Skip to main content

Book review - Measure what matters


Measure What Matters by John Doerr


The concept is simple: Measure what matters (Objective and Key Results). However this is a hard one to craft on your own. If you want to have a peep at how successful companies such as Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation have  utilized it, this is a great book for you. 

\


OKR means Objective Key Results. Book mentions it provides following benefits: provides focus and commit to priority, help aligning and connect for teamwork, track for accountability, and stretch for amazing. Companies noted in this book include Google, Intel, The Remind, Nuna, MyFutbessPal, The Gates Foundation, Google Chrome, YouTube, Adobe, Zume Pizza, Lumeris, Bono's ONE campaign. 

 The beauty of OKR to me was that it help avoid any arguments on how to interpret test data and be able to move fast based on the outcome of the test. For all AB tests, we want to know which one works better for the company in a long term. However, when there is a cost associated with waiting data for a year, business leaders have to determine which experience or feature to move forward with. 

 Here is a classic example; we are making more people to purchase, and at the same time more people to cancel later one. That is higher acquisition and higher retention. Typically the data collection waiting time is limited to 1 or 2 months. By making a decision at month 1 or 2 instead of waiting for a year, we could still be in-accurate. More acquisition and equal rate of cancellation without net long term gain might mean more negative impact to customer experience (as they might have been disappointed at the products or they might have a bad mouth about cancellation process). The real question is even with conflicting data points, what is the right way to use the data? What do we favor when there is conflict? 

 On that note, I see why YouTube was brilliant. YouTube, under the same parent company as Google, was going against the Google OKR in that it valued longer time spent. This was quite an opposite to Google's objective. If Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, didn't clarify that early on, would the team really be clear and optimize their activities for that metrics? Probably not. That is the power of OKR. 

 What is your Objective and Key Results? 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

History of Nike, the Swoosh, the sweat of Phil Knights and Nike's early members are described in this fun, genuine, riveting book. Such a great story teller, Phil Knight, takes us the early days of his journey to build Blue Ribbon, and eventually Nike till its IPO in 1979. This book will make you want to finish the book in one seating.  This book was chosen as a part of our book club meeting (ABBA - Adobe Business Book Association), I created late last year. I would not have chosen such book without this external influence. For that, I would say I was lucky!  In Shoe Dog, Phil narrates monumental events for each year chronologically. Phil's life is full of adventure from his traveling around the world at the age of 26 to the journey of building Nike that you know now. What a journey! He believes in product. He is a risk-driven. He manages his business in a way that any odd will put him under easily ('live on the float' was the term). He is eccentric. He i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bad Blood Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

It is the most entertaining and nerve-breaking book I have ever read in my entire life. Every chapter is full of evil acts. After reading this, you will still feel overwhelmed by the chills you had while you were reading. Elizabeth Holms, with her company Theranos valued at $9B in 2015, is the most audacious liar in the Silicon Valley startup history. By early 2017, the value of Theranos became zero, and in June 2018, she was indicted on federal wire fraud charges. Pulizer prize -winning investigative reporter, John Carreyrou's narration completes suspense to readers and the severity of the truth.   Evil 1: Elizabeth Holms Needless to say, or should I say needleless to say, the first person and the biggest culprit is the CEO of of Theranos. She is the world most talented salesperson. To start with, her board of directors are all-star board - Larry Ellizon, Tim Draper, Don Lucas, Henry Kissinger, William Perry, George P. Shultz to name a few. Her ability to re...
Post a Comment
Read more