Groupon’s Unique Experience of Starting OKRs During the Pandemic

Christine Stone joins me in this episode of Dreams with Deadlines. She's the global head of technical program management at Groupon. We discuss her personal OKR (helping women in tech gain influence), Groupon's unique experience of starting OKRs during the COVID crisis, and the three measurements that matter — business growth, business strength, and personal development.

“...if OKRs are focused on our growth as a company, there's a second area that's equally critical and that's our business strength.” - Christine (20:47)

What you will learn in this episode

• (01:09) Christine on getting Groupon back to agile.
• (06:13) Why she is an advocate for other women in technology.
• (12:17) How COVID was a forcing function for Groupon to innovate.
• (15:45) Pre-requisites for working with OKRs.
• (17:41) How Groupon's OKR process works.
• (21:28) The three things OKRs cannot solve — organizational indecision, a lack of discipline, and a lack of muscle around estimating.
• (33:05) OKRs and portfolio management.
• (36:51) OKRs and day-to-day delivery.
• (39:20) The three places we need to measure performance: business growth, business strength, and personal development.
• (41:33) Christine answers quick-fire questions.

Relevant links

• Want Progress? Measure 
• OKRs do not measure human performance
• Abandoning your work: The key to unconventional and effective strategic planning