56 pages • 1 hour read
John DoerrMeasure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 10-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “OKRs in Action”
Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary: “Superpower #3: Track for Accountability”
Doerr discusses the lifecycle of OKRs, which can be broken down into three phases: the setup, the tracking, and the wrap-up.
During the setup, to prepare for the OKR system, Doerr recommends adopting specialized software that can facilitate the creation and tracking of objectives and key results. He also recommends that companies appoint “shepherds” (115) to guide teams through the OKR process, ensure alignment, and encourage employee engagement.
Once a company starts using OKRs, it must track progress regularly and transparently. Doerr claims that tracking improves accountability and motivation. While OKRs don’t require daily tracking, weekly check-ins are recommended to assess progress and make any necessary adjustments. Doerr advises using a traffic light system to indicate progress, with green representing on track, yellow indicating some issues, and red signaling that a goal should be dropped. New goals can also be started during the cycle if need be.
At the end of the OKR cycle, Doerr recommends conducting a thorough review to evaluate the outcomes and learn from the process. He encourages teams to score the outcome, using green for an achieved or exceeded objective, yellow for partially achieved, and red for not achieved. This evaluation helps teams identify areas for improvement and make adjustments for future cycles. Moreover, he advises that teams also engage in qualitative self-assessment as well as reflection and celebration before starting a new cycle.
Part 1, Chapter 11 Summary: “Track: The Gates Foundation Story”
Chapter 11 highlights the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Co-chairman Bill Gates and former CEO Patty Stonesifer discuss the importance of tracking goals and measuring progress in order to effectively address global challenges. They emphasize the foundation’s commitment to using data and measurement to drive decision-making and maximize impact. Since the organization’s goals were so lofty and ambitious, they recognized the need to track and assess progress constantly. “Vaccinating every child everywhere” (131) against malaria, for instance, was an extremely complex and audacious goal, but they approached it through a practical and data-driven lens. The greatest challenge was often breaking down ambitious goals into measurable objectives and finding effective metrics to evaluate success. Gates and Stonesifer found OKRs to be a valuable tool in this process, as OKRs provided a framework for setting clear goals and measuring progress: per Stonesifer, “OKRs allowed us to be ambitious and disciplined at the same time” (130).
Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary: “Superpower #4: Stretch for Amazing”
In Chapter 12, Doerr discusses the importance of setting stretch goals, or goals that are big, ambitious, specific, and challenging. He believes that innovation, which is crucial to a company’s survival, is driven by setting and achieving stretch goals. Moreover, he argues that even if a stretch goal isn’t achieved, setting and working toward a stretch goal results in greater performance than if no goal or an easily achievable goal were set. He also claims that stretch goals are more interesting and exciting for employees, as they provide a sense of purpose and energy.
Doerr mentions Google as an example of a company that embraced stretch goals and achieved great success because of it. At Google, OKRs are divided into “committed objectives,” or company metrics that are meant to be achieved in full, and “aspirational objectives,” or loftier goals that may not be fully achieved, but still drive progress and innovation (135). An attainment rate of 60 to 70% is expected for aspirational OKRs.
Doerr acknowledges that Google’s standards may not be suitable for every company, and that each organization must find the right balance to setting stretch goals. This balance will depend on the company’s resources, culture, and tolerance for risk. Nevertheless, Doerr believes that stretch goals are, overall, a useful tool for driving innovation and pushing organizations to achieve their full potential.
Part 1, Chapter 13 Summary: “Stretch: The Google Chrome Story”
Doerr uses Google Chrome to illustrate the importance of stretch goals. In this chapter, he includes a passage written by CEO Sundar Pichai.
Google rolled out Chrome, its web browser, in 2008. At the time, Internet Explorer dominated the market, and Google faced skepticism about whether it could compete. Google set a stretch goal of 20 million weekly active users within a year, which seemed ambitious given the market conditions.
Pichai explains how the company set a sub-OKR to help achieve the overall OKR of 20 million weekly active users. The company opted to “turbocharge” (148) JavaScript, which was a key component of web browsing speed. They developed V8, a high-performance JavaScript engine, which significantly improved the speed and performance of Chrome.
The company failed to reach its stretch goal, but the goal motivated the company to find other distribution deals and marketing tactics. Through persistence and continuous improvement, Google eventually achieved one of its subsequent stretch goals of 111 million users in 2010.
