We like to do things a little differently at In Marketing We Trust and completing our OKRs are no different. This quarter the team has been hard at work slaying their OKRs through our new OKR Bingo!
We split up into teams and the first team to successfully complete their Bingo card will get a nice prize of $5,000 to divvy up for some new office equipment/supplies (whatever they want!).
Teams that fill in all Bingo cards by the end of the quarter get $500, 9+ Bingo cards get $300 each to spend on their workspace, while teams that fill in 6-9 Bingo cards get $100 each and teams with under 6 completed get post-its.
What Are OKRs?
OKR stands for Objective and Key Result and gained its popularity when Larry Page, one of Google’s co-founders, implemented it as standard practice within the company in 1999.
Nowadays, OKRs are a staple in every committed start-up and large organisation and are considered a standard for collaborative goal-setting and team management. One of the critical things about OKRs and KPIs is not just creating goals but more importantly focussing on the right things, measuring progress and changing behaviours. But what exactly does it mean to ‘focus on the right things’?
Venture capitalist John Doerr associates the power of having the right OKRs with having a ‘Northern Star’, by which priorities are set and followed. Having this guidance will make it less likely to get sidetracked and will facilitate an open, collaborative and goal-oriented culture that is much more likely to win in the marketplace. Granted, knowing exactly what these right things are, might be harder to determine and it will usually take some practice along the way.
IMWT OKRs
With the recent global shift to remote work, there’s been a lot of talk about creating and improving company cultures and remote processes. In Marketing We Trust has been a remote company since day one. We know that company culture doesn’t ‘just happen’ in a remote environment, rather it needs to be intentionally influenced and shaped in creative ways.
To ensure everyone is stirring in the right direction, transparency and good processes are vital. In this sense, our internal knowledge base holds the company objectives for each quarter, the long-term goals and core values. Besides making sure that quarterly progress and updates are being discussed fortnightly, we consider it crucial that team members have easy access to this information in order to incorporate it in their daily work. But knowing does not equate to doing, and, to make sure that we focus on reaching the right goals even in the midst of the daily hustle, we have solid guidelines translated into practical OKRs.
OKR Bingo
So how does this translate to playing a game of Bingo?
A nudge in (keeping) the right direction is good for motivation, but a little healthy competition is even better! We decided to do things a little differently this quarter and organise a contest to slay our OKRs.
This quarter we’re going with a game of Bingo for our competition and our internal teams are all in the race for the big prize. We’re having fun while focussing on what’s important, sprinkled with some memes to intimidate the competition.
To keep it simple, every team has the exact same 12 objectives to accomplish based on quarterly company OKRs and the team who manages to successfully complete all the cards first and by the end of the quarter (that’s in 2 weeks!) is the grand winner.
Our OKR Bingo cards are focussed around client success stories and team success stories.
The Teams
- Team Pod Leaders (Account Managers) includes Ceci, Esteban, Justine and Victor
- Team Data + Analytics includes Benoit, Beta and James
- Team Growth (SEO + PPC) includes Andy, Ben, Lisa, Miro, Titus and Tom with bonus team members Mar, Selina and Scott
- Team OPEX includes Freddy, Kirsty, Maria and Paul with bonus team member Annelies
Who do you want to win?
Check back in early 2021 to see who won the big prize and what they did with it!
