Succeeding with OKRs in Agile

OKRs are about goals bigger than the next story, or even epic. OKRs prioritise purpose and strategy over backlogs. Objectives are big goals. Key results are smaller goals that build towards the objective.

OKRs and agile work well together. Both outcome oriented and results focused. Used right OKRs give purpose, power and authority to teams. Used poorly OKRs can re-introduce command-and-control and hinder agile working.

Succeeding with OKRs is a short guide to writing OKRS, organizing to deliver OKRS and the pitfalls of using OKRs. The book doesn’t try to sell OKRs. Rather, this book describes Allan’s practical experience with teams working agile and adopting OKRs, day-by-day, quarter-by-quarter.

Initially sceptical, Allan found OKRs highly effective in practice. They became a way to focus teams, expose problems, communicate with senior managers. OKRs became a powerful means of asking bigger questions about product strategy and value.