John Doerr

Measure What Matters is a revolutionary approach to business that has been adopted by some of Silicon Valley's most successful startups. It is a movement that is behind the explosive growth of Intel, Google, Amazon and Uber and many more. Measure What Mattersis about using Objectives and Key Results (or OKRs) to make tough choices on business priorities. It's about communicating these objectives throughout the company from entry level to CEO and it's about collecting timely, relevant data to track progress - to measure what matters. When Google first started out, its founders had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy and sky-high ambition but no business plan. John Doerr taught them a proven approach to operating excellence that has helped them achieve greatness. He has since shared OKRs with more than fifty companies with outstanding success. In this book, Larry Page, Bill Gates, Bono, Sheryl Sandberg and many more explain how OKRs have helped them exceed all expectations and run their organisations with focus and agility.

Okrs - The Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth

Measure What Matters

Examples could be clear and less objective oriented and more outcome oriented. 

João Maia

Larry Page

Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth—and how it can help any organization thrive.

In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up whom he'd just given $12.5 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 propositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, relevant 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 engineer at Intel, where the legendary Andy Grove ("the greatest manager 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 practiced, it worked.

In this goal-setting system, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry level to CEO, are transparent to the entire organization.

The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep employees 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 shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will help a new generation of leaders capture the same magic.

How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs

elizabeth

Most of this book is examples, which are fine and sometimes useful. 

And then a lot of it is this loop of “yeah, it’s kind of like goals and performance indicators, except that l people use goals and performance indicators like X and you should use Objectives and Key Results like Y.” It’s just kind of semantics. 

And the rest is just worship of rich people who buy in to this rephrasing of common sense ideas, which is…convenient.

Mert

The books explains the OKR process very well and shares many examples but still it couldn’t convince me that having OKRs is the right way to achieve goals. Especially the ones about innovation. It gives examples from Google and Intel but these are the companies just increasing their numbers every day. You can’t see real innovations from them for years (I am not even mentioning the products which people love but Google killed) and also there are things that you can’t measure. I read many articles from Google engineers and their promotion process. If you fix the bugs, write tests, refactor the code, there is less chance to be promoted. You need implement new features and you can see that the reason why you have to do that is OKRs.

Keven Wang

Amazing book on OKR. Highly recommend if you lead a team

An interesting book full of insights and anecdotes by (probably) the person that has been most influential in popularizing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).

Nast Marrero

#1 New York Times Bestseller Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth—and how it can help any organization thrive. In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up whom he'd just given $12.5 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 propositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, relevant 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 engineer at Intel, where the legendary Andy Grove ("the greatest manager 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 practiced, it worked. In this goal-setting system, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry level to CEO, are transparent to the entire organization. The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep employees 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 shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will help a new generation of leaders capture the same magic.

Kimber Severance 

Simply put, measure the metrics that matter most, find an objective or two that is the most relevant to what you want to gain, and use metrics that measure how that objective is doing. Most of the book is just giving examples of this basic "objectives and metrics" system.

Nick Gracilla

John Doerr’s book is a practical, no-nonsense guide to the management method of Objectives and Key Results. Through interesting case studies, we learn how OKRs guide and transform work at Google, Intel, Intuit, the Gates Foundation, and more. Four “superpowers” are set out: focus and commitment to priority thinking, aligning and connecting a team, tracking for accountability and course corrections, and stretching for beyond expected results. A chapter on the relationships between OKRs and Continuous Performance Management recommends ditching the ‘annual performance review,’ opting instead for regular feedback and improved culture. I highly recommend this book: it’s got a great dose of history, interesting case studies, and a practical method of focusing on what’s important.

Lee Herman

John Doerr was an early OKR practitioner and has spent much of his life enabling organizations to use OKRs to reach dramatic levels of success. This book is his effort to make that work available to a wider audience. This was my first reading and I will be going back to the book as a reference for setting my own OKRs.

