Marty Cagan, pioneer of product coaching, recently wrote that "after many years of being a very vocal advocate for the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) technique, in the majority of companies I meet, I have stopped recommending the practice." In most cases, he says, they are "a waste of time and effort" with "little if any results."
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Why so negative? It comes down to culture. Marty is saying that most teams are not set up for success because they don’t have the autonomy required for pursuing outcomes rather than pre-determined outputs.
In my experience, he's right. But I remain less pessimistic. With the proper guidance, I've seen (even helped) product teams pivot to outcome-based roadmaps and OKRs. It requires cultural change all the way up to the exec team, but it can be done. You can read my article on OKRs for product teams here.
Death to OKRs? Long Live OKRs? What’s been your experience with OKRs? Tell me a story.