This document discusses how idealo, an e-commerce company, uses Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to structure their agile product development. OKRs are used to describe desired behaviors and then structures like roles, meetings, and artifacts are designed to support and reinforce those behaviors. The document provides examples of how idealo implements continuous OKR planning and monitoring across multiple levels of their organization to maintain focus on goals while staying adaptive. It emphasizes that simply copying a framework without the underlying assumptions that drive behaviors will not produce the intended results.

1. Behavior needs setting
Hands on view on scaled product
development with OKRs @idealo

2. credible?
No salesperson for OKRs
Lead Agile Coach @idealo // former agile Management Consultant
Stefan Willuda // certainly worth reading via @swilluda ; )
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3. Underlying assumptions
To copy management frameworks
without the basic underlying
assumptions leads to the failure of
the framework.
Talk in two
chapter
Factual case @idealo
Hands-on view on lean and agile
product development structured
with OKRs.
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4. Underlying assumptions
Seriously? Jep, sorry. There is no other way...
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5. “ Copying a framework without the
explicit reproduction of the
underlying assumptions will
generate completely different
results.
5
Following Eliyahu Goldratt

6. Organization-wide
focus
6
Photo by Devin Avery on Unsplash

7. Participation and
operational
responsibility
7
Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash

8. Autonomy in
decision taking and
action
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Photo by Dominik Scythe on Unsplash

9. Ambitious goals
foster creativity and
product development
dynamics
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Photo by Daniel Burka on Unsplash

10. It’s about
behavior,
that’s supported
by structures,
to create
products
that solve
problems in the
market.
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11. Impact of OKRs
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market
No impact on the market, the
user and her problems
product
No direct impact on the product
structure
Immediate impact on the
structure of collaboration
behavior
No direct impact on behavior
Indirect impact on product
strategy and product
development
Indirect impact on behavior of
people in organizations

12. Consider
behavior
It’s about describing a desired behavior first
and then design structures that support and
reinforce this behavior.
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13. OKRs at idealo
A peek at structure supported product development
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14. To understand
OKRs at idealo
we need to
understand
idealo first.
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15. 1.500.000
Visitors per day
700
idealos
350.000.000
Offers from > 50.000 shops
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16. Glimpse at a
Product Area
A Product Area is an autonomous delivery unit which owns a
significant part of the user journey end-2-end.
● 50 idealos
● Dual leadership - Head of Product and Head of Technology
● 6 Teams
● 2 Agile Coaches
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17. “
In business, I have found, there is
rarely a single right answer.
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John Doerr

18. Which
behavior is
considered
desirable?
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Open and immediate
decisions
Act in line
with the
users interest
Fast
implementation
Courage
to say
No
Work
collaboratively

19. 19
Described
behavior
Every single day every
colleague knows where we as
Product Discovery stand.
Everyone understands,
questions and adjusts one’s own
actions with regards of the
Product Areas’ Key Metrics.
Orient your actions
Every team is in close contact to
its users and to the market in
order to identify needs and to
be able to develop innovative
solutions.
In touch with the user
We have self-organized,
user-centric teams which take
ownership for their products
and which deliver voluntarily,
quickly and continuously value
for their users.
Ownership

20. Behavior through
structures
Roles
Continuous
exchange over 3
leadership level
Meetings
Continuous
integration of
insights and results
Artifacts
Continuous
invitations for
multi-perspective
dialogues
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Appreciation
Principles of
appreciation support the
act of leadership at all
levels

21. x-level integration
We continuously integrate the perspectives of 3 different
leadership level
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● Business Owner define the corporate strategy and
“challenge” the Product Areas’ goals
● Head Ofs keep the different Product Areas in sync
● Teams design and deliver hypothesis-driven
objectives and key results

22. An OKR quarter
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daily
● Daily Stand-up with
relation to the KRs
[Teams]
● Hypothesis and
experiments with
regard of the
continuous product
discovery [Teams]
● Continuous delivery
towards the user
[Teams]
● Scrum-of-Scrums
with OKR update
[Teams]
● Product Owner
Challenger Meeting
for product discovery
work
[Teams und Head Of]
● Leadership team
Weekly with OKR
challenge
[Teams mit Head Of]
● Head Of Weekly
[Head Ofs]
weekly
● OKR Update
● Product and
Technology Demo
monthly
● Product Area
Quarterly Kick-Off
● OKR planning
● Quarterly Review
● OKR Retrospective
quartaly

23. Conversations and
artifacts
23
Artifacts are an invitation for a conversation.
The context and the participants influence what will be talked
about.

24. Manual Monitoring
of Key Results
(Team)
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25. Automatic
Monitoring of
Key Results (Team)
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26. Physical
Scrum-of-Scrums Board
for KR Update
(Product Area)
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27. Jira for
documentation and
for asynchronous
communication
(Product Area)
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28. “ It is possible and desirable to
replace judgment … with numerical
indicators of comparative
performance based on
standardized data.
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Jerry Z. Muller

29. Attention
on goals
We constantly (re-) focus on the company goals while
simultaneously staying adaptive.
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30. “ Making such metrics public …
assures that institutions are
actually carrying out their purposes.
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Jerry Z. Muller

31. Consider
behavior
It’s about describing a desired behavior first
and then design structures that support and
reinforce this behavior.
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32. 32
Thanks!
Any questions?
You can find me at @swilluda

33. Some sources
● Tyranny of Metrics - Jerry Z. Muller
https://amzn.to/2l7GwKF
● Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the
Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement - Aubrey C.
Daniels http://amzn.to/2zQf3lU
● Henne oder Ei? Die Motivation zur Einführung von OKRs
https://www.workpath.com/.../
● Reinforced behavior — the dark matter of organizational
success - https://medium.com/...
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34. Credits
Special thanks to all the people who made and
released these awesome resources for free:
● Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
● Photographs by Unsplash
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