Part 1, Chapter 14 Summary: “Stretch: The YouTube Story”
Doerr presents YouTube as another case study to illustrate the importance of stretch goals. This chapter includes writing by Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, and Cristos Goodrow, the vice president of engineering.
In 2014, Wojcicki set an enormous stretch goal of reaching a billion daily watch hours within four years. To achieve this goal, YouTube used OKRs.
Goodrow writes that disciplined OKRs were important for YouTube’s team, because engineers often overestimate the amount of work they can accomplish in a given time frame. He also says that YouTube had to identify its most important top-level objectives as a company, because without doing so, teams could easily get distracted or lose sight of what mattered most.
The billion-hour goal became a rallying cry for YouTube, fueling motivation and collaboration across teams. It drove infrastructure initiatives within the company and created a strong sense of purpose among employees. In 2016, YouTube achieved its stretch goal of a billion daily watch hours, thanks to the team’s persistence, innovation, and focus on OKRs.
Part 1, Chapters 10-14 Analysis
In these chapters, Doerr advocates a seemingly counterintuitive approach to goal setting: setting high goals with the acknowledgment that failure is likely. This strategy is not about encouraging failure but recognizing that setting ambitious objectives can lead to breakthrough innovations and exceptional performance. By embracing stretch goals, companies can push their limits, foster a culture of continuous improvement, and achieve outcomes that might not be attainable with conservative objectives. Doerr’s emphasis on stretch goals challenges the conventional wisdom of setting easily achievable targets and underscores the importance of aiming for extraordinary outcomes.
Doerr’s advice on setting stretch goals implies that psychological safety and a cultural tolerance for risk are conducive to realizing these objectives. Indeed, these chapters emphasize that creating an environment where failure is viewed as a learning opportunity, not a punishment, is vital. Key to cultivating this psychological safety is transparency, reflecting the theme of The Importance of Transparency in Organizations. Transparency about objectives and expectations encourages employees to take calculated risks, think innovatively, and pursue challenging goals without fear of reprisal. Companies that nurture a culture of risk tolerance are better positioned to set ambitious objectives, fostering a mindset where failure is seen as an integral part of the journey toward success.
Chapter 12 touches on the theme of Alignment Versus Autonomy in Organizational Management in the context of stretch goals. Doerr suggests that companies that give their employees a higher degree of autonomy can pursue more ambitious stretch goals and therefore reap greater rewards from innovation: “Organizations have a range of risk tolerance, which may change over time. The greater the margin for error, the more a company can extend itself” (141). At the same time, he acknowledges that this culture of freedom, risk-taking, and autonomy needs to be balanced with strong, company-wide alignment:
To succeed, a stretch goal cannot seem like a long march to nowhere. Nor can it be imposed from on high without regard to realities on the ground. Stretch your team too fast and too far, and it may snap. In pursuing high-effort, high-risk goals, employee commitment is essential. Leaders must convey two things: the importance of the outcome, and the belief that it’s attainable (141).
To make stretch goals effective, companies must inspire employees to align with their leaders’ ambition and enthusiasm.
Doerr introduces the concept that goals have a lifecycle, advocating that employees should not be in a perpetual state of grinding. This perspective underscores the importance of incorporating reflection and celebration into the goal-setting process. The OKR lifecycle, comprising the setup, tracking, and wrap-up phases, encourages teams to periodically assess progress, learn from experiences, and celebrate achievements. This holistic approach recognizes the human element in goal attainment, promoting a healthier work environment by preventing burnout and fostering a sense of accomplishment. It also evokes the theme of The Continuous Nature of Effective Goal Setting, illustrating that, per Doerr, effective goal setting is part of an ongoing process that cycles through different phases over time.
While Doerr’s approach to goal setting is rooted in data, he acknowledges the power of both quantitative and qualitative assessment and reflection. Doerr argues that qualitative thinking is often necessary to make the best use of quantitative results: “[O]bjective data is enhanced by the goal setter’s thoughtful, subjective judgment. […] A weak showing by the numbers might hide a strong effort; a strong one could be artificially inflated” (122). The recommendation to score outcomes using a combination of quantitative metrics and qualitative self-assessment demonstrates a balanced approach to evaluating success. This nuanced perspective allows organizations to leverage the benefits of data-driven decision-making while also considering the human and subjective aspects of goal achievement. It reflects a comprehensive understanding that successful goal setting involves a blend of insights.
