Chaos Prevention: KPIs, OKRs’ cool sidekick

The Gtmhub Technical Success Team helps our clients leverage the Gtmhub Results Orchestration System to achieve individual, team, and company goals.

In this series, the TS crew shares insights on everything from using individual product features to integrating Gtmhub into your technology stack to using Gtmhub to address business problems and opportunities.

If you are interested in adding this or any of our other standard Insightboards to your Gtmhub account contact your Technical or Customer Success Manager or contact us directly.

So, you already know how to crush it with OKRs

…after reading our other blog posts. A common question we are often asked at this stage of implementation as Technical Success specialists is what is the difference between OKRs and KPIs, and can we use them together? 

Both OKRs and KPIs strive to help make strategy actionable, bring clarity and promote transparency and improve communication on all levels, so it is okay if you get confused.

But if at any point of your journey you’re starting to think of KPIs and OKRs as two faces of the same coin, think again.  

KPIs and OKRs are in synergy. They go hand-in-hand to deliver greater value together than they would, if applied in an organization separately.

While OKRs and KPIs might have a different output-outcome foundation, data is the common ground for both. To help you make the best of your KPI data in Gtmhub and bring out the best of the two methodologies, we at Technical Success in Gtmhub have something in store - the KPI Health Overview Insightboard. 

KPIs, the cool sidekick to OKRs {as Dwight is to Michael } 

As Christina Wodtke puts it: “OKRs are designed to push you to do more than you knew you were capable of”. KPIs on the other hand show you exactly what your current capabilities are, they are pure metrics. There’s one big reason for carefully nurturing the relationship between OKRs and KPIs – the fact that KPIs are natural allies to OKRs. They are this cool sidekick who is always there, ready to help inform your strategy decisions and OKR process. 

We framed this information process in the KPI Health Overview Insightboard. Just as information display boards in airports, inform you where your flight is headed, if it has been delayed or cancelled, is on time or has been re-routed, the KPI Health Overview Insightboard is there to inform the creation of OKRs and indicate potential problems along that route. 

So, what’s different about this board from classical KPI monitoring practices? 

KPIs often bear the form of a single or a simple metric, which is tracked and monitored over a considerable period. So literally, just plain data, a never-ending stream of numbers that go up and down. The best they get in terms of visualization are spreadsheets and bland tables. Yawn. We think your KPIs deserve so much more. 

The KPI Health Overview Insightboard is intended as means to increasing the visibility and awareness into the overall health of your business.  

It takes data from all your KPIs in Gtmhub and displays the trend of their progress over time, focusing on most crucial and important tendencies and aspects. 

This board provides an immediate view into the KPI shifts in direction that a business is experiencing over a selected period. This can help you and your teams focus on what is important and spot negative drifts early on and act. 

In summary, in one page you get a condensed, yet powerful view that can be helpful in planning and preparing for a new OKR cycle as well as simply be a reliable to help a business rapidly respond to any drastic shifts in their strategy. 

If you are interested in adding this or any of our other standard Insightboards to your Gtmhub account contact your Technical or Customer Success Manager or contact us directly.