Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are considered a “Modern operating system” by many companies and investors. But the typical implementation doesn’t deal well with the uncertainty and complexity involved in achieving the typical strategic objective whether it requires building a product, innovating a business model, or creating a new cross-functional company capability. In this talk, we will look at common anti-patterns involved in the typical OKR implementation and how the Scrum spirit can help OKR practitioners bring empiricism, empowerment, and continuous improvement to their OKR operating system. This talk is especially relevant to Scrum and Agile practitioners who are looking for creative ways to bring Scrum’s goodness we are so grateful for to the wider organization.

1. YuvalYeret.com
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Using the Scrum Spirit
to Unlock Empiricism
and Agility in OKRs
Objective Why Now Key Results
Unlock
Empiricism
and Agility
in OKRs
using the
Scrum Spirit
OKRs growing in popularity, leading
to lots of OKR Theater. Opportunity
for agile practitioners to help
organizations do this well
Understand the context/need for OKRs and what
they’re supposed to achieve
Understand why and how OKR initiatives often fail
Learn how the Scrum spirit can help fix your OKR
initiative

2. YuvalYeret.com
Yuval Yeret SAFe Fellow/SPCT | Scrum.org PST |
Business Agility Coach/Trainer |
Professional Scrum w/ Kanban Co-creator & Steward

3. YuvalYeret.com
Why OKRs?
In order to execute effectively on what
matters most (your strategy), you will
need to …
Overcome:
► silos, politics and turf wars
► the ongoing grind (aka whirlwind)
Through OKRs that provide
► Organizational Alignment
► Focus

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OKRs - an Alignment Framework
OKRs stand for “Objectives and Key Results.” It is a
collaborative goal-setting methodology used by teams and
individuals to set challenging, ambitious goals with
measurable results. OKRs are how you track progress, create
alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable
goals.
source: https://www.whatmatters.com/faqs/okr-meaning-definition-example

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Business and Transformational OKRs
Transformational OKR - e.g.
Improving Agility
Business OKR - Building Solutions
to capture unrealized Value

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YuvalYeret.com
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Are you using OKRs? How’s it going?

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Everyone gets an OKR!

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Lucy in the
OKR
Factory…
OKRs…

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OKRs should be focused on THE most important opportunities for
Developing/Growing the Business (WIGs)

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Visualize and Manage OKR Flow
Limit number of OKRs in process
Stop Starting Start Finishing
Apply Focus and Flow to OKRs

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BTW - What can we also say about the work
to Develop/Grow the Business (vs running
it)?
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OKRs typically require
complex work…
Try … mapping out OKRs according to level of
agreement/uncertainty on the WHAT/HOW
What have we learned about managing
complex work? What works? What doesn’t?

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Avoid … Output/Activity focused (tasks / milestones) OKRs
●

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Why do we need an Alignment framework?

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Try using OKRs to provide clear intent
Assume Variability - Preserve Options | Decentralized Control / Autonomy | Customer collaboration over Contract Negotiation
Shift towards outcomes…
Why? Why?

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Idea - Leverage Impact Mapping to establish
Outcome/Impact oriented OKRs

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Be careful with OKR Cascading…
Why does it matter?
● Strict Cascading
kills Autonomy /
Initiative
● Leads to
task/output
orientation
OKR
OKR OKR
OKR
OKR
OKR
OKR

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Alignment != Command & Control
Try
● High-level OKRs that
inform rather than
prescribe
● Teams / Teams of
teams define their
own OKRs -
Bottom-up and
sideways
● Align/relate through
“Why Now”
● Take inspiration from
Scrum Sprint
Planning structure
OKR
OKR OKR
OKR
OKR
OKR
OKR

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OKRs powered by Evidence-based Management

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Minimize OKRs coordination hell
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/improving-focus-alignment-organizing-around-okrs-managing-yuval-yeret
/
Why does it matter?
● Coordination overhead
● Tempting to divide and conquer /
cascade into output/task OKRs (since
each team/product/value stream cannot
own outcomes)

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▪ Experiment with organizing teams around OKRs -
Identifying/
Assessing products/teams topology using an OKR
lens
▪ You can start with 1-2 experiments around OKRs
while keeping the rest of the organization as is.
▪ It doesn’t have to be an organizational change
▪ There will never be a perfect way to organize that
eliminates all dependencies/collaboration.
▪ use techniques from the agile scaling
patterns/frameworks world to help ease
collaboration across teams (e.g. Big Room
Planning)
Organizing around value unlocks engagement/ motivation
through Purpose
Consider organizing around OKRs

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#5. OKRs are in conflict with agile/Scrum
artifacts/commitments
● Confusion - What do we use as Input
for Sprint Planning? PBL? OKRs?
Both?
● When are OKRs created? How? How
do we keep them realistic?
● What’s the relationship between
Product Goals, Sprint Goals and
OKRs?
OKRs (Product /
Corporate / Strategy)
Agile/Scrum (typically
in IT / Product
Development)

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#5. Explicitly connect OKRs and your agile ways of working
Some options to try:
● Use OKRs to guide PBL
management/refinement
● Inspect how you’re doing
on OKRs during Sprint
Review and use that to
adapt the Product
Backlog
OKRs
KPIs

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Can we use the Scrum spirit
to improve how our
organization uses OKRs?
Can that help us unlock
empiricism and agility for the
wider organization?
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An OKR example using this session’s objective
Objective Why Now Key Results
Unlock
Empiricism and
Agility in OKRs
using the
Scrum Spirit
OKRs growing in popularity,
leading to lots of OKR
Theater. Opportunity for
agile practitioners to help
organizations do this well
Understand the
context/need for OKRs and
what they’re supposed to
achieve
Understand why and how
OKR initiatives often fail
Learn how the Scrum spirit
can help fix your OKR
initiative

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Need help with OKRs?
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Modern Leadership w/ OKRs and EBM
Workshop - January 25th, Scrum HQ
https://bit.ly/OKRsEBMBoston
Agility-guided OKR Advisory services -
Launch or Boost your OKR operating
system with emphasis on Empiricism,
Empowerment, Organizing around Value,
and Lean/Agile principles https://bit.ly/ImplementOKRs
20% off - use
agileboston20

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Follow up
https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuvalyeret/
https://www.scaledagileframework.com/applying-okrs-in-the-scaled-a
gile-framework/
https://scaled
agile.com/con
necting-okrs-k
pis-ovss-and-
dvss-in-safe/
Loan
Origination
Credit Scoring
System AI Underwriting
Channels
Core
Bankin
g
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/imp
roving-focus-alignment-organizing-
around-okrs-managing-yuval-yeret/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fixing-o
kr-theater-using-agilescrum-principles-
yuval-yeret/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/improving-f
ocus-alignment-organizing-around-okrs-m
anaging-yuval-yeret/
https://www.scrum.o
rg/resources/eviden
ce-based-managem
ent-guide
https://www.scrum.org/courses/professional-
agile-leadership-evidence-based-manageme
nt-training