Can I get some feedback on this OKR my team want to adopt? - thanks
Objective: Increase customer engagement & retention (paying accounts only)
Key results:
The Objective makes immediate sense, and it puts free customers out of scope
Question: is there an OKR about turning free accounts into paid accounts?
The key results pass the first sniff test, they all contain a number. This makes them both testable and non-binary; team still make an improvement even if they fall short of the full result. Having a number also suggests some thought has gone into these,
There is no indication here as to whether this is a challenging OKR or a “keep up the good performance” OKR. Lets dissect the key results and then come back to the objective.
Key result 1: Schedule 95% of new customer onboarding calls within 5 days signing
This reads likes a “do”, put something in the diary. This result could be read as: someone needs to actively make contact with the new client and agree a date.
One the one, hand that is very simple and it is hard to see how getting a date in the diary isn’t a scheduling activity to do. However, might it close down options?
This could be written as “95% of new customers have date for onboarding call within 5 days of contract signing.” That would allow the team to look at ways of getting customers scheduled for onboarding without actually having to do anything. e.g.Prompted customers to agree an onboarding date when completing the signing-up form.
Key result 2: Complete 80% of customer onboarding calls within 10 days of signing
Like KR1 this could be interpreted as a “do” action, and again it could be written as “80% of customer onboarding calls completed within 10 days of signing.” Again, this might be splitting hairs.
Peeking at the next KR there is mention of $1m clients. We also know from the objective that there are free accounts on the system. That implies this company product is very diverse.
Might key results 1 and 2 segment customers more?
Free accounts don’t need the same attention as $1m accounts; do accounts under $100k need the same level of service?
Key result 3: Undertake monthly review call with all accounts over $1m
Nit picking again, this reads like a “do” and I’d rather see it written as a result: “All accounts over $1m have review in the last calendar month”.
Key result 4: NPS (Net Promoter Score) up 50 over previous quarter
This is not an action and reads good as a result.
As an outsider I don’t have the context to know if 50 is big or small, good or bad, and whether it is trivial or challenging to achieve. Hopefully this is obvious to all those reading the KR but if it is not it should be noted, e.g. add a percentage, “…up 50 (10%) over…”
Back to the objective: Increase customer engagement & retention (paying accounts only)
While the objective doesn’t need numbers - in my book at least - I also notice that none of the key results refer to customer engagement and retention; retention is not measured, engagement activities (onboarding and review) is measured but it is the activity itself which is counted.
As it stands there is an assumption here: if we onboard customers quickly, we check up on them regularly, and we increase NPS then engagement and then retention will increase.
I can see why this is a reasonable assumption it is not automatic. Indeed, the first 2 key results discuss new customers while engagement an retention, by definition, refer to existing customers. So what is the real focus of this OKR?
Is there a high customer turnover? - that would explain the need to onboard quickly.
If customers are leaving should there be more effort to find out why they are leaving? And then take remedial action? Indeed, what about some key results to resolve customer issues arising in onboarding and status calls?
Indeed, monthly status calls might only serve to annoy the client if issues are not being resolved.
Initially this OKR looked good: a clear objective and measurable key results. Working through it though questions appeared. The “do” key results could be overlooked, words like schedule can be read two ways and as long as the whole team knew the intention then it might be petty to pick holes.
But, in the end the key results don’t measure the objective. There is an assumption built into this OKR. The team might meet all the key results and yet still have customers leaving.