Leadership is hard. Gaining alignment around goals is hard. Even if you state a goal, getting timely execution is really hard. OKRs are great in that they are specific and measurable, so you can have a concrete conversation on if performance is adequate.
The problem with OKRs is goals can be hard to quantify, so it's attractive to simply make OKRs out of things you CAN measure. This is why we get companies that optimize for clicks at all costs, and twitter accounts that buy followers.
If you're thinking about backlog bankruptcy, it's probably because your team is considered to be struggling. If so, it's attractive to think the process of delivering on the OKR is the problem. However, in my experience the real problem is that leadership hasn't done a great job of defining OKRs that properly align teams on the mission at hand.
Completely agree, this post looks classically to me like a team toiling under leadership that picked OKRs as the measurement system for employees but not for leadership.
How many OKR rollouts are plagued by lack of adoption in the C suites? Who here is shocked to find a system is malfunctioning because employees are trying their best to engage with it, but leadership can't or won't do their part? OKRs in particular are hugely reliant on leadership defining goals for others to align with.
Measurements and progress are cultural. It either starts and continues from the top, or it's defective.
The problem with OKRs is goals can be hard to quantify, so it's attractive to simply make OKRs out of things you CAN measure. This is why we get companies that optimize for clicks at all costs, and twitter accounts that buy followers.
If you're thinking about backlog bankruptcy, it's probably because your team is considered to be struggling. If so, it's attractive to think the process of delivering on the OKR is the problem. However, in my experience the real problem is that leadership hasn't done a great job of defining OKRs that properly align teams on the mission at hand.
But good luck telling that to leadership.