Product teams normally have a backlog filled with great ideas and a huge issue with prioritizing them.
To prioritize better, there are a few questions you should answer:
First, what are we trying to impact and which area are we going to focus on?
There are normally 3 types of focus areas for a product team to consider when writing OKRs.
- Understand what the customer needs (research)
- Improve the customers’ onboarding experience (activation)
- Make sure the customer loves the product (retention or product stickiness)
Do you prefer video explanations? Check this instructional video👇 about Product Team OKRs from one of our coaches.
Once you have decided on the focus area, the next question is:
What are we missing? What problems are we facing in that area?
And, finally,
What can we test? How will we know that we are on the right track? What is achievable within 90 days?
Answer these questions to focus your decision-making process. Remember, one hour in planning saves 10 hours in execution.
Let’s run through some OKR examples.
Research:
O: Research early stage customers’ expectations and needs so we can improve areas that actually matter
KR1: Watch 100 early entry recordings and summarize learnings
KR2: Organize 30 interviews with early stage customers and document improvement areas
KR3: Test ideas that come up from research to increase % of returning new users each week from 20% to 45%
Activation:
O: Get different customer types to complete their respective “jobs” in the product faster on the first entry
KR1: Increase % of HR admins who use the pulse survey feature within 7 days after sign up from 2 to 14%
KR2: Increase % of company leaders who set up a bird’s eye view dashboard within 7 days after sign up from 3% to 10%
KR3: Increase % of users who login 3 times within 10 days after sign up from 5 to 15%
Retention:
O: Allow more personalization opportunities to create emotional attachment to the product
KR1: Increase the number of users who customize their personal dashboard from 20 to 45%
KR2: Enable “personal motto” functionality and get at least 1000 users to create one
KR3: Increase average time spent in the product from 10 minutes to 30 minutes per week
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Learn more about writing good Objectives and Key Results, or browse more examples in our OKR examples database.