OKRs in Jira for Agile Pirates: From Goals to Galleons

Ahoy, fellow Atlassians! Settle in as I take you on a journey into uncharted territories of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in Jira 🏴‍☠️🌊

People too often overcomplicate quite a simple concept, making it super boring and hard. So instead of getting bogged down in theory, let’s spin a yarn about Captain Kevin Tuei and his dastardly Agile Corsairs, savvy? What would Jack Sparrow say?

How OKRs Help

OKRs are an innovative way to set goals, and they are pretty universal. They align people, help them prioritize high-impact work, foster an outcome-focused culture, and bring extraordinary results. And they are really for everyone.

Sailing the seas without a goal in sight leads you straight to Davy Jones’ locker. You need to know where you’re going, and nothing makes it more clear than OKRs. They worked for Intel, Google… and even for a pirate crew!

To visualize the process, I use OKR Board for Jira. In the current seascape, it’s the highest-rated OKR app in the Atlassian marketplace, boasting a review score of 3.9 out of 4 and garnering a crew of 3,264 app installs.

How Would Chief Pirates Craft Their OKRs

Picture this: A captain, his first mate, and chief pirates gather in the hold and lean over the table. They have been in the business for a while and are profitable, but they feel they haven’t reached their full potential. They want to become the best pirate crew in the region and keep this position in the turbulent pirate world.

They write a strategic goal for the next year, sounding something like

Objective: “Establish Dominance and Longevity on the High Seas”

OK, but how would they get there? How would they measure their progress toward this big, ambitious goal? They brainstorm ideas and put them on parchment. Then, the Captain circles a couple of lines with a quill, which will become their key results.

Key Result 1: Increase the value of plundered treasure to 25%

Key Result 2: Build strategic alliances with 12 reputable pirate crews

Key Result 3: Reduce the attack occurrence from rival crews and naval patrols by 30%

This is how executive meetings can look like, but luckily or not, they never will 🙂

If pirates had the modern tools we have at hand these days, they might put these in their backlog on a digital strategy map. They can later add their more granular OKRs and connect to the top-level ones.

Engaging the Whole Pirate Crew in Crafting OKRs

Writing these big, ambitious goals would stay only on paper without support and commitment from the rest of the crew, all the way down to the youngest deckhand.

So the Captain goes on the deck and gives an inspirational speech about their future success, the ultimate goal, and key milestones (Key Results) to achieve it. He commands the Plundering, Strategy, and Security teams to bring their plan on Key Results below for the next 3 months. He gives 3 days to complete this.

So, this is how OKR Cascading will work in the Pirate world:

He also gives 3 days for Navigation, Ship Maintenance, Treasure Management, and Crew Welfare teams to think about how their teams can move forward with the main KRs. Teams brainstorm how they can contribute. Some contribute directly to the existing Key Results, and the Crew Welfare team comes up with a new goal they believe can help them plunder more treasure — “Strengthen Crew Morale and Camaraderie.” This is basically how OKR laddering works — the chiefs share the big vision, and the rest of the team comes up with solutions.

It would look pretty messy in the pirate world. But in the agile world and with the OKR board, it would look something like this:

“C” stands for crew-level Objective

“T” stands for team-level Objective

How True Pirates Plan The OKRs Execution

So, now we know what we want to achieve. What are the required actions to get there?

Pirates would probably look at a calendar to understand what they can achieve in the next 3 months. And mark it the way only pirates can understand 😅

While calendars still make sense, working in tech we’re lucky to have roadmaps. So, we’d put our pirate objectives, key results, and create Jira Issues underneath on a trackable and understandable roadmap. In our times, it can look like this:

Keeping an Eye on Progress on a Pirate Ship

Kevin’s Agile Corsairs do not have time to micro-manage the updates.

They mark what’s done and then see how it impacts the high picture. Ideally, adding more weight to KRs where they’re full of heavy treasure 💎 Like with plundering:

It’s easy to get carried away by shiny objects if your course isn’t clearly defined and kept. A pirate can get distracted by a bottle of Captain Morgan, playing cards, or experimenting with a new, fun equipment on a ship.

That’s why it’s key to have regular board meetings (aka OKR check-ins) when people gather on the dec to share progress. No crew in the world is the same, so it’s also nice to have an opportunity to have a custom report.

One of the ways to approach OKR analytics is to group the goals you need by specific parameter like team, direction, time period, etc. In the example below, the report is build of crew’s key priorities for the quarter.

Charting a Course for Success with OKR Compass

What lies between a pirate’s dream and reality? The right goal, the right team, and the right tools.

Agile is close to the art of efficient swimming. Yet, amidst the rhythmic sprint strokes, are we always crystal-clear on the ultimate destination of the expedition?

In the adventurous realm of pirates, every journey commences with a meticulously crafted map. Similarly, in the world of OKRs — the Objectives and Key Results Framework — the Objective signifies our desired destination, while the Key Results outline the course, akin to the compass guiding a pirate crew through uncharted waters.

The right OKR tool can become your trusted navigator, bridging the visionary discussions of the boardroom to the tangible tasks undertaken by the crew within Jira. If you’re keen to come on board with OKR Board, give it a try at the Atlassian marketplace.

I’m curious, have you seen any other good ideas for explaining OKRs in a simple way?

I would love to discuss this in the comments!