the year in creating key results tailored to changing conditions.
PaulHoule 4y ago
I worked at a startup that had a hard time staying focused and OKRs were another distraction. We had one ‘goal’, to find product-market fit, and having everybody pick 20 personal OKRs had nothing to do with that. It strikes me as another way to make sure dark triad people get promoted and other people get crushed because being evaluated on lots of twisty little goals gives the self-promoter many ways to look good and make honest people look bad.
pid-1 4y ago
My team uses OKRs in a very lightweight fashion, just to make sure our daily tasks are aligned with long term objectives. We I like ending our semester and being able to break down how much time we spent doing what, from a macro perspective. But I've seen many teams struggling adopting OKRs, it's really hard to define reasonable long term goals for certain professions. Also, the more metric centric are your OKRs, the more issues you will have.
- osigurdson 4y ago
  What are some example (non-proprietary of course) OKRs that you used effectively?
- andrei_says_ 4y ago
  What issues have you observed with metric-centric results?
  - osigurdson 4y ago
    Not OP, but metrics have a bad reputation for being poor proxies for actual performance since they tend to be game-able. What are some metric-centric OKRs that have worked for you?
    - andrei_says_ 4y ago
      I haven’t used a formal OKR structure in work but maybe curious about experiences in different teams. I imagine this could be a useful guideline but could also become an issue if Results get tied to incentives.
zerr 4y ago
Total waste of time. Just another ceremony coming from non-tech personnel.
ffwacom 4y ago
I just didn’t do them and never heard about it again.
RonaldOlzheim 4y ago
How do define OKR and Can you tell more about context?

7 points by osigurdson 4y ago

Okr's are the current trend for doing what we've always done, trying to predict the future. We use them only because they are fashionable. We structure flexibility into annual objectives so we can be flexible during the year in creating key results tailored to changing conditions.

PaulHoule 4y ago

I worked at a startup that had a hard time staying focused and OKRs were another distraction. We had one ‘goal’, to find product-market fit, and having everybody pick 20 personal OKRs had nothing to do with that. It strikes me as another way to make sure dark triad people get promoted and other people get crushed because being evaluated on lots of twisty little goals gives the self-promoter many ways to look good and make honest people look bad.

pid-1 4y ago

My team uses OKRs in a very lightweight fashion, just to make sure our daily tasks are aligned with long term objectives. We I like ending our semester and being able to break down how much time we spent doing what, from a macro perspective. But I've seen many teams struggling adopting OKRs, it's really hard to define reasonable long term goals for certain professions. Also, the more metric centric are your OKRs, the more issues you will have.

osigurdson 4y ago
What are some example (non-proprietary of course) OKRs that you used effectively?
andrei_says_ 4y ago
What issues have you observed with metric-centric results?
- osigurdson 4y ago
  Not OP, but metrics have a bad reputation for being poor proxies for actual performance since they tend to be game-able. What are some metric-centric OKRs that have worked for you?
  - andrei_says_ 4y ago
    I haven’t used a formal OKR structure in work but maybe curious about experiences in different teams. I imagine this could be a useful guideline but could also become an issue if Results get tied to incentives.

zerr 4y ago

Total waste of time. Just another ceremony coming from non-tech personnel.

ffwacom 4y ago

I just didn’t do them and never heard about it again.

RonaldOlzheim 4y ago

How do define OKR and Can you tell more about context?