The 1 Reason Your Digital Company Isn’t Growing Faster. Hint: It’s Your Lack of OKRs

Your digital company is doomed to fail miserably if you don't get your act together and implement OKRs immediately.

Why am I so brutally direct? Well, after seeing countless digital companies crash and burn from misalignment and lack of focus, I'm on a mission to shake you out of your complacency.

The ugly truth is that vanity metrics, lack of accountability, and departmental silos are rampant across digital businesses. Meanwhile, your competitors are blowing past you by implementing OKRs to align around ambitious goals.

If you're still resisting OKRs because you think your business is "different", then you're deluding yourself. I've heard every excuse in the book from digital leaders who think they know better. But then I've seen their businesses spiral downhill into oblivion.

Don't be like the arrogant digital executive who insisted his company didn't need OKRs right before they lost 80% of their value. Or the marketing director who claimed OKRs were too "corporate", only to see her team stuck in an endless cycle of meaningless activities.

Wake up and take a hard look in the mirror. If your digital company lacks alignment around objectives and key results, you're already falling dangerously behind. But if you act now to implement OKRs properly, following the specific steps I outline below, then congrats - you might just save this ship from sinking.

What Are OKRs?

Objectives and key results (OKRs) have become a popular framework for setting goals and measuring progress, especially in tech companies. The concept was pioneered by Andy Grove at Intel and later promoted by venture capitalist John Doerr in his book Measure What Matters.

OKRs can help align an organization around ambitious, measurable goals. But implementing them takes thoughtful planning - you need to tailor them to your company's culture and workflow. In this post, I'll explain how digital companies can apply OKRs effectively, with examples for marketing, HR, and sales teams.

For example, here's an objective and key result:

Objective: Increase website traffic.

• Key result: Achieve 100,000 monthly unique visitors by Q4.

OKRs operate on two different scales:

• Company-level OKRs set high-level goals for the entire organization. These are typically set annually.
• Department/team-level OKRs align with company OKRs but have more specificity. Teams create quarterly or monthly OKRs.

OKRs should be ambitious and force people to stretch. According to Doerr, the ideal target for key results is 60-70% achievement. If you hit 100% of your key results, that likely means you weren't thinking big enough.

Now, let's see how digital companies can apply OKRs in marketing, HR, and sales.

Example OKRs for a Marketing Team

Here are some example quarterly OKRs for a digital marketing team aligned to the company objective of "acquire more customers":

Objective: Increase quality traffic to our site.

• Key result 1: Achieve 1 million organic search visits per month.
• Key result 2: Get 25,000 visits per month from social media referral traffic.
• Key result 3: Obtain 500 backlinks from reputable external sites.

Objective: Improve marketing attribution tracking.

• Key result: Implement UTMs for all campaigns and integrate with analytics by end of Q2.

Objective: Create viral content.

• Key result: Have 10 pieces of content shared over 100 times on social media.

These OKRs focus on measurable outcomes like traffic, backlinks, and engagement. The marketing team would then create projects and initiatives to test and achieve these goals.

For example, to drive organic traffic, they might overhaul on-page SEO, create comprehensive guides, and pitch guest posts to industry websites. To get content shared, they could produce engaging videos, infographics, and interactive tools.

OKRs enable the marketing team to align their efforts to move the company forward rather than getting distracted by vanity metrics like social media followers or pretty graphics that don't deliver results.

Example OKRs for an HR Team

Here are some example OKRs for an HR team aligned to the company objective of "attract and retain top talent":

Objective: Improve our hiring process.

• Key result 1: Reduce time to hire top candidates from 60 days to 30 days.
• Key result 2: Increase hiring manager satisfaction with candidates screened by 20%.

Objective: Increase employee engagement.

• Key result: Improve employee net promoter score from 50 to over 60.

Objective: Develop our managers.

• Key result: Have over 80% of managers complete management training program by Q3.

For HR, OKRs help focus on quantifiable people goals. They want to streamline hiring, improve manager capabilities, and measure the employee experience.

Initiatives might include overhauling their hiring process, implementing more regular employee surveys, and rolling out management training resources and workshops.

The OKR framework gives HR metrics to indicate how well they are supporting employees. This data can reveal where additional programs or training may be needed.

Example OKRs for a Sales Team

Here are some example OKRs for a sales team seeking to boost revenue growth:

Objective: Increase new customer acquisition.

• Key result 1: Add at least 50 new enterprise customers this quarter.
• Key result 2: Shorten the sales cycle for enterprise deals by 10%.

Objective: Expand existing accounts.

• Key result: Increase upsell revenue by 25% from existing customers.

Objective: Improve sales conversion rates.

• Key result: Increase SQL-to-SQL conversion rate from 30% to 40%.

For sales, OKRs help them focus on measurable results vs. activity metrics. The sales team needs to not just generate leads but convert those to paying customers and expand key accounts.

They can work cross-functionally with marketing to improve lead quality. For conversion rate improvements, they may need to overhaul workflows, adjust commissions and provide additional sales training.

Shared OKRs help other departments assist sales, rather than throwing leads over the fence. Marketing and product, for example, become jointly responsible for acquisition and growth when OKRs are aligned across the organization.

Tips for Implementing OKRs

Here are some key tips to roll out OKRs effectively at a digital company:

• Start at the top - Leadership must be aligned on company OKRs for the framework to work. Cascading objectives from the executive team down is crucial.
• Offer guidance but let teams self-direct - Give departments flexibility to create their own objectives and key results. Dictating the OKRs rarely works.
• Focus on 3-5 key results per objective - Limiting the number of KRs keeps things achievable. You can always add more next quarter.
• Be ambitious - Teams should be eager yet anxious about their OKRs. Goals should feel challenging but within the realm of possibility.
• Track progress transparently - Share a company dashboard to monitor OKR progress. Automate where possible.
• Review frequently- Don't just set it and forget it. Evaluate OKRs continuously and adjust as needed.
• Reward based on OKR achievement - Connect bonuses and promotions to OKR accomplishment. But don't punish failure, if people strive for ambitious goals.

Closing Thoughts

After reading this, you have no more excuses. The facts are painfully clear - if you don't get your act together and implement OKRs, your digital company is destined for catastrophic failure.

Don't be like the multitude of egotistical leaders who denied this truth only to see their business go down in flames. Learn from their mistakes so you don't repeat them.

Set aside your pride and stop lying to yourself. You know your digital teams are floundering without the alignment and ambition provided by OKRs. So what are you waiting for?

The clock is ticking. Your competitors are outpacing you with laser-focused objectives and ruthlessly tracking key results. Meanwhile, your teams are stuck in a scattershot mess of vanity metrics and wasted activity.

If you care at all about your company's future, you will shake things up and implement OKRs today. Follow the specific recommendations I outlined here to create alignment, engage employees, and drive digital growth.

The choice is yours. Lead your company to transformational success by empowering teams with OKRs. Or deny the truth and watch your business slowly implode from misalignment and inaction. Don't say I didn't warn you.

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