Leading the Product 2018 - Speaker Nicole Brolan from SEEK talks about OKR's in her talk "Unshackling from product monogamy and playing the field" For the blog post that goes with this presentation and more speaker talks go to: https://www.leadingtheproduct.com/behind-the-scenes/

1. 1
Unshackling from
PRESENTED BY
NICOLE
BROLAN
product monogamy
and playing the field

2. 2
The problem with
internet dating

3. 3
20+Product
Development
teams
How do we
objectively play the
field earlier to get us
to a better outcome?

4. Addressing the inherent challenges to play the field
Focusing on
what not
why
Empowerment
and autonomy
Alignment Focus Full team
accountability

5. 5
Those challenges in practice
‘Let’s build a
nudge engine’
‘Hirers will pay
$$ for a
service that
takes them
from brief to
shortlist’
‘That new
feature
should be
behind
a link’

6. 6

7. 7
Enter OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) onto the scene
Objectives =
business /
product goals
Qualitive and
inspirational
Key results =
measurable
outcomes
Take the inspirational
language and
quantify it

8. 8
Example OKR
Improve the post
apply experience
for candidates
Increase post
apply candidate
sentiment by 4%

9. 9
So, how did we
do it?

10. 10
Leverage existing stakeholder sentiment
1

11. 11
Start with a pilot – small number of teams to test and learn
2

12. 12
Use the pilot group as super users to help roll out OKRs at scale
3
1. Clear timeline
2. Utilise super users
3. Informal check-ins
4. Official sign-off for all OKRs
5. Embedded and regularly discussed

13. 13
Principles for the
Early scale
roll out
We are learning and
will make mistakes
early on
Focus on intent
not wordsmithing
Uphold OKR priorities
over new things
coming in
Whole team
engagement
Avoid being too
opinionated on the
how
Max 1-2 OKR’s per
team
Primarily bottom up
process

14. So what did we learn? The positives
Teams depth of conversation
Understanding dependencies upfront
Clear focus and priority calls early
Greater empowerment and autonomy
Good engagement broadly

15. So what did we learn? The challenges
Thirst for top down guidance
Lengthy OKR setting period
Retrofitting OKRs to solutions
Mindset shift
Narrow OKRs
Measurement

16. 16
What’s next /
been implemented
Providing high level top down guidance
Ongoing optimisations on the process
Ongoing information / coaching sessions
FY19 aspirations to help ladder up OKRs
Set up program around idea generation and
validation with customers

17. A SEEK world post OKRs
Increase the
depth of our
candidates’
Profile data at
scale
Make it easier for
SME hirers with
'candidate long'
roles to assess the
suitability of
candidates
Grow
Guaranteed Hire
bookings and
conversion
‘Let’s build a
nudge engine’ to
‘Stakeholders
‘helping’ with how
new features should
be displayed in the
experience’ to
‘All opinions on
for what services
hirers would pay
for in a premium
shortlisting
service’ to

18. 18

19. 19
“ “OKR’s are a good
tool for helping
drive outcome
focus
Embedding them
will take a couple of
quarters –it will get
easier over time
In closing
“ “The key is to embed
this outcome focus
is all rituals and
processes
OKR’s alone will
not mean you
‘play the field’

20. 20
Thank you.