Dreams with Deadlines
Want to Optimize Your OKR Implementation? Check Out These Best Practices. | Markus Müller, Co-Founder at Stealth St...
Key Things Discussed
Product development strategy an...
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Aug 23 2022 50m
Chapter 1 1 min
Markus shares an overview of his career, which encompasses entrepreneurial efforts, product management, coaching/consulting with startups in various stages of developmentChapter 2 1 min
About the juncture at which Markus entered the mobility space in 2018, joining a very small team at Circ, one of more than a dozen nascent kick scooter companies competing at that time for market share in Europe and beyondChapter 3 2 mins
When people think of kick scooters, they’re imagining micro-mobility. But Markus’s focus was on creating the optimal customer experience based on a triad of mutually critical elements: hardware, software and operationsChapter 4 1 min
Markus explains how Circ grew and scaled product, design and engineering teams over the course of 18 months, growing from zero to 80 team members while building out the well-oiled machine that ultimately was acquiredChapter 5 3 mins
The company was divided into “tribes,” which includedChapter 6 1 min
The wild ride that was Circ’s product strategy often lacking cohesion and rife with internal jockeying and contradictionsChapter 7 2 mins
Instituting OKRs early in the process enabled Markus to work closely with his CTO and oversee his tribes effectively, efficiently with clear communication and processes with measurable quarterly results and making staffing, operational and other adjustments accordinglyChapter 8 1 min
Markus summarizes the Circ organizational strategy and how OKRs were deployed to quantify progress along the wayChapter 9 2 mins
From Strategy to Product Pipeline: Do OKRs define the roadmap or vice versa? In the case of Circ, Markus was all about establishing objectives first. Once outcomes are well-defined, the roadmap (and roadmaps within roadmaps) can be broken down, morphing organically and incrementally quarter over quarterChapter 10 1 min
Managing unwieldy backlogs is a high priority for Markus, who very intentionally separates the engineering from the consumer/product pipelines with new projects and implementations placed in a category of their ownChapter 11 1 min
How Markus keeps his team’s focused and engaged with new ideas, problems and opportunities in a way that is productive and always advancingChapter 12 2 mins
Three key questions that PMs should ask when assessing opportunitiesChapter 13 45 sec
Jenny summarizes the goals of Markus’s carefully delineated discovery process, including helping teams to prioritize, focus and gauge workload capacitiesChapter 14 2 mins
Markus believes discovery is most effective when it’s explicit, time-boxed and data-based to drive up confidence levels and depth of understanding/problem-solvingChapter 15 1 min
How hard metrics and other qualitative data inform discovery and map back to objectives a process that is driven by regular, high-level meetings in which key stakeholders exchange perspectives and challenge ideas based on defined progressChapter 16 3 mins
How Markus structures meetings and pushes PMs to determine whether objectives are being metChapter 17 3 mins
Getting Real About Data: The value of attaching specialists to each of the business units at Circ, where the collection of data confers huge benefits when it’s effectively, cross-functionally integrated. The alternative is data analytics and engineering that lags behind and never reaches fruitionChapter 18 1 min
How Markus’ “central-decentral” approach enabled a balance between data engineers and their more team-based data scientists and analysts all of which facilitated more give-and-take with PMsChapter 19 6 mins
Marcus reflects on lessons learned about OKRs from his experiences at Circ, N26 and elsewhereChapter 20 3 mins
Quick Fire Questions for Markus