I like this piece, Danil. It is a good practical adoptation of the framework. Have you tried it in this form in practice?
We abandoned OKRs altogether for a few reasons. But mainly it just became a tail that wagged the dog:
- Quarter is too long for a small team
- Difficulty of coming up with good leading indicators. It felt artificial as we don't have a good idea how these will affect things we care about.
- Most of the leadership team didn't want to "waste" time to do it properly. With OKRs, if you don't do them properly — it is better not to start.
As a result, after a few years kicking this can down the road we abandoned the whole thing. I think it can work, but it requires more focus than most small teams have and buy-in on all levels.
It’s exactly as you describe, I agree with every point.
I’m currently thinking about introducing OKRs into one of our projects. We’ll see how that goes. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a painful experiment 🙂
I like this piece, Danil. It is a good practical adoptation of the framework. Have you tried it in this form in practice?
We abandoned OKRs altogether for a few reasons. But mainly it just became a tail that wagged the dog:
- Quarter is too long for a small team
- Difficulty of coming up with good leading indicators. It felt artificial as we don't have a good idea how these will affect things we care about.
- Most of the leadership team didn't want to "waste" time to do it properly. With OKRs, if you don't do them properly — it is better not to start.
As a result, after a few years kicking this can down the road we abandoned the whole thing. I think it can work, but it requires more focus than most small teams have and buy-in on all levels.
It’s exactly as you describe, I agree with every point.
I’m currently thinking about introducing OKRs into one of our projects. We’ll see how that goes. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a painful experiment 🙂
You can try 4DX instead, it is lightweight and maybe a better option for you. However, you still need buy-in.
Wodtke’s book has a good case study with a small team. It is super inspirational. But application is still difficult.
A practical guide showing that OKRs for small teams should prioritize focus, realistic capacity, and short cycles over ambition or scale