OKR Strategic Alignment Project

Overview

Our organization faced the issue of inconsistent performance management systems, with different countries and departments adopting their own management methods such as KPI, OKR, Lean Value Tree, etc. Some teams even had to follow mixed management models from multiple upstream organizations. This diverse system lacked coordination, leading to confusion among team members regarding performance goal setting and priority management, affecting overall execution efficiency.

To address this issue, we initiated a new OKR solution project. Through in-depth analysis of current performance management practices, we developed a unified OKR framework aimed at integrating management methods across departments and teams, providing a consistent goal-setting process. This solution not only helps team members clarify priorities and objectives but also enhances cross-departmental collaboration and alignment with the organization's overall strategic goals, ensuring that each team can work efficiently while more clearly measuring and improving performance.

Business Challenges

Under the performance management system at that time, not only did the organization face challenges brought by diverse management approaches, but individuals were also deeply affected. Specific challenges include:

1. Inconsistent management methods: Different countries and departments adopted various performance management methods such as KPI, OKR, Lean Value Tree, and some teams even had to follow management approaches from multiple upstream organizations simultaneously. This inconsistency left individuals lacking clear guidance when setting goals, making it difficult to find a standardized direction.

2. Confusion in goal setting: Due to varying management frameworks, individuals often felt lost when setting performance goals, unsure of which set of standards to prioritize, leading to unclear objectives and ambiguous priorities. This lack of clarity exacerbated anxiety and stress at work, weakening individuals' confidence in achieving performance targets.

3. Upstream and downstream management conflicts: Faced with mixed management models from multiple upstream organizations, individuals had to expend extra effort to balance different performance requirements. These conflicts and inconsistencies not only created additional workload but also affected individual work efficiency and team collaboration experiences.

4. Collaboration challenges and sense of isolation: During cross-departmental cooperation, due to differences in performance management methods, individuals faced obstacles in driving projects forward, increased communication costs, and decreased collaboration efficiency, often leaving individuals feeling isolated and powerless to solve problems.

5. Lack of unified performance feedback: Diverse management methods prevented individuals from receiving consistent and transparent feedback in performance evaluations. This lack of clarity in assessments made it difficult for individuals to improve their work performance in a targeted manner, subsequently affecting long-term career development planning and sense of direction.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for a unified and transparent performance management system that not only helps individuals clarify goals and priorities but also provides more consistent and constructive feedback, enhancing the sense of achievement and purpose at work.

User Research

Research Background:

Before implementing the new OKR system, we conducted qualitative and quantitative user research on employees from different countries, departments, and levels, including in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and online surveys. The purpose of the research was to understand the challenges posed by the existing performance management system to users, as well as their needs and expectations for the new system. Participants included frontline employees, management, and cross-departmental team members, aiming to ensure that the OKR system design meets the actual needs of users at all levels.Main Research Methods:

User Interviews: A total of 20 one-on-one interviews were conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of users' habits and pain points in daily use of the performance management system.

Focus Group Discussions: Five focus group discussions were organized with different departments to collectively explore performance management issues in cross-departmental collaboration.

Online Survey: Feedback was collected from over 200 employees through a quantitative questionnaire to understand the usage and satisfaction of the existing system.Research Conclusions:

- Unclear User Goals, System Struggles to Provide Support: Many users indicated that the goal-setting process in the existing system is complex and lacks flexibility. They are unclear on how to effectively transition between different management frameworks (such as KPI, OKR, Lean Value Tree), leading to confusion when setting goals.

- Low Cross-departmental Collaboration Efficiency: Cross-departmental projects often involve multiple performance management systems, and users feel unable to unify and coordinate the goals and priorities of all parties, especially in different countries and departments where this issue is more prominent.

- Goal Progress Tracking Tools Are Not Intuitive: The progress tracking interface of the existing system is not intuitive and does not allow for real-time viewing of goal achievement through simple operations. Many users indicated a lack of data visualization tools to help them analyze goal progress.

- Untimely Feedback, Difficult to Adjust Goals: Users reported that the existing system cannot provide timely performance feedback, especially during the goal-setting process, where they are unable to adjust and optimize goals based on real-time data.

- Poor User Experience with Manual Excel Form Filling: Many users mentioned that when using the existing performance management system on Excel, the information logic is confusing, operations are complex, and it is difficult to effectively track and update goals.

Solution

Design Recommendations:

Based on the above research results, we recommend prioritizing the following design points in the new OKR system:

• Clear Goal Setting Process: Design an intuitive, guided process to help users easily set goals, which can seamlessly integrate with existing management frameworks.

• Cross-departmental Collaboration Tools: Introduce functional modules for team goal sharing and alignment, simplifying cross-departmental communication and collaboration processes.

• Real-time Data Visualization: Display the progress of key objectives through visual dashboards, allow users to customize tracking pages, and provide intelligent data analysis functions.

• Instant Feedback and Flexible Adjustment: Provide real-time feedback on goal achievement and allow users to dynamically adjust goals based on progress data, ensuring performance aligns with strategic objectives.

UI Design

Clear visualization of the information structure, allowing users to see all their OKR information and status at a glance, and easily make adjustments and edits.

Through user-friendly information visualization, users can clearly see the connection between an OKR and its upstream goals, as well as how it aligns with the overall company strategy. This visualization can use a tree structure or hierarchical diagram to intuitively display the relationships and levels between objectives.

A clear and transparent OKR list, facilitating browsing and finding objectives and key results across all levels of the organization. This openness promotes overall collaboration and goal alignment.