Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results

I've been putting together OKRs for years when I read this book, and finally I realize what we were doing wrong. Our OKRs were complicated, long, had too many metrics... just like the OKRs the young CEO creates the first time around. Then the hotshot CTO comes aboard and tells them to make them simple, memorable, and focused. I realized that I was having the most success focusing my team on a simple yet aspirational goal and single metric to measure success. The old OKR was trying to do so much it was hard to remember, my new OKRs are more focused, powerful, and better at galvanizing the team. I now also include metrics for team health and also code health, so I can stay on top of morale and code quality and it feels much more complete. I was skeptical about the 'fable' format, but it was so much easier to read and made the message easier to grasp and stickier, so much I can turn to my designer and tell her to balance her 'Jack' mission with Hanna's 'keep the lights on' practicality. In short, this is a great, short, and necessary read for all product managers and anyone who leads teams.

The insight this book offers on how to set OKRs is actually very helpfy, but it takes forever to get there, and you have to put up with dozens of typos on your way.Bottom line is, I'm better at OKRs than I was before I read the book, but the content that was most useful could have been written in a blog post.

There are an inexcusable number of typos in this book about accountability. I'll be returning it and will look for some articles on OKR which have been proofread.

No one can be “radically focused” reading a book with this many typos, grammatical errors and formatting issues. They are so distracting, it’s impossible to concentrate on the content or even take the book seriously. It’s completely unprofessional. The author should be embarrassed her name is tied to this work, and whatever editor (if there even was one?) gave this book the green light to be published needs to find a new career. As an avid reader and lover of business books, I would never recommend this book to others. There are plenty of other great books about OKRs that don’t read like a self-published .99 ebook.

I really enjoyed this book. It's a fairly short read. I was able to read the entire book while flying a couple of times, and took my time by re-reading a few areas. While many of the topics are ones I've covered in other books, I found the way in which the author approached the topic resonated with me more easily.The case study in the beginning is well written and far more interesting than a typical case study. Yet it really helps to drive home the importance of identifying specific objectives and remaining diligent in focusing on meeting those goals we've set out to achieve. It also covers how having specific roles and adhering to those roles helps so that everyone is contributing to a universal goal by using their individual strengths.So often we get distracted at work with so many urgent and important things swirling around simultaneously. It's important to be reminded that every time we sway from the responsibilities of our role (even when wearing multiple hats), we're unintentionally taking steps to lead us further away from the goals we've already identified.I always state this at work, but without remaining focused on our objectives and how our role contributes to that, it's so easy to start making decisions that, while seemingly good and helpful in some way, are not in line with those objectives. Six months later, everyone looks up and wonders how the hell we got where we are. It's a symptom of not having radical focus. I also liked the emphasis on taking time to review with everyone the status of things with everyone, discussing the progress that has been made, and the check-ins which can help celebrate small and big wins, and also spot when things are spiraling off the tracks. Highly recommend the book.

I was required to read this for work. I really disliked it. The "fable" involved people I can't relate to. They were trying really hard to be hip.

A top notch book for anyone interested in OKRs and goal setting. Wodtke is an excellent storyteller who draws the reader to the subject with a great business fable.Wodtke is also author of Information Architecture one of the best books on that topic.There's also plenty of resources and solid advice for working with OKRs.It's the kind of book that's both a good read and information that could improve your life or your business.I immediately bought extra copies for colleagues. Buy this book you will not regret it.

This was a pre-existing read. The information, business use case and the anticipated outcome(s) were easily digestible.Much of the learning can be easily implemented. From start-up to corporation or even from a manager to self-development, this book offers key takeaways to put into practice immediately.

Watered-down description of a useful technique, OKR.10 pages would have been enough, probably, to explain how it works and how to use it.But the author starts a sales pitch and spends half the book with an improbable story of a startup. Pages, chapters before getting to the point: what's OKR and how it works.Get to the point! Just explain how OKR works, it's benefits and advice for using it properly. If they are good, I'm happy to buy it without going through a long fairy tale.

This tells the story of two young entrepreneurs who are struggling to build a speciality tea business. Their investor introduced them to the idea of setting objectives and key results (OKR) and then to a new chief technical officer with more extensive knowledge of how to apply them.In some of these business novels, the story can feel forced but this was easy to read with a nice flow to it. The main learning points were clearly explained.After the story ends, about two thirds of the way through, it reverts to the standard business book format of explaining why businesses don't make progress and how to use OKRs to drove the business forward.There are a lot of similarities between OKR thinking and the Four Disciplines of Execution from the FranklinCovey organisation. Focus on one priority objective, measurements of the improvement, identifying actions to achieve the objective and weekly accountability and support sessions. Beyond that, there are differences which may make one more suitable for you and your business.This may not be the best, most extensive book about Objectives and Key Results but it is very readable. The story is a gentle introduction and then you get the theory to answer your more detailed questions.I have a few criticisms.The book should have been better proofread to avoid the irritating typos.OKR has its origins in Peter Drucker's ideas on management by objectives from the 1950s and updated by Intel and Google. The book follows on with this bias towards information technology businesses. This filters through into a few acronyms which are hard to understand.I'd have liked to read the author's thoughts on how OKR can be applied outside of high tech but I think that's outside her experience.Overall I think this is a good book for learning the practicalities of the approach. It's clearly written by an advocate so, while the book talks about reasons why things may not go well, it doesn't include general criticisms or a comparison with other focus techniques.

I can't compliment Christina enough.In a quick and easily digestible book, Christina shows me (and you) how to implement OKRs successfully and avoid the traps so that it can be a true accelerant of team and business growth.The structure of the book is excellent.First, a compelling narrative that one can relate to. Then, a set of chapters that review and break down the key steps in executing better through OKRs.Trust Christina. Read Radical Focus and read it again. Then, write out your "OKR four square" on a napkin like I did and engage your team in discussion. Trust me, you will never look back.Thank you, Christina!

The book was recommended by a friend who was implementing it in his software business. I initially wondered how it would fit into a different type of business. Having enjoyed the fable, I can see that we will use it extensively, but like all ideas it will be about implementation.One issue I didn't understand though was why there were so many typos. The author needs some better proof readers!

A really nicely written book, it's rare to find something in this category that's as pleasant to read as this. A good presentation of one particular form of OKRs, which focuses on getting the benefits of alignment and communication, above all else. It was well written but also chimed with my own approach. I was a bit skeptical of the fable but it was pretty decent overall, with a few parts I found hokey. I'd recommend this book to anybody interested in applying OKRs well, or just struggling to ensure they tackle the highest priority tasks.