Josh Seiden – Customer-Centric Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

SEASON: 4 EPISODE: 16

Episode Overview:

Everyone in every industry and every role has customers. Your success depends on how efficiently you can solve your customers’ problems, adapt as those problems change, and influence their behavior to drive the results you want. Objectives and Key Results, or OKRs, give you the framework to do that.

However, adopting OKRs successfully is no easy feat. It requires changing the way you work, think about your work, and plan for the work you’ll do in the future. So whether you’re an OKR newcomer, or a pro needing a tune-up, my guest today will share his insights on how to put customers at the center, navigate uncertainty, and succeed with OKRs. Join me now for my conversation with author, speaker, and product innovation strategist, Josh Seiden.

Guest Bio: 

Josh Seiden has worked with hundreds of organizations as an individual contributor, leader, founder, and consultant. 

As software designer–turned–coach, consultant, and speaker, he’s helped organizations fuse strategy, become customer-centric, and utilize evidence-based decision-making to become more agile (with a lowercase “a”), make better products, and achieve greater success. Along with his co author Jeff Gothelf, he’s written two previous books. Their new book is: Who Does What By How Much? A Practical Guide to Customer-Centric OKRs 

Resource Links:

• Website: Website: www.joshuaseiden.com
• Product Link: https://www.joshuaseiden.com/books

Insight Gold Timestamps:

01:16 Your latest book, Who Does What by How Much: A Practical Guide to Customer Centric OKRs

01:45 OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results

04:39 The most common misconception about OKRs 

05:38 OKRs imply we’re going to do something different

07:18 As a leader, you’ve got responsibility for the whole company

09:21 The challenge is that we lose track of who that customer is and what their point of view is

10:52 The first step in OKR is….

12:28 What are the factors that are success factors?

13:19 We say OKRs are three things

14:49 I work in HR, who’s my customer?

16:08 Who does what, by how much?

20:50 They’re a goal setting framework

22:15 Innovation is the intersection of new capabilities and unmet customer needs

24:08 We know leadership plays a crucial role in the success of the OKRs

27:37 We don’t necessarily know the answer beforehand

28:24 It’s asking the right question and measuring the right question

29:45 I think there’s an opportunity for us to have better conversations in the workplace

32:38 Who’s the target of my work? What are they trying to do? How can I help them do it? 

Connect Socially:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jseiden/

Twitter: https://x.com/jseiden

Email: josh@seiden.co

Sponsors: 

Rainmaker LeadGen Platform Demo: https://bookme.michaelvickers.com/lite/rainmaker-leadgen-platform-demo

Rainmaker Digital Solutions: https://www.rainmakerdigitalsolutions.com/

Resources: https://becomingpreferred-podcast.com/resources/

Next Episode: Supercharge Your LinkedIn Presence with Mary Fain Brandt!