Neil Murray

I read this in two sittings as it was easy and enjoyable to read. Hardly groundbreaking stuff but a good reminder of the power of structured goals as well as the history of OKRs. The best part are the case studies/stories interwoven throughout the book. Useful resource section at the end too to help you set your own OKRs.

Philip Young

I really liked this book. There are a lot of practical examples and stories of how OKRs work in different settings. I can see broad application for this concept. Highly recommended, it's an easy and accesible read.

Ethan Ding

i don't retain that much from it, I'm not sure why, but i might revisit again one day

Melanie Richards

Just read an article on OKRs. 😛 Mostly this book reminded me how toxic the Valley can be.

Chris Raastad

Yikes, it took me almost 6 months to finish this book... That was mostly my fault, but at the same time didn't find this book to be a thriller. If you've never heard of OKRs, this is definitely the place to start. It's a great introduction to the process that drove Google's growth to the stars. There are many references to the earth-moving names of Silicon Valley and the interplay between them that built most of the dominant tech companies today. The pages are filled with practical advice and stories of how to drive success and motivate your organization. This is definitely required reading for anyone in upper management and anyone jumping into an organization practicing OKRs. 5/5 for practical content.

On the other hand, I didn't find it a very exciting read, 3/5 for keeping you at the edge of your seat to turn pages. I just didn't find it very exciting. I think 6 months is the longest time I've spent reading a book.

Andrew Canion

Good content, but the book dragged it out with incessant, similar case studies. Business goes beyond billion dollar Silicon Valley tech companies but we never hear about them.

Faheem Kajee

Ben Blumenrose

Lots of great examples of how to effectively use OKRs, the big question is how to incorporate the system at work and even in your personal goal setting.

Ilia Markov

Good intro to OKRs, well-written, lots of interesting stories.

However, I'm not sure the book on its own would be enough if you're looking to start using OKRs and implement your first set for your company.

Les Reynolds

Inspiring, and very helpful information. Would love to be part of a company that used this methodology.

Emma Hak-Kovacs

Ludek Bukovsky

Noah Woodman

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'I'd recommend John's book for anyone interested in becoming a better manager', Bill Gates 'Management magic....Measure What Matters is a must read for anyone motivated to improve their organization' - Former Vice President Al Gore, chairman of the Climate Reality Project 'Measure What Matters shows how any organization or team can aim high, move fast, and excel' , Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO and founder of Leanln.org and OptionB.org 'Measure What Matters deserves to be fully embraced by every person responsible for performance in any walk of life' - Jim Collins, author of Good to Great 'In this indispensable book, the most important venture capitalist of our era reveals a key to business innovation and success - Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs and The Innovators 'Measure What Matters takes you behind the scenes for the creation of Intel's powerful OKR system - one of Andy Grove's finest legacies' - Gordon Moore, cofounder and former chairman of Intel -------- The revolutionary movement behind the explosive growth of Intel, Google, Amazon and Uber. With a foreword by Larry Page, and contributions from Bono and Bill Gates. Measure What Matters is about using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), a revolutionary approach to goal-setting, to make tough choices in business. In 1999, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr invested nearly $12 million in a startup that had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy and sky-high ambitions, but no real business plan. Doerr introduced the founders to OKRs and with them at the foundation of their management, the startup grew from forty employees to more than 70,000 with a market cap exceeding $600 billion. The startup was Google. Since then Doerr has introduced OKRs to more than fifty companies, helping tech giants and charities exceed all expectations. In the OKR model objectives define what we seek to achieve and key results are how those top priority goals will be attained. OKRs focus effort, foster coordination and enhance workplace satisfaction. They surface an organization's most important work as everyone's goals from entry-level to CEO are transparent to the entire institution. In Measure What Matters, Doerr shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will show you how to collect timely, relevant data to track progress - to measure what matters. It will help any organization or team aim high, move fast, and excel. -------- 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 and Amazon. John serves on the boards of Google, Zynga and Amyris. He also led KPCB's investment in Twitter. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and was a member of U.S. President Barack Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Measure What Matters Okrs - The Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth

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