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Measure What Matters

John E. Doerr

4.02 · Rating details · 18,249 ratings · 1,670 reviews

The revolutionary movement behind the explosive growth of Intel, Google, Amazon and Uber.
With a foreword by Larry Page, and contributions from Bono and Bill Gates.

Measure What Matters is about using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), a revolutionary approach to goal-setting, to make tough choices in business.

In 1999, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr i

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Kindle Edition, 320 pages

Published April 24th 2018 by Penguin (first published September 5th 2017)

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May 03, 2018 Martin Brochhaus rated it it was ok

Shelves: self-help, business-technology

This book is bad.

The first 18% of the book is simply silicon valley hero worshipping, basically the author bragging about all the cool people he has worked with and why they are so important and genius and surely everything that follows must be of importance because he has worked with important people.

This book is nothing more than a bunch of case studies. As always with these case studies, they are extremely specific to the companies under observation and you will not learn anything from this t This book is bad.

The first 18% of the book is simply silicon valley hero worshipping, basically the author bragging about all the cool people he has worked with and why they are so important and genius and surely everything that follows must be of importance because he has worked with important people.

This book is nothing more than a bunch of case studies. As always with these case studies, they are extremely specific to the companies under observation and you will not learn anything from this that you can repeat in your own company.

Most importantly, the book fails to provide any proof that OKRs were what actually drove the companies to success. These were all companies that were faced with some existential threat and therefore the management decided what is the most important new metric and then made everyone work long hours in order to meet that metric. You can achieve that with any management technique.

Furthermore, there is not a single chapter that defines in detail what OKRs are, how they are implemented in a company, what software should be used to guide the implementation, what should be done when someone fails their objectives, and so on and so forth. Instead, in each case study you will find one orange box that shows a sample OKR that was presumably taken from that company at the time. I assume these are all bullshit and made up by the author, but even if not, they are so glaringly obvious, and simple, you don't need to be a manager or expert to make them up. These can't be what drove those companies to success, no way, the secret sauce lies somewhere else and is not revealed in this book.

By the way, if you are in the tough spot of trying to find that magic thing that matters the most for your business to measure, don't read this book - despite the clickbait title - this book isn't about that. Sure you can use OKRs to measure things and be transparent about it - but WHAT TO MEASURE is still up to you to figure out.

As far as I can tell, the entire OKR idea fits on one DIN A4 page, so I would say, this book isn't at all about how to use OKRs, instead it is to celebrate a few lucky silicon valley success stories.

And granted: that alone can be quite inspiring. I will try to implement this in my own companies, but I'll need some other reading material to succeed with that. This book is merely here to kindle the flame. ...more

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May 20, 2018 Keith Martin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Solid methodology that could be adequately summarized in two pages, padded to 300+ pages with self-aggrandizement and surface-level case studies.

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Aug 09, 2018 Romans Karpelcevs rated it it was ok

Shelves: non-fiction, leadership

Did I learn how to set OKRs? No.
Did I find out what's the difference between Os and KRs when you choose them? No.
Do I know how to align departments with non-trivial objectives? No.
Did I understand what to do when things go wrong? No.
Do I feel confident about doing OKRs now? No.
Am I inspired about OKRs more than I was when I started the book? No.
Did I at least heard about how to measure what matters? No.

Did I learn anything at all from this book?! Hm... I heard empty case studies where people, mo ...more

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Apr 24, 2018 Rick rated it it was amazing

I've worked on the Google campus for 11 years, and have seen first-hand the impact OKRs have had on the company. John Doerr is single-handedly responsible for bringing OKRs to Google. He saw before anyone else the transformative power Andy Grove's system from Intel could have at Google, and this book is a great window into those early days. John does a great job showing how that early presentation at Google set the stage for so much of the growth and success that came later.

Some of the best part ...more

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Mar 02, 2019 Yevgeniy Brikman rated it liked it

This book should've been a long blog post. At its core, it contains valuable advice about the power of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) as a mechanism to help get everyone in a company moving in the same direction. Unfortunately, this nugget of wisdom is wrapped in loads of generic business book jargon, scattered through chapters that seem to be organized randomly, and padded out with lots of case studies, which while sometimes interesting, are not terribly useful, and often written in an unnat ...more

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May 13, 2018 Martin rated it it was ok

Very disappointing that someone like John Doerr wrote such a shallow book.

