Introducing POKRs, a framework to help translate OKR theory into sense-making practice
One of my biggest struggles as a writer is sorting out whether I should separate the practical and applicable frameworks I’ve learned over the years from my core values, beliefs, and truths. I’ve spent countless hours and attempts trying to separate them in a way that felt meaningful and forthright. The reality is, I can’t and I shouldn’t.
In the real world, it’s my responsibility to write and teach what I know while including the difficult realities folks do or may face when trying to implement what they’ve learned. It would be irresponsible and selfish of me to do otherwise. So, here we go!
First things first–let's define POKRs
You're here for a reason–to know what this new acronym is all about. POKRs stands for perspectives, objectives and key results. I pronounce it as the letters P-O-K-R, but as you'll see later, it's totally appropriate to also pronounce it as "poker".
POKRs is a goal-setting methodology to help individuals, teams, and organizations define measurable goals. POKRs adds an additional element (perspectives) to a traditional OKR methodology, creating a logical, cause-and-effect connection between strategic objectives. The framework is all about adding the quality factors that different individuals or teams think about when making decisions so they can intentionally track and measure those factors. Quality factors may include accessibility, ease, equity, beauty, sustainability, etc. For example, perspectives give us a model to pose a question like, “What does accessibility have to do with adoption?” so we can intentionally set metrics for both to get close to an answer.
There’s much more to the framework itself, but first, I'd like to share something else.
Why in the world do we need another damn framework?
In my experience, lots of theoretical models get introduced and fail to deliver on their promise. The same can be said of a discipline like design. It's not all bad, but in the following section, I'm hoping to evoke senses of accomplishment with your progress, concern for new challenges, and curiosity to try new things.
Whether or not you call yourself a designer, design has really been all the rage over the last 10-15 years. We sold our colleagues, companies, and industries on the idea that designing and having designers was a competitive advantage. They totally believed us.
Not only are design resources, methodologies, personalities, and best practices commonplace, they’re commonplace in places they rarely were just a few years ago, for example in business periodicals, boardrooms, and journalism.
Design executives with titles like Chief Design Officers, VPs of Design, Heads of Design are no longer rare. Over two hundred and fifty thousand designers are making a living doing this work. That is tremendous, tremendous progress. Celebrating this progress is so important to feel energized and courageous. Why? Because you’re going to need both to keep going.
While the number of companies employing senior design leaders has doubled, the large majority of executives have indicated that design is not reaching its full potential. While we focus so much on not being seen or perceived as reaching our potential, we fail to recognize the makeup of the 90%. It’s still a bunch of white dudes.
When I look at the majority of boardrooms, the makeup of C-Suites, or at those in leadership positions, not much has changed in the last 10, 15, or 20 years. Yes, we now have great examples of leaders who challenge the norm, but by and large, that 90% is still the same voices and profiles. The same behaviors and beliefs. The same decisions and policies. The same old definition of what value is–money.
A seat at the table without power is a trap
By spending all of our time consumed with only the things we’re interested in, we are naive in understanding how rooted organizational beliefs and policies are. By only focusing on what we know and what we’re comfortable with, we are often pushing hard for change in the wrong direction. By only communicating in the ways we prefer, we are using a whole bunch of the wrong tools for the right problems. And when we do those things, we prop up the existing beliefs of the definition of good.
We become spectators and victims at the same time. We are neither. We need to track and monitor the quality of our decisions to demonstrate, not state, there is more to value than revenue alone. We need to measure the efficacy of our decisions to claim our agency and our worth. We need to feel confident in our decisions as we’re making them, regardless of what others believe.
Having held many seats at many tables over my career, what I can tell you is that tracking and measuring your decisions will help you stand out. Standing out is an act of bravery and one that won't always be rewarded in the way you expect. Standing out is honoring yourself and your values.
