03 Feb
Many organizations are seeking to take their business online and trying to reach their customers. Their chances of success will be higher with the adoption of OKRs. We talk about setting and achieving OKRs with specific illustrative examples for the following objectives:
- Use data to increase personalization in messaging.
- Increase one’s social media engagement.
- Achieve X amount of eCommerce revenues.
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The recent pandemic has seen a record number of businesses moving online so as to stay in business and to connect with customers who are unwilling to venture out to buy the things they need at a brick-and-mortar store. They recognize the new reality where people can access a product or service from suppliers across the globe, and that they can access customers across the globe too if they go online. Such new ventures require the right kind of planning and execution to make sure that their efforts are successful.
Adopting a performance plan based on Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) can help an eCommerce enterprise or online business to gain organizational agility and assured success, whether they are new or old. Implementing OKRs requires thinking and planning on a quarterly basis, if not more frequently. Executing your OKRS on a day-to-day basis will definitely contribute to the growth of your business, requiring adherence on everyone on the team to achieving the OKRs.
OKRs can be structured at the organizational level as well as at individual level. They can also be made team-specific. While organizational OKRs focus on the goals of the company itself, team goals cover specific teams. Individuals get goals which correspond closely with their team OKRs. All levels of OKRs should be supportive of each other and it is good to have no more than five OKRs for each of the levels. Individual OKRs are basically owned by a specific individual, along with all the objectives under the Team-based OKRs, the leader of the team owns the objective, but the key results are further distributed among the members of the team, based on the execution plan. Team-based OKRs call for communication and collaboration among the members of the team. Link each objective to 4 key results or less, to stay laser-focused on the deliverables.
Make sure that the OKRs are steep but measurable goals, which push you to work harder but tell you where you stand, at the end of it all. This is why they are measured on a 0-1 scale, where achieving or exceeding the goal merits a 1. If you are achieving 1s all the time, you need to go back to the drawing board to check if your goals are really steep enough. For goals which cannot be measured, try setting a time limit to reach it. These should be known to everyone in the organization, so that people understand where they are accountable and how they need to provide the necessary support and help the other teams to succeed. Grade the performance to determine the success when the time for review comes around.
In an era when most companies are vying to get their customers’ attention in a highly competitive arena, innovation and bold strategies offer the right kind of help to a growing business. Which is why, setting effective OKRs will prove a step in the right direction for you. Let’s look at a few illustrative examples of such OKR-setting.
Use Data for Personalization in Messaging
Personalization of messaging is the mantra of eCommerce businesses today as the only way to reach one’s customers is to reach them when they are most receptive to the idea of our product and service and actively considering it by themselves. This approach would require you to employ technology to collect data pertaining to current and prospective customers. For you to be truly productive, all the data needs to be adequately and efficiently shared across all the departments at your organization. Make sure that your OKRs bring focus and discipline to your teams and improve collaboration and communication between teams and departments.
Key result #1: Increase collaboration between teams and departments.
Key result #2: Eliminate data silos and cleanse all the data.
Key result #3: Have all data synchronized and integrated by the end of Q1.
Key result #4: Provide access to a single-source-of-truth to all teams.
Increase Social Media Engagement
Increasing social media engagement is a sure-fire strategy to improving your reach and staying connected to your current customers while expanding your reach to potential customers too. Being active on social media and engaging with customers helps a brand to stay responsive to customer sentiments, manage its online reputation better and even to connect with influencers to leverage their support and recommendations.
Key result #1: Determine the top 2 or 3 most effective social media sites to increase our reach and connect with the right kind of target audience for your brand.
Key result #2: Engage in #X number of effective social media conversations online.
Key result #3: Gain #X of followers on the social media sites, where you are present.
Key result #4: Respond to every social media message in within #X number of hours after they get posted.
Achieve X amount in eCommerce Revenues
Consider setting an ambitious goal for your revenues, or a targeted position in the market for your or a specific geography. The key results of this goal would cascade to all the departments and have everyone working to achieve this goal.
Key result #1: Earn annual revenues of more than X million/billion.
Key result #2: Boost market share by X% by Q4 of Year X.
Key result #3: Boost order value by 4X or a similar, measurable goal.
Choose a time frame specific to your needs when setting OKRs. Quarterly OKRs help businesses revise and reset direction, if needed even as they are on the path. You can pick any time frame of your choice or change to something else, even later. Get everyone to meet as a team, discuss the objectives before setting them. Remember to never create too many objectives if you wish to enjoy the true benefits of the OKR-based performance management system.
You can also read, some practical examples of OKRs and how do annual planning with an OKR framework.