*It's extremely vague. Never gotten into the details of OKR or the shortcomings of this goal setting system. The most detail this book offered is the football analogy
*90% of this book is brief case studies
*Tons of plugs into companies Kleiner Perkins invested
*Lots of reference to Intel and Andy Grove so if you are looking for solid mgmt advise read "High Output Management" instead ...more

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Dec 12, 2018 Peter Tillman rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: california, at-bg-pa, sci-tech, bios-memoirs

In 1999, John Doerr got his VC firm Kleiner Perkins to invest $11.8 million for 12% of the infant Google Corp. Current market cap (Dec 2018) for Google is around $743 billion, so Kleiner Perkins' 12% would be worth (say) $89 billion. Doerr himself has a personal net worth of around $7 billion. So, if he's writing a book on how to achieve those sorts of results, he has earned our respectful attention. Plus the book is clearly written, and short. There are caveats, as you can see in nearby reviews In 1999, John Doerr got his VC firm Kleiner Perkins to invest $11.8 million for 12% of the infant Google Corp. Current market cap (Dec 2018) for Google is around $743 billion, so Kleiner Perkins' 12% would be worth (say) $89 billion. Doerr himself has a personal net worth of around $7 billion. So, if he's writing a book on how to achieve those sorts of results, he has earned our respectful attention. Plus the book is clearly written, and short. There are caveats, as you can see in nearby reviews, such as https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Doerr started working at Intel in 1974. He’d come to California for the summer hoping to reconnect with an old girlfriend — who he found was also working at Intel. She wasn’t pleased to see him. But Doerr was persistent, and he married Ann Howland, another Rice electrical engineer, in 1978. They're still married, 40 years on....

At Intel, Doerr became one of the firm’s most successful sales engineers. He grew to admire Andy Grove, who he considers to be the father of the OKR idea, although Doerr traces the origins of the idea back to Peter Drucker, in the 1950s. Old-timers will recall MBO, Managemeent by Objectives, which was the foundation for the HP Way, https://www.hpalumni.org/hp_way.htm

By 1975, Grove’s OKR system was fully developed, and was put to a severe test in 1979, when Motorola released its 68000 chip, a direct competitor to Intel’s 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086. Many thought the Motorola chip was superior. Groves found the Motorola chip a mortal threat to Intel’s very existence — a fight he wrote about in detail in his 1988 book “Only the Paranoid Survive". Intel won that battle through use of Groves’ OKR technique, in Doerr’s opinion, which he relates in detail. And I loved that Andy Groves kept a big red “BULLSHIT!” rubber stamp on his desk!

In 1980, Doerr was offered a VC job with Kleiner Perkins. Andy Grove told him, "John, venture capital, that's not a real job. It's like being a real estate agent."

Doerr continues as an apostle for the Andy Groves-style OKR system, and says Grove’s Intel was the best-run company he’d ever seen. By the time he pitched Google on the OKR system, he’d given his OKR pitch to at least 50 start-ups. He had the Google engineers sold at the metrics. Early Googler Marissa Myer would say, “It’s not a key result unless it has a number.”

OKRs clearly work, but the book gets disjointed about how to actually implement them — one size doesn’t fit all, and clearly each company or org will have to experiment to get the method to work for them. The case studies are scattershot, but so what? If you’re not getting anything out of one, skip to the next (I skipped Bono!). The culture stuff: OK, company culture is important, and you want your company to have a good one -- but I don't think you will learn how to fix a bad culture here. This is probably the weakest part of the book. Somehow, I think there are consultants available to help you....

It's an uneven book, but these are good people, who've walked the walk. I learned interesting stuff, and Valley lore that was new to me. Such as, Susan Wojcicki's garage is where Google got its start, in 1998. I think she is employee #17, runs YouTube, and devised AdSense that supplies most of Google's revenue. "Only" a half-billionaire!

Overall rating, 3.5 stars, rounded up. Best review I saw here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... And here's a good review, by an insider: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... Website for the book: https://www.whatmatters.com/ ...more

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Jun 12, 2018 CaptainWolfsborg rated it liked it

I am a big proponent of written goals with systematic follow-ups. Otherwise, they are just the dreams in the sky, which might accidentally realize, but, most often, they will not. John Doerr presents his approach to goal-setting and ways for following them up. His system is called Objectives and Key Results (OKRs).

The author’s system is solid and, apparently, has been implemented with great success at several outstanding companies like Google.

