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Measure What Matters cover art

Measure What Matters

Written by: John Doerr,Larry Page - foreword
Narrated by: John Doerr,full cast,Julia Collins,Jini Kim,Mike Lee,Atticus Tysen,Patti Stonesifer,Susan Wojcicki,Cristos Goodrow,Alex Garden,Joseph Suzuki,Various
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Publisher's Summary

Legendary venture capitalist John Doerr reveals how the goal-setting system of Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) has helped tech giants from Intel to Google achieve explosive growth - and how it can help any organization thrive.

In the fall of 1999, John Doerr met with the founders of a start-up whom he'd just given $12.5 million, the biggest investment of his career. Larry Page and Sergey Brin had amazing technology, entrepreneurial energy, and sky-high ambitions, but no real business plan. For Google to change the world (or even to survive), Page and Brin had to learn how to make tough choices on priorities while keeping their team on track. They'd have to know when to pull the plug on losing propositions, to fail fast. And they needed timely, relevant data to track their progress - to measure what mattered.

Doerr taught them about a proven approach to operating excellence: Objectives and Key Results. He had first discovered OKRs in the 1970s as an engineer at Intel, where the legendary Andy Grove ("the greatest manager of his or any era") drove the best-run company Doerr had ever seen. Later, as a venture capitalist, Doerr shared Grove's brainchild with more than 50 companies. Wherever the process was faithfully practiced, it worked.

In this goal-setting system, objectives define what we seek to achieve; key results are how those top-priority goals will be attained with specific, measurable actions within a set time frame. Everyone's goals, from entry level to CEO, are transparent to the entire organization.

The benefits are profound. OKRs surface an organization's most important work. They focus effort and foster coordination. They keep employees on track. They link objectives across silos to unify and strengthen the entire company. Along the way, OKRs enhance workplace satisfaction and boost retention.

In Measure What Matters, Doerr shares a broad range of first-person, behind-the-scenes case studies, with narrators including Bono and Bill Gates, to demonstrate the focus, agility, and explosive growth that OKRs have spurred at so many great organizations. This book will help a new generation of leaders capture the same magic.

Read by John Doerr, William Davidow, Brett Kopf, Jini Kim, Mike Lee, Atticus Tysen, Patti Stonesifer, Susan Wojcicki, Cristos Goodrow, Julia Collins, Alex Garden, Joseph Suzuki, Andrew Cole, Bono, and others 

©2018 John Doerr (P)2018 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

“I’d recommend John’s book for anyone interested in becoming a better manager.” (Bill Gates)

“Whether you're a seasoned CEO or a first-time entrepreneur, you'll find valuable lessons, tools, and inspiration in the pages of Measure What Matters. I'm glad John invested the time to share these ideas with the world.” (Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn and author of The Start-Up of You)

Measure What Matters deserves to be fully embraced by every person responsible for performance, in any walk of life. John Doerr makes Andy Grove a mentor to us all. If every team, leader, and individual applied OKRs with rigor and imagination, all sectors of society could see an exponential increase in productivity and innovation.” (Jim Collins, author of Good to Great)

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What listeners say about Measure What Matters

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Nothing but marketing material for OKRs

They should really be paying us to listen to this drivel, it’s truly nothing but a long form infomercial for OKRs.

The stories go on and on, without really helping anyone actually understand how to implement an OKR process in the real-world.

There is absolutely no critical evaluation of OKRs in the sense of their limitations, how they compare with other processes empirically (e.g. are OKRs 10% better, 50% or negligibly better than process XYZ?).

Skip this book, there’s much better practical and free OKR material just a google search away!

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Life Changing

This is likely to be the single most important book I have ever read. The message is clear, OKRs are the way to get things done. But not just for getting things done, for creating a culture of openness, clarity, honesty, safety.
This book has a full cast of narrators who have talked the talk and walked the walk. They provide the evidence for the system. They make you care so deeply about each element and make the listening experience enjoyable and engaging.
John Doerr has become a hero to me after listening to this, I will implement the lessons learned in this book for the rest of my life and try to spread this message.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
I am so thankful to everyone involved in creating and making this book available.

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5 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good book although material gets repetitve

I like the material and appreciate the value the book is trying to deliver.

Measurable objective is a game changer for solid progress. Also it is important to be able to validate how can you do things better. The way the book put it is reflecting on the experience what gets us to learn not the experience itself.

However, the book seems repetitive in a way. Many of the experiences shared felt too high level and just repeating over and over the OKR value. Although some experiences that shared had some unique attributes.

If OKR was a brand the book makes you feel like it is advertising for it. Sometimes even in a cheesy way.

The book tried to look outside Intel which is important. I would suggest to expand that part with deeper digging. The individual who shared their experiences felt like hit or miss. I would prefer if they were asked particular questions to navigate their experience better. The same way Andrew Grove recommended in his book to keep the flow of information flowing until getting to the real issue when a manager meet with subordinate. I wish the experiences examples flow was similar instead of leaving it to the person sharing to capture values.

Definitely worth a read. I gave it 4 stars for repetitiveness while the author had access to more materials of a value with the individuals contributing. He just had to figure out a way to extract it.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Absolutely fundamental reading for any organization that wants to realize success.

Although some concepts feel intuitive this book helps bring meaning and purpose to methods you may already be employing. Trust me you won’t be disappointed. If you already work with OKRs or CFRs this may act as a refresher or at least a back story. Thanks for creating this book. It will change the way we do things. Cheers,

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

Insightful and worth a read/listen especially if you’re looking to grow your business. Two thumbs up.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • BC
  • 2022-12-08

Great book

Highly recommend for any manager wanting to step up their game. Okrs are the way to go

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

The best and genuine book to learn about OKRs

Contents and narration of high quality. For anyone who's into OKRs for personal or business purposes.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Book for every fledgling entrepreneur

I loved the book, the story telling made it memorable and very enjoyable. The goal setting strategy: OKR , is an indispensable tool for success.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Simple and effective

Enthusiastic stories that were spearheaded by great people, and OKRs made them executable/achievable. Very good reading

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Great for Entrepreneurs

I do recommend this E-book to any Entrepreneurs who look to improve their skills and learn intereating success stories. Some reviews pointed creator of OKR's isn't the humblest guy in town and seem really interested to proov how great OKR's are. So what? John Doerr probably helped many well known business thrive and can at least try get some credits. I do agree the thousands repetition of the words OKR's can be annoying... The generic 《Objectives & KeyResults》 words cannot be Trademarked and the E-Book is simply a methodologie and way to clarify milestones of any project. To resume whats OKR's are it's the instructions on the Kraft Dinner box. You already have the noodles, the cheese and the oven, all you need is to find a recipe that work and follow the instructions.

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