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So making a thing, creating an output of some sort, is not our goal. Instead, success is the extent to which we achieve an outcome and help our customers achieve an outcome they seek.

Sense and Respond

Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden

KEY RESULTS benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective. Effective KRs are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable. (As prize pupil Marissa Mayer would say, “It’s not a key result unless it has a number.”) You either meet a key result’s requirements or you don’t; there is no gray area, no room for doubt. At the end of the designated period, typically a quarter, we declare the key result fulfilled or not.

Measure What Matters

John Doerr

Next, agree upon metrics of success. Eric Ries is great at this, so read his books The Lean Startup and The Startup Way to learn his in-depth methods for what he calls “Innovation Accounting.” But in short, the small team needs a set of metrics to define what a successful experimental outcome looks like. Note, these aren’t long-term business metrics; these are short-term experimental outcomes. Eric calls it validating your blind-faith assumptions.

Ask Your Developer

Jeff Lawson

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