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Glad to hear that Tim stayed and author managed to steer the entire process towards the right …

Glad to hear that Tim stayed and author managed to steer the entire process towards the right direction. Which requires a listening manager. I experienced the "bad ending" of this productivity metric trickle down: OKR. This startup wanted not just team-based 3-month review Objective Key Result but also individual one, and on top of it, tied stock option to OKR. It was a robotics startup so very cross-domain teams (Software, Hardware, Embedded, DevOps, HW design, HW testing, HW maintenance etc etc). The result? Developers became lonely islands. There were no "Tim" anymore. When I (Software Integrator) encountered an issue, that I just couldn't figure out but had a hunch it must be a deep-rooted issue, went to the expert (control/kinematics) for feedback. The answer I got was "I'm sorry I really want to help you but my OKR deadline is very close, and I simply don't have time". He could've probably fixed it in a day or less, but it ended up taking 2 weeks. …

Original discussionThe Worst Programmer I Know (2023)370 source comments · at import
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JR

100% this. Want to sacrifice team output? Have team members be concerned about individual goals. Team alignment and synchronization will be off affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of that team's performance.

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BI

I think just because this startup botched OKRs they still make a lot of sense. Intel and Google apparently relied on them heavily in their formative years. But: - they should be cascading (so conflicting OKRs between departments should not happen) - you should never, ever tie them to individual performance results/compensation/rewards

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