{"id":20792,"date":"2020-09-03T09:30:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T14:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/output-based-okr-vs-outcome-based-okr-for-a-product-organization\/"},"modified":"2020-09-03T09:30:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-03T14:30:43","slug":"output-based-okr-vs-outcome-based-okr-for-a-product-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.planview.com\/output-based-okr-vs-outcome-based-okr-for-a-product-organization\/","title":{"rendered":"Output-based OKR vs Outcome-based OKR for a Product Organization"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Output-based<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Most companies are trying to adopt an OKR-based business model, but some of us might have experienced that this is not easy at all. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is very tempting to divert your attention (and business strategy) to close a new sparkling deal that has come in. Quite often, businesses (and thus the product organization) decide to focus on a certain customer segment and plan product roadmaps accordingly. However, soon enough your Sales team brings in deals that look good on paper but do not fit the long term strategy of the business, putting your roadmap in jeopardy. I have seen this happen far too often. <\/span><\/p>\n

Companies need to have the appetite to take risks and let go. That requires the right mindset from top to bottom. Typically, the Executive Leadership Team comes together to set the OKR for the OKR set (which is typically every quarter). Once set, the product organization gets into a room where they decide on the specific themes\/initiatives\/product discovery activities to pursue to achieve the key results.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are different flavors of OKR that product organizations typically follow. I have worked in two kinds of settings: <\/span><\/p>\n

Outcome-based OKRs<\/b><\/h3>\n

An outcome describes a measurable change in behavior of the users. The organization-level outcome could be something like “Increase customer retention by x%” which translates to a product-level objective of ‘Increase customer usage of the product”. The corresponding key results could be (a) 60% mobile usage OR (b) Improve the % of product NPS score OR (c) The number of new users increase by 30%<\/span><\/p>\n

This approach, like every other approach, has its pros and cons.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pros: <\/b><\/p>\n