Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results

by Christina R Wodtke

Overview

"Radical Focus is a must-read for anyone who wants to accomplish out-sized results. Christina does a great job showing both the why and the how of OKRs. Avoid the all-too-common mistakes by reading this book first." - Teresa Torres, author Continuous Discovery Habits
"This book is useful, actionable, and actually fun to read! If you want to get your team aligned around real, measurable goals, Radical Focus will teach you how to do it quickly and clearly." - Laura Klein, Principal, Users Know

The award-winning author of The Team That Managed Itself and Pencil Me In returns with a new and expanded edition of her landmark book on OKRs.

If you've ever wanted to know how to use OKRs, or why yours might not be working, Radical Focus teaches you everything you need to achieve your goals. The author pulls from her experience with Silicon Valley's hottest companies to teach practical insights on OKRs in the form of a fable.When Hanna and Jack receive an ultimatum from the only investor in their struggling tea supply company, they must learn how to employ Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) with radical focus to get the right things done. Using Hanna and Jack's story, Wodtke walks readers through how to inspire a diverse team to work together in pursuit of a single, challenging goal, and how to stay motivated despite setbacks and failures.Radical Focus has been translated into six languages and sold more than 50,000 copies. Now, the second edition of her OKR manifesto proves that Wodtke's business strategies are essential in a world where focus seems to be a more and more unreachable goal. The updated version includes 22,000 words of all-new material designed to help OKR users in larger companies create, grade, and manage OKRs in ways that accelerate success and drive rapid organizational learning.Ready to move your team in the right direction? Read this book together, and learn Wodtke's powerful system for attaining your most important goals with radical focus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780996006088
Publisher:	Cucina Media LLC
Publication date:	04/18/2021
Series:	Empowered Teams
Pages:	254
Sales rank:	347,371
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Christina Wodtke has helped to grow companies like LinkedIn, Yahoo, Zynga, and the New York Times, as well as numerous startups throughout Silicon Valley. She's the author of the business-fable book Radical Focus, a book which uses the power of story to build a new approach to OKRs, as well as the author of Information Architecture: Blueprints for the Web, Pencil Me In, and the upcoming Continuous Feedback. Christina currently teaches at Stanford on the HCI program in Computer Science. She speaks worldwide about humanity, teamwork, and the journey to excellence.

Table of Contents

FOREWARD... 1

Introduction. 4

THE EXECUTIONER’S TALE.. 10

Six Months Ago…. 12

Hanna Finds Another Great Customer. 17

Hanna Suggests a Pivot 22

Jim is Holding Court at Starbucks. 26

Jack Really Hates Starbucks. 29

Hanna Announces the Pivot 34

Hanna Attends a Tasting. 38

Jack Commits to Quality. 42

Hanna Talks Numbers. 45

Jack Eavesdrops. 49

Jack Gets More News. 51

Hanna Gets Advice. 53

Hanna Gets More Bad News. 56

Jack Makes a Call 58

Out of Time. 61

Numbers. 63

Hanna and Jack Meet a New Player. 67

The Executive Team... 78

Hanna, Friday, One Month Later. 91

Happily Ever After?. 95

Hanna, Six Months Later. 97

Hanna, One Year Later. 98

THE FRAMEWORK FOR RADICAL FOCUS. 99

Why We Can’t Get Things Done. 100

OKR Fundamentals. 107

What Makes OKRs Work?. 110

OKRs for Product Teams. 114

Setting a Rhythm of Execution. 118

Connecting Company Business Objectives with Service Department OKRs. 126

OKR Coaching Example: Quantifying Engineering’s Contribution to Sales. 126

The Timing of OKRs. 130

OKRs for MVPs. 134

Improve Weekly Status Emails with OKRs. 138

Common OKR Mistakes. 142

OKRs and the Annual Review.. 145

Quick Tips on OKRs Use. 149

A Little History and Credit Where Credit Is Due. 150

ABOUT THE AUTHOR.. 153

Editorial Reviews

"Busy grinding without purpose is the secret death of too many startups. In this memorable story, Christina gives us a glimpse of a more satisfying kind of startup--still hard and chaotic but full of purpose and the chance to build something great."

James Cham, Founder Bloomberg Beta

"Finally, a parable I could relate to! The real message is that OKRs work and Radical Focus is a great implementation guide to the world of OKRs, making it easy to deploy and see the exceptional results you're after." - David Shen, Launch Capital

"Someone once told me that 'problems are just opportunities that haven't presented themselves'. Since I was introduced to OKRs, they've been an invaluable tool for me, and our company. Christina's ideas have been instrumental, allowing me to better navigate the often ambiguous approach to goal setting and along the way creating a more open and accountable team and a clearer path for myself professionally. I personally can't thank her enough for the guidance."

Scott Baldwin Director of Services, Yellow Pencil

"Radical Focus illustrates how to implement OKRs in an engaging, compact, realistic story. Best of all, Wodtke proves OKRs can be fun!" Ben Lamorte, OKRs.com

"This book is useful, actionable, and actually fun to read! If you want to get your team aligned around real, measurable goals, Radical Focus will teach you how to do it quickly and clearly." - Laura Klein, Principal, Users Know

From the Publisher