MEASURE WHAT MATTERS

This is legendary venture capitalist John Doerr’s revolutionary approach to goal-setting, which has catapulted tech giants like Google and is spreading from Silicon Valley to the rest of the corporate and nonprofit world.

Objectives and key results (OKRs) are a goal-setting process to help organizations, teams, and individuals attain excellence. Objectives define what goals matter most; key results are metrics that show how those top priorities will be achieved within a set timeframe. In contrast to traditional top-down systems, individuals and teams design their own OKRs to ladder up to the company’s core objectives. Since everyone has a clear stake in the collective mission, all hands work together to execute at the highest level. This two-way dynamic sparks engagement, autonomy, and innovation.

Famed Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist John Doerr—an early investor in Google, Amazon, and Twitter, among other tech giants—brought the game-changing OKR approach to Google in 1999, when the company had fewer than 40 employees. He taught Larry Page and Sergey Brin how OKRs worked, as Intel’s renowned Andy Grove had once taught Doerr. Grasping the method’s power and potential, the Google founders adopted it as a framework to discipline their thinking and spur growth.

After 70 consecutive quarters of OKR goal-setting, Google has more than 55,000 employees and the largest market cap in the world. Meanwhile, Doerr and former Google employees have disseminated OKRs across Silicon Valley and beyond. The results are clear: greater productivity and workplace satisfaction; sharpened, more coherent cultures; and continual improvement as managers evolve into leaders, mentors, and coaches.

MEASURE WHAT MATTERS explores the OKR “superpowers” that strengthen an organization's “goal muscle.” Using case studies from Google and Intel to Bono’s ONE campaign and the Gates Foundation, the book demonstrates the proven benefits of OKRs: focus, agility, and explosive growth. It can help every organization, of any size or sector, capture the same magic.

John Doerr joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1980 and has since backed some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs and companies, such as Google, Zynga, Amazon, and Twitter.
Kris Dugganf ounded BetterWorks to promote OKR services. The organization already has nearly 25 percent of the Fortune 500 companies as customers, including CVS, Kroger, and IBM.