I can’t agree with the proclamation that the method ...more

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May 01, 2018 Piotr Pisarz rated it it was amazing

As an ex-Googler, I’m quite familiar with OKRs -
They are a key management tool in the company. While they sometime frustrate you, they are your key northstar. Having left a few years ago, i do have to say i miss them, and I encourage all companies and founders to instill them.

John’s book is a great intro to the OKR system, used by all leading companies worldwide. It provides clear examples and use cases. If you’re a founder, this should be a new position on your must read list.

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Oct 18, 2018 ScienceOfSuccess rated it really liked it

Shelves: waiting

I hate to grade this kind of books. Any grade from 2 to 5 would be explainable.

There is a clear message so simple you can't miss it...
'The OKRs system is better than goals because goals can measure anything and everything, and OKR's focus on measuring what matters.'
...and then there are 20 examples of how it works.

For me, this book could be a blog post. I don't need quotes from Bono to believe this system works, but when I think more about it, I'd probably forget OKR's and just move one forgett ...more

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Nov 05, 2018 Ali Sattari rated it it was ok

Shelves: business

Could have been a ~10 page essay.

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Jun 16, 2018 Herve rated it it was amazing

Kleiner Perkins is a, not to say the VC brand name – but there is also Sequoia. When their partners write something, it is often worth reading. And this month two of them publish a book! I begin here with John Doerr and his Measure What Matters - www.whatmatters.com (though this is the paperback publication – the hardcover was published in 2017). In my next review I will write about Komisar’s Straight Talk for Startups

Ideas are Easy. Implementation is Everything.

Doerr is a Silicon Valley legend. Kleiner Perkins is a, not to say the VC brand name – but there is also Sequoia. When their partners write something, it is often worth reading. And this month two of them publish a book! I begin here with John Doerr and his Measure What Matters - www.whatmatters.com (though this is the paperback publication – the hardcover was published in 2017). In my next review I will write about Komisar’s Straight Talk for Startups

Ideas are Easy. Implementation is Everything.

Doerr is a Silicon Valley legend. He owes a lot to the pioneers of Silicon Valley, such as Noyce and Moore and particularly to Andy Grove, whom he mentions a lot: he calls him one of the father of OKRs. Chapter 2 is about Grove who said “there are so many people working so hard and achieving so little”. It reminds me of The Innovation Illusion: How So Little is Created by So Many Working So Hard. And many owe to him, beginning with the Google founders. Indeed Larry Page is the author of a short, 2-page and powerful foreword about OKRs: “OKRs are a simple process that helps drive varied organizations forward… OKRs have helped lead us to 10x growth, many times over.”

And Doerr begins with a tribute to Google and its two founders (page 4):
Sergey was exuberant, mercurial, strongly opinionated, and able to leap intellectual chasms in a single bound. A Soviet-born immigrant, he was a canny, creative negotiator and a principled leader. Sergey was restless, always pushing for more; he might drop to the floor in the middle of a meeting for a set of push-ups.
Larry was an engineer’s engineer, the son of a computer science pioneer. He was a soft-spoken nonconformist, a rebel with a 10x cause: to make the internet exponentially relevant. While Sergey crafted the commerce of technology, Larry toiled on the product and imagined the impossible. He was a blue-sky thinker with his feet on the ground.

So what are these OKRs? It’s an acronym for Objective and Key Results. “An objective is simply WHAT is to be achieved. Key Results benchmark and monitor HOW to get to the objective.” (Page 7) But there is no recipe. Each company or organization should have its own. “By definition, start-ups wrestle with ambiguity… You’re not going to get the system just right the first time around. It’s not going to be perfect the second or third time, either. But don’t get discouraged. Persevere. You need to adapt it and make it your own.” (Page 75)

Now if you need that kind of advice, read Doerr’s book…

But I need to add more: I was impressed by the last chapter dedicated to “Coach” Bill Campbell. It is a very moving portrait of one of the least known celebrities of Silicon Valley. The Coach, the coach of Steve Jobs and the Google triumvirate, Page, Brin and Schmidt and of so many others.

I was also impressed by the subtlety of the message about OKRs. So difficult to explain as it may take a life to digest them. But the book is really enlightening. OKRs have four ingredients, focus, transparency, accountability and ambition (the BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goal). It is scary and at the same time generous. I think any leader should read that book… ...more

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Oct 24, 2018 Geoff rated it it was ok

I read a lot of these kind of books because I'm assuming that they'll be read by someone in the senior leadership of my company and then I'll need to respond to the new exciting fad they want to have the company embrace without critical thinking.

