Hey, happy Monday!
Today is not February 1. Today it is 9% in 2021. How is he doing?
This is the last in a series of 3 notes written for the sole purpose of providing you with an arch, arrows and above all a deadly aim to hit whatever target you have decided to aim at in this 2021.
Let’s get to work.
Summary of previous episodes
It is clear now that we are no longer in the business of products (and services) but we are in the business of eXperiences as a Service.
People seek short-term relationships with brands that enable them to improve particular areas of their lives. They do not buy a particular product because they need it, but momentarily invest in a service that allows them to achieve a tangible result. The better the experience, the higher the chance they will continue to pay for it in the future.
The paradigm shift occurs at the moment when this no longer applies only to software or services but also applies to physical products, both b2b and b2c.
- You don’t want new fixtures -> you want to get the bonus to reduce the cost of renovation
- You don’t want a hamburger -> you want a good time
- You don’t want an agency -> you want a team of experts at your service
- You don’t want a pair of glasses to see better -> you want a pair of glasses to be seen
- You don’t want a bottle of wine -> you want to travel elsewhere
And who are the companies that, better than anyone else, base their business model on constantly improving the customer experience?
That’s right: the tech companies. And you know what? We are all a tech company.
Exactly 10 years ago Marc Andreessen predicted it all in his most famous piece, “Software is Eating the World.”
Today no one could disprove the fact that even a mozzarella company or a pizzeria or a neighborhood copy shop are tech companies.
Without code spinning somewhere in the cloud, no one could be part of the game. Literally (GameStop via NYTimes)..
The software that eats the world actually feeds on numbers, cooked to perfection by new designers, the chefs of experiences.
They are simple recipes, have few ingredients, sometimes only 3 numbers lined up in the exact sequence so as to change people’s behavior.
If you’ve gotten this far in reading, and the picture still seems blurry, I suggest you reread the paragraph “How to use North Star to draw and guide strategy.”. I will restart from here.
Recalculation…
It’s nighttime. We are driving. At one point we enter a tunnel, one of those long ones that go through the mountains. For miles an intermittent sequence of neon and concrete. The only thing that reassures us is to look at the dashboard and know that the speed is steady, the engine is running smoothly, no warning lights on, a yawn, and (probably) enough gas to travel all the way to the other side.
This is exactly the closest metaphor of leading the company with KPIs.
If there are no lights on everything is fine, you can continue to travel undisturbed without but without having the ability to know where you are. In the tunnel you have no landmarks, you have no way to orient yourself, you can only keep doing what you were doing, follow the neon lights.
If you had a navigator you probably would never have gone down that tunnel. You probably would have soon taken the previous exit and traveled a new road, perhaps less comfortable, but certainly faster.
This means traveling with OKRs.
Always have a chance to answer the most important question: Are we going in the right direction?
This is a question we could not answer simply by looking at the odometer.
Instead, the navigator uses data to constantly recalculate route. It puts together map information with real-time traffic information and quickly generates a large number of options for reaching the destination as quickly as possible.
It is true that one must enjoy the journey. But to do so, it is necessary to be clear about the destination.
How do you connect North Star Metric with OKRs?
We line things up, as if drawing imaginary lines to draw constellations.
We have an experience, the one that the whole organization is committed to every one of its customers. And I deliberately used the singular because you might have multiple products but the experience is always one, it is the products that are distributed along the evolutionary path of the customer.
It is important to simplify to become the best, to become the only one.
It is such a simple experience that it is easy to describe it with numbers, with data coming directly from the use of the products themselves, such as traffic information for Google Map. The leading metrics e lagging. All aligned lead to the brightest star, the one to follow, the North Star.
At this point you have everything and you need the OKRs to qualitatively and quantitatively define the best path, at any given time, to move as quickly as possible toward the results you want to achieve.
It may sound complicated and instead it is very simple to make it extremely practical I want to invite you to watch the replay of this STRTGY Meeting with Pedro Clivati of GrowthHackers.com
You will find two videos.
In the first Pedro adds important details about how NSM is used to prioritize learning and idea generation for growth experiments.
In the second, however, I will explain, with examples, how to write goals, identify key results, and build the OKRs architecture in such a way that every energy is expended to move the organization toward achieving its mission.
Simplification. Concentration. Rhythm.
STRTGY is SUCCESS IN PROGRESS…
Good work!
Make yourself heard.
