At Flexpa, our mission is to refactor healthcare by connecting applications to identified claims data.
We recognize the significance of setting clear goals and tracking progress to achieve remarkable results.
We rely on OKRs, or Objectives and Key Results, as a simple yet powerful tool for goal-setting, alignment, and performance tracking within our organization.
While we acknowledge many companies have instituted OKRs, we at Flexpa have set up a particular process that works for our team at our size.
OKRs help us prioritize what matters most, foster collaboration, stretch our capabilities, and continuously learn and improve. They consist of a few ambitious objectives and measurable key results that indicate progress and success. By utilizing OKRs, we effectively communicate our vision and strategy, focus on our customers' needs, and establish a culture of transparency and accountability. OKRs motivate us to exceed our own expectations and achieve outstanding outcomes.
Objectives represent the outcomes we strive to achieve, embodying the "Whats" of our journey. Key Results outline the measurable steps that pave the way, serving as the tangible "Hows" toward realizing those objectives. Objectives are qualitative and aligned with our mission of refactoring healthcare, while key results are quantitative, specific, and time-bound. We limit top-level objectives to five per quarter to maintain focus and clarity and have no more than five key results per objective. At Flexpa, we believe that OKRs are not used as a tool to track individual performance but rather as a means to align collective efforts, foster cross-functional collaboration, and drive organizational success.
At Flexpa, OKRs are scored using bankers rounding to round quantities to integers. The scoring framework ranges from 0.0 to 1.0, where "0" represents failure and "1.0" indicates complete achievement of the objective. Each key result is graded within this framework, and the average score is used to determine the objective's overall score. The scoring system at Flexpa follows these guidelines:
- 0.0 to 0.3: Red - Indicates that real progress was not made.
- 0.4 to 0.6: Yellow - Represents progress made but falling short of completion.
- 0.7 to 1.0: Green - Signifies successful delivery and achievement of the objective.
When establishing OKRs, we adopt a scientific approach to avoid setting unattainable goals, where achieving a perfect score of 1.0 seems impossible or unrealistic. Each Objective and its corresponding Key Results are assigned a dedicated Flexpal as an Owner. The overall OKR process each quarter is supervised by the owner of the company level Objective. The Owner is not solely responsible for the success of the Objective or Key Result. At Flexpa, we embrace a collaborative approach, and any Flexpal, regardless of their title or role, has the opportunity to be an Owner and contribute to the achievement of the OKRs. Within the first two weeks of a quarter, all OKR owners should draft a written report outlining the tasks they plan to accomplish and accompanying target completion dates for each task. This document provides the company level Objective owner with context into the quarter’s plan and allows them to rapidly triage or ask follow up questions where necessary.
The company level Objective owner closely monitors OKR progress through weekly written updates and Loom recordings in our dedicated Slack channel and bi-weekly check-ins with Flexpa’s OKR coach to provide teams and individuals with valuable feedback and refine our approach. We use a color code to indicate progress and capacity during these check-ins: green signifies being on track (0.7 to 1.0), yellow represents areas that need attention (0.4 to 0.6), and red indicates being at risk (0 to 0.3). OKRs are not static mandates. We evaluate our OKRs to ensure they align with the most important work at Flexpa and adjust them if necessary. OKRs are scored, and new ones are agreed upon at our quarterly in-person retreat, fostering reflection, alignment, and goal setting.
We have embraced OKRs to drive our mission of refactoring healthcare. We adopted OKRs early on, recognizing the importance of everyone understanding our top priorities and how to measure our impact. We set OKRs at the company and team levels, consistently reviewing our progress and learning from challenges. OKRs serve as a catalyst for meaningful conversations, valuable feedback, and recognition within our teams, enhancing both performance and our company culture. We firmly believe that OKRs, along with regular progress tracking and check-ins, are key factors in our success, and we constantly strive to leverage them even better.