This book demonstrated without fail that Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) can produce microprocessors, save people from malaria and HIV/AIDS and deliver HOT pizzas made by robots!

If I bought into the silicon valley/startup hero worship echo chamber that ...more

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Oct 08, 2019 Simon Eskildsen rated it really liked it

The right book at the right time for me. The central premise (backed up by numerous studies) is that hard goals drive performance more than easy or no goals. If the vectors or where people are going point in different directions, they add up to zero. But if you get everybody pointing in the same direction, you maximize the results. OKRs are a good way to get there, and the book goes into numerous examples. Don't get too focused on the results, or you end up placing the gas tank six inches from t ...more

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Jun 06, 2018 Vishwanath rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Excellent read on implementing OKRs by the master of them. The google/intel/bono case studies are all detailed and provide a lot of examples on how you can implement these in your own organizations. John Doerr built on the method he learnt at Intel under the great Andy Grove and then helped more than 50 companies implement those OKRs with a lot of success. The system obviously works but the true challenge is influencing the leadership in organization to follow such a methodical approach. This bo ...more

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Feb 19, 2019 Mindaugas Mozūras rated it liked it

If we try to focus on everything, we focus on nothing.

OKRs, as a tool, seems solid.

The book itself is just ok. It's filled with a collection of stories of companies using OKRs. While some stories were fun to read, they fail to convince that OKRs were the catalyst for success. ...more

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Dec 04, 2019 Maciej Nowicki rated it it was amazing

Measure What Matters, written by John Doerr, a successful investor and a venture capitalist, provides us with strategic thinking on how to how to set goals effectively and measure what really matters.

I think, the best recommendation I could put here are words of Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, who once said that he wished he had this book 20 years ago when they founded Google.

The book focuses on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) a goal system used by Google, Intel, Oracle, LinkedIn, Sears a Measure What Matters, written by John Doerr, a successful investor and a venture capitalist, provides us with strategic thinking on how to how to set goals effectively and measure what really matters.

I think, the best recommendation I could put here are words of Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, who once said that he wished he had this book 20 years ago when they founded Google.

The book focuses on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) a goal system used by Google, Intel, Oracle, LinkedIn, Sears and many other companies to create alignment, engagement and clarity around measurable goals. It is a collaborative goal-setting protocol for individuals, teams and companies.

First, the book determines four “superpowers” to focus on as the outcome of OKRs. They are:

Focus - High-performance organisations should aim at what’s important to dispell confusion and be aware of what doesn’t work for their business. As a leader, you have to make hard choices on that. Moreover, you have to be a precise communicator on each level, department, team and individual.
Align - With right OKR transparency, everyone’s goals, from the CEO to first-line employees, are openly shared. In such an arrangement each individual can link their objectives to the company’s business plan, identify cross-dependencies and synchronise themselves with other teams. By connecting each employee to the organisation’s success, top-down alignment brings sense to work. By deepening contributor’s sense of ownership, bottom-up OKRs boost engagement and innovation.
Track – possibility to be driven by proper data. It means that OKR’s should be aligned by periodic check-ins, objective classifying, and continuous revision — all in a spirit of no-judgment accountability. Key results in danger should trigger proper actions to get them back on track or to modify or alter them if warranted.
Stretch – right OKRs motivate employees to excel by achieving more than they originally aimed at. By stretching their limits and giving the freedom to fail, people release their creativity, ambitions.
Next, John Doerr explains how to implement the OKR system to maximise its benefits so in six steps you should:

List approximately 3 objectives on each level
Define 3 to 4 key results to be achieved for each objective
Communicate key results and objectives to everyone
Regularly track your results using a 0-100% scale
When objective’s result reaches 70-80%, consider it done
Review OKRs regularly and set new ones
Then, the book talks a lot about what most of us know, that goals should be SMART. It uses interesting examples which put extra light on how to set goals and make it even... (if you like to read my full review please visit my blog https://leadersarereaders.blog/measur...) ...more

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Nov 04, 2018 Eugene rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, best-of-golden-greatest-hits, startups

The book about OKR (objectives - key results) goals management system invented by Peter Drucker and popularized by long time Intel CEO Andy Groove. Though the OKR system is well known now (see www.withgoogle.com) but this book provides the instruction and the details and nuances on the proper implementation along with interviews from managers and founders who are using OKR for the projects, including Bill Gates (Gates Foundation), Bono (U2), Sundar Pichai (Alphabet), Susan Wojcicki (YouTube) and ...more

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Jun 23, 2018 Thomas rated it really liked it

Shelves: business, read_2018

I truly don't get the negative reviews. I suspect some of them must have read a different book than I did. Anyway, this is a solid introduction to OKRs. If you want to learn how various companies have put them into practice, you'll get that and more. The resources at the end are especially helpful and I suspect I'll be referring to them repeatedly. ...more

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Nov 19, 2018 Phil Calçado rated it liked it · review of another edition

Repetitive but useful

The first chapters are great, it gets quite repetitive after that. Too many case studies that repeat the message that OKRs are great, not enough interesting corner cases or other interesting tips.

