Doerr, J: Measure What Matters

Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how OKRs have helped tech giants from Intel to Google exceed all expectations-and how they can help any organization thrive

In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up he'd just given $11.8 million, the biggest investment of his career. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy, and sky-high ambitions, but no real business plan. For Google to change the world (or even to survive), Page and Brin had to learn how to make tough choices on priorities while keeping their team on track. They'd have to know when to pull the plug on losing prop ositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, rele vant data to track their progress-to measure what mattered.

Doerr taught them about a proven approach to operating excellence: Objectives and Key Results. He had first discovered OKRs in the 1970s as an engi neer at Intel, where Andy Grove ("the greatest man ager of his or any era") drove the best-run company Doerr had ever seen. Later, as a venture capitalist, Doerr shared Grove's brainchild with more than fifty companies. Wherever the process was faithfully prac ticed, it worked.

The rest is history. With OKRs as its manage ment foundation, Google has grown from forty em ployees to more than 70,000-with a market cap exceeding $600 billion.

In the OKR model, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measur able actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry-level to CEO, are transparent to the en tire organization. The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep em ployees on track. They link objectives across silos to unify and strengthen the entire company. Along the way, OKRs enhance workplace satisfaction and boost retention.

In Measure What Matters , Doerr and coauthor Kris Duggan