<\/noscript><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIf you\u2019re familiar with Objectives and Key Results this diagram should be fairly easy to understand. The four bars represent the company\u2019s 4 yearly objectives, somewhat abbreviated. The diamond denotes when the goal will be achieved, and we add one or more key results that indicate what success is. I listed just one for simplicity, but the OKR doc may include more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Laying out your goals on a timeline like this already helps us assess if we\u2019re being ambitious-yet-realistic. Experienced CTOs can sense from such an image whether the dev org is going to be overstretched. Naturally these are very rough guesses that you\u2019ll have to adjust as you move forward, just like with any plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could stop at this level, and in some cases that\u2019s enough structure to get going. But if you want to have more planning clarity, you can zoom into each of the goals and plan the work needed to achieve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research and Ideation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n The first step in achieving a goal is asking whether we understand the context enough to do meaningful work. The context can include customers’ needs, applicable technologies, competitive\/partner landscape, challenges and opportunities, and more. For example if we wish to reduce churn, do we know what\u2019s causing customers to churn? If we wish to launch our product in new countries, do we know which country presents the best opportunity? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s tempting to answer such questions with a Yes. Customers are churning because we lack features A, B, and C. The best country to launch next is India because there\u2019s a massive demand for our type of product. But then, you have to be honest and ask the next question: how sure are we about these assumptions? Or in other words, what\u2019s the evidence? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here the Confidence Meter can help you calibrate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/noscript>The Confidence Meter (download as free calculator here<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nIf your conviction comes from opinions, themes, or anecdotal evidence you should have low confidence in your assumptions. In this case it\u2019s best to spend some time on research, known also as exploratory<\/em> or generative<\/em> research and bring the level of confidence to medium-low or medium. <\/p>\n\n\n\nThere are multiple flavors of research: user research, market research, competitive research, technology research, and so on. You need to decide what kind of research to conduct and then budget time and resources for it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research isn\u2019t a bad word \u2014 an ounce of research can save you a ton of wasted work down the road chasing opportunities that don\u2019t exist. The outcomes of the research phase have to be clear: insights and opportunities backed by medium-low to medium evidence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Research often leads to ideation \u2014 coming up with potential ways to achieve the goal. Other ideas will come outside of your research \u2014 from customers, managers, stakeholders, and team members. This all is normal and healthy. We should collect all of the ideas we find as input for the next phase. <\/p>\n\n\n