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Apr 29, 2018 Vlad rated it liked it

The best book on OKRs. Not the best book on measuring what matters. An indispensable guide for anyone implementing OKRs in an org, or working to succeed in an org where OKRs rule.

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May 28, 2019 Sumit Singla rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, 5-stars, 2019, business

I've always been keenly interested in figuring out how to unlock high performance in an organization. Traditional models like MBO and the Balanced Scorecard have survived so far, but in the fast-changing digital age with shorter business cycles, a new approach is needed.

And that's where OKRs are like a breath of fresh air. Cut the crap. Stop creating complex goal sheets that no one has the time or patience to fill and review. Keep it simple, and focus only on the top priorities for your business ...more

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Apr 19, 2019 Annie rated it liked it · review of another edition

I give this book 3.5 stars. The title suggests that it will guide you in defining objectives and key results. However, it's more of a memoir of how this method had worked for the many companies that the author was involved with (hence, the negative reviews for self-aggrandizing). The few important lessons from the book are select 3-5 objectives every quarter (specifically 'what' has to happen to increase business value), identify the key results needed ('how' to reach the goal - what are the inc ...more

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Jul 28, 2019 Kent rated it liked it

There's nothing wrong with a goal-setting model, and John Doerr gives a pretty good one. I've seen a lot of chatter on here about how people don't understand how to set OKRs still. That surprises me. Doerr sets out a good playbook to do it:

- Set a goal
- Establish measurable, achievable, challenging metrics that, if met, would mean great strides to achieving that goal
- Have goals that balance themselves (e.g. don't just set growth without quality goals).
- Make goals and metrics transparent + pub ...more

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Aug 01, 2018 Soroosh Azary Marhabi rated it it was ok

this book is all about OKRs and how they have been critical to success of some tech giants, and most of it's chapters have been written by founders of companies that john doerr is an investor. while this book has some interesting stories, it could have been way shorter than this. reading it book is like having 20 people to a seminar all repeating "brushing your teeth is good for you" without adding any more information than the previous person. by the way, using OKRs is good for you :) ...more

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Sep 03, 2018 Julia rated it really liked it

Dear past, present and future manager: please read this book. If you can, get a hard copy. Unless listening is the only way you will read it[1]. In particular, please pay attention to Chapters 15 and 17 about 1:1s. These are the best parts of the book. I wish I had read these pages when I was a manager, and I'll be referring to them again in the future.

[1]: Yes, I listened to it and just bought the hardcover version so I did put my money where my mouth is thankyouverymuch. ...more

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May 06, 2018 Neil S W Murray rated it really liked it

I read this in two sittings as it was easy and enjoyable to read. Hardly groundbreaking stuff but a good reminder of the power of structured goals as well as the history of OKRs. The best part are the case studies/stories interwoven throughout the book. Useful resource section at the end too to help you set your own OKRs.

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Oct 01, 2020 Matt Hutson rated it really liked it

I wish I had read this book years ago. If you have ever heard of the goal setting system called SMART Goals, this system of OKRs beats it out like a long shot.

OKRs (Objective Key Results) may be called a tool, or a protocol, or a process. But the authors image of choice is a launchpad, a point of liftoff for the next wave of entrepreneur and intrapreneurs.

The Four Superpowers of OKRs:
1. Focus and commit to priorities
2. Align and connect for teamwork
3. Track for accountability
4. Stretch for amazi ...more

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Jun 30, 2020 Filipa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: english-books, business-marketing, non-fiction, library, not-own, 2020-reads

This book is super insightful and I enjoyed reading it very much. I read this book primarily because I wanted to educate myself on this framework since at the company I work for we’re in the process of implementing OKRs. I wasn’t expecting this book to be so enjoyable, though.
All the stories from many different companies that have implemented OKRs as well have enriched this book to no end. Furthermore, this book is also about culture, about leaders and about leading with purpose, so it ended up